I am having a bad HR day. Help!

Dear Aunty B,

We have had 100% growth for the last five years and it’s crazy. I recently asked my CFO to take on the newly created role of HR manager, and he has refused. Yet there are lots of functions that come under his roof, like payroll.

He also knows the company inside out and I can’t afford an HR person. I think he is being unreasonable, but I have to do something. The turnover of staff is huge and I am worried we are not compliant.

Ross S,
Sydney

Dear Ross,

Poor thing. Your systems have not kept up with your growth and now you can’t sleep at night… if you ever did. But there are loads of solutions. Have another chat to your CFO. Offer to bring in some people to first identify the problems and then to help the CFO set up the HR role.

He feels out of his depth so he just needs some reassurance and training. You might also need to restructure his department to free him up.

I know several companies who will do this over a few days and charge less than $2000, so it’s a lot cheaper than a dedicated HR person. You could also outsource the function, but this will be more costly.

You are absolutely right to address this immediately, especially if you are worried about non-compliance. You are also not recruiting properly if your staff are leaving.

These are very serious signs that your business is unhealthy even though you are going great guns. You might also need to consider deliberately slowing your growth for a bit in order to regroup to take the business to the next level.

Good luck,

Your Aunty B