The Problem
The company is of medium size, rapidly growing and working in the furniture industry. It is now facing complex challenges and obstacles as well as great opportunities for which, however, it is not adequately equipped.
Full awareness of the delicacy of the situation and the courage to face obstacles are the necessary conditions to achieve this change, which requires strength, dedication and economic resources. The company appears to be in the best position to do so. It has long since exceeded 150 employees and its turnover exceeds 30 million, a size beyond which various informal mechanisms and habits are no longer able to keep up with the business.
Solution
An interim HR manager is hired by the Contract Manager to oversee all HR management activities – personnel, warehouse and factory – to ensure the continuity of the personnel administration and payroll processing function and manage the activities with the labour consultant, the labour lawyer, and recruitment and training service providers.
Other areas of intervention concern new hires, training activities and monitoring the level of people’s satisfaction to reduce turnover, increase the company’s appeal and reduce absenteeism.
Lastly, it is essential to set up communication activities to give greater transparency to management and to provide the information the organization needs to effectively carry out its activities.
Actions
- Taking over administrative and payroll activities, with particular attention on the simplification of activities and their standardization, with a focus on internal customer service;
- Reorganization of the hiring procedure, the management of disciplinary complaints and definition of standards for drafting individual contracts as well as rationalization of all supporting documentation for hiring;
- Standardization of all exceptions managed “ad personam”, to simplify administrative management, and definition of the organizational standard for the assignment of work tools (factory and offices);
- Definition of a staff incentive policy;
- Definition of a second-level agreement to reduce absenteeism;
- More effective management of flexibility tools (overtime, fixed-term, temps, vacations, definition of an annual closure calendar, etc.);
- Collection of the results of a company climate survey, with presentation of the results and implementation of a detailed action plan (including the creation of an automated company canteen system);
- Hiring approximately sixty new resources over twelve months to deal with turnover and change of mix, and entrusting managers with search and selection activities;
- Implementation of a new system for managing training obligations according to Law 81/2008 and mandatory medical examinations, so as to facilitate internal mobility, especially within the factory;
- Set up of a project to standardize the processes for approval of monthly exceptions for payroll processing;
- Mentoring and launching the new HR Team to manage the function according to new standards.
Results
Thanks to the intervention plan and the support of a qualified Interim HR Manager, capable of managing HR activities with great pragmatism and a results-driven attitude, the company achieved the objectives defined at the beginning of the project.
The company climate, in a moment of great turbulence, remained at acceptable levels, with the prospect of significant improvement after a period of adjustment.
The quality of the resources has definitely adjusted to the needs of the new situation. The new HR team and the entire management has welcomed, with margins of improvement, all the innovations introduced in the processes of administrative management and especially of resource development (delegation processes, management by objectives, clear responsibilities, especially managerial ones), creating the conditions for further development and improvement of business performance.