SPM Highlights Hot News Topics and Shares its views
>June 2010
SPM celebrates 7th birthday!
On 1 June 2010 SPM celebrated 7 years in business and is looking forward to the next 7! Sarah Harvey started the HR consultancy business in 2003 following a successful 17 year career in local government. Initially focussing on recruitment, HR systems and service improvement expertise, Sarah quickly built a reputation for delivering effective change, and working with partner organisations and internal staff teams to implement efficient processes and make cost savings.
From these early assignments at 2 London Boroughs, SPM developed a track record of successful delivery of change, organisational development, performance management and training activities as well as formally adding coaching and mediation services in 2008.
SPM now works in collaboration with a small number of highly experienced associates to deliver a wide variety of projects. Our client base includes SME’s, numerous London Boroughs, County Councils, other local and central government organisations, the NHS, the Housing sector, and charities.
SPM’s expertise is perhaps deeper and broader than some may expect from a small consultancy. Over the last 7 years SPM’s assignments have included work covering the following areas:
Senior HR Management on an interim basis
Individual coaching
Management training programme design and delivery
Policy and procedure reviews, consultations, implementations
Learning and development for individuals and teams
Yearly performance appraisal system design and review
Performance Management individually and organisationally
Efficiency and change consultancy
Review and evaluation of services and processes
Flexible HR advice and support for small businesses
Operational and strategic HR
Recruitment and Retention strategies
Mediation on an individual and team basis
Action Learning
Negotiations and consultations with trades unions
Creating and implementing competency frameworks
Evaluating team effectiveness and team building
Management of restructurings
Analysis of organisation and staff performance issues
Numerous HR projects in a range of organisations
Advising on, creating and implementing Talent Pools
Gap analysis of services with recommendations for improvements
E-HR and e-recruitment system implementations
Management investigations (disciplinary and grievance)
Evidence based recruitment processes
New team set up and support
Team coaching and development
Sarah Harvey and her team would like to take this opportunity to thank all previous and current clients for your fantastic support during the past 7 years.
It has been a pleasure working with so many interesting organisations and professional individuals.
Long may SPM continue and we look forward to working with clients old and new over the 7 years to come!
Times are tough but should training suffer?
A recent survey by Common Purpose found that 44% of learning and development managers expect budgets to be cut in the next 12 months.
"Times are tough and savings have got to be made" says Sarah Harvey, Managing Director of Simply Performance Management. "Whilst I completely understand the need to ensure training and development investment is being used wisely particularly in the current economic climate, there’s a strong business case to continue with training and development in a downturn".
Staff need to be performing to the best of their abilities at the moment, particularly if you have had to make redundancies and so have fewer staff to get the job done. Making sure your whole team is highly trained, efficient and as productive as they can be could be what gives your business the edge in the current market.
Sarah adds "you are also more likely to keep your good performers when the upturn eventually comes if you have continued to invest in them during the recession. Training and development can help improve morale and motivation and at a time when it’s not possible or appropriate to give pay rises or bonuses, well focussed training could make all the difference".
When is coaching being used?
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) recently published their "Taking the Temperature of Coaching" report. 500 organisations were surveyed and according to the report they found that 23% are using coaching at all levels to build on good performance. This will perhaps be surprising to some who tend to believe coaching is only for top executives or for addressing poor performance issues.
Managing Director of Simply Performance Management, Sarah Harvey says "This report tells us that 20% of organisations are using coaching to improve poor performance and 23% are using it as part of their leadership development. This is good news but what I find more encouraging is those using coaching in the middle ground, building on the skills and capabilities of those who are already performing well but could really be great with the right coaching interventions".