HR Support & Services

HR Support

Recruitment

The most important asset for any charity retail business isn’t technology, or stores, or equipment – it’s people. If you want to thrive, you’ll need the right talent. That means finding individuals who can offer that winning combination of skills, spirit, and personality. But it also means finding those who are compatible with the culture of your organisation.
Recruiting can be an expensive and time-consuming business, especially for organisations with limited HR resources. End-to-end, the process can last up to 10-12 weeks, especially for companies extending notice periods of up to 2-3 months.

How Can We Help?

We have extensive experience in assisting charities with their recruitment campaigns, while mitigating the impact of those campaigns on the day-to-day running of the business.

We can help with every stage of the process, including:
Our support will follow the parameters you set out. That way, you’ll get precisely the help you need, where you need it. Our service caters specifically to non-profit organisations, so we understand exactly what challenges you face, and how to meet them.

Let’s look at a few of the areas we can lend a hand with.

Job Descriptions, Role Profiles

To attract the right candidates, you’ll need to define the role clearly. It can be tricky to strike an appropriate balance between accuracy and the flexibility required in charity retail. We can help with rewriting existing material and creating new role profiles where required.

Our experience in the industry allows us to benchmark against sector standards, which will, in turn, help bring the right new recruits into your business.

Induction Programmes

Having made new recruits, you’ll need to orient them. This will give them the best chance of hitting the ground running, and ensure that they understand the procedures and policies unique to your business.

Where you’re inducting over multiple sites, maintaining consistency can be tricky. We will help you to devise an effective schedule that will ensure every new starter receives an appropriate induction.

Interim Support

A vacancy at management level can pose a problem for any organisation. When an important member of the team departs unexpectedly, it can be tempting to fill their position as quickly as possible. But this may be a mistake if it leads to a recruitment decision being made in haste.

Managers can leave for a variety of reasons. They might take the decision to resign. They might fall ill unexpectedly. Sometimes, their absence will be temporary – as is the case with maternity leave.

In each case, interim recruitment can help to plug the gap temporarily. This will avoid a drop in overall performance, and ensure that there’s as little disruption as possible when the absent manager makes their return.

Great interim managers are highly specialised professionals, with a winning combination of sector experience and the soft people skills that allow them to hit the ground running. Our experience in the industry allows us to match our clients with the interim managers they need.

Whatever your requirements, we can work with you to provide the person to meet them. And our assistance is only ever a phone call away!

HR Services

HR encompasses more than just recruiting the right staff – it means getting the best from the ones you already have. The term encompasses several different areas, all of which require careful attention – especially during challenging economic times.

Policies and Procedures

Great policies and procedures aren’t just made up on the spot – they’re carefully considered, formalised, and reviewed regularly. When were your charity’s policies and procedures last updated? Are they fit for purpose in a post-coronavirus economic climate?

Running through company policy can be time-consuming, difficult, and, let’s face it, a little dull. But more importantly, when you’ve been doing things a certain way for months and years, it can be difficult to see any alternative. We provide an impartial outside perspective that’ll help to identify areas of weakness, allowing you to concentrate on running the business.

Retail Operation Manuals

Your policies and procedures should be written down, so that staff can refer to it when they’re unsure of what’s expected. A readable, updated operations manual gets the message across at ground level, and ensures that your policies are actually put into action.

Writing a manual is a specialised task that requires experience and expertise. We can consult with you, and compose a bespoke product that matches your needs precisely. We’ll incorporate both industry best practice, and any individual quirks unique to your business. We can also assist in modifying existing manuals to make them fit for purpose.

For new recruits a retail manual will form a crucial part of the induction process and help to acclimatise them quickly.

Managing Performance

Reviewing performance is the first step to improving it. Doing so regularly will keep your team on-track and motivated.

How Can We Help?

We can help you assess the criteria by which your staff are judged, and align those criteria with your business’s broader goals. We’ll advise on potential revisions, and assess whether your measures are fit for purpose. We’ll also help you to get in touch with actionable data, in the form of reports which effectively measure your KPIs and SMART goals.

Health and Safety

Health and safety should be a paramount concern even when there isn’t a global pandemic going on! This goes for every part of the retail sector, but especially for charities, who must bear in mind several additional considerations, including the safe management of donations.

Again, documenting your health and safety practices can be hugely beneficial – but doing so effectively might require outside support. We can review your existing material, and ensure that it complies with both the law and with industry best-practice.

Charity Retail Structure

The charity retail world is evolving rapidly. Practices and structures which might have suited a previous age might not be so effective today – and they might be even less so in the future! Our experience designing bespoke retail structures will help to future-proof your organisation, making it fit for the challenges on the road ahead.

The right structure provides everyone in your organisation with clear paths for development, allowing them to grow into greater responsibility. As such, it will not only improve the performance of your staff, but also lower your costs and bolster morale!