061. Does Your Startup have an HR Plan?

Hiring and developing great people is one of the toughest challenges you face when building and running a company. At the same time we all know that having the best people on the bus can sometimes decide between the life and death of your company.

HR consultant Olga Crosse has more than 20 years' experience in the industry. One of the most common problems she comes across is well meaning founders who think they are different, they trust their employees and truly believe that staff problems won’t affect them. A belief that is all well and good until someone throws a spanner in the works.

Problems range from serious allegations of discrimination to issues with someone coming in late, hungover or not at all because the dog chewed their phone, or their fish is sick, or their gran has died for the third time. The list of potential issues is endless and many are almost inevitable.

In this episode Olga shares some of the most common mistakes she sees founders make and discusses how they can be avoided or solved.

Top takeaways:
- Anything can happen when you're dealing with people
- Make sure you have written contracts
- Don't overlook references
- Tackle any issues immediately, ignoring them will only make the problem worse
- HR help doesn't need to be expensive. Find someone who can roll their sleeves up and get stuck in on the ground.
- Every problem can be solved!

Host: Patricia Keating
Guest: Olga Crosse, founder Crosse HR http://www.crossehr.co.uk/ 
Listening Time: 35 mins
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