Planet Sport Group continues to invest in its HR strategy

"Leaders need to know their people and really listen and support them through change."

A strong Human Resources strategy is the backbone of any growing business. Ensuring your biggest asset - its people - are supported, engaged, and motivated is imperative. In a competitive market, where attracting and retaining top talent is crucial and a smart HR strategy can set a growing businesses apart and fuel their growth trajectory.

As a growing business, Planet Sport Group recognises that investing in HR expertise and implementing effective processes to align their people strategy with business objectives will lead to increased productivity, employee satisfaction, and overall success.

Chief Operations Officer, Angela Jarrett, has been busy investing in the people and technology solutions that will help implement our vision for Planet Sport Group to become an award-winning employer of choice.

To help realise this vision, we have onboarded People Advisor, Laura Allott, and fractional HR Specialist, Vicky Cooke. They are working tirelessly to implement a new market-leading HR platform, along with robust processes that will support staff as the business scales.

We spoke with Vicky Cooke about her background, expertise and what she loves about working in HR.

Hi Vicky, could you tell us about yourself, career background and your specific areas of expertise?  

I initially spent 20 years in Human Resources working for large corporate businesses. I then became a consultant working primarily with SMEs a few years ago as my kids were growing up; chasing the flexible working dream!  

I mainly support leaders in managing and developing their teams, as well as defining business and people strategies to help achieve their goals.

What are some key challenges you have faced when working with medium-sized, scaling companies?  

Communication is usually a challenge. The right messages at the right time and in the right format, as well as two-way communication and feedback are hard, but incredibly important.

Changing structure and process as you grow can also be tricky for all kinds of reasons, including people resisting change and uncertainty. Growth and change can bring amazing opportunities and be very exciting if you keep an open mind and go with it.

"People and teams won’t thrive if they’re not trusted to be accountable for their work and to do the right things."

How do you overcome these challenges? 

Over-communicate. You can never communicate too much. Share a compelling vision of the future in clear, simple language, and seek feedback to ensure people understand what you’re saying.  

Leaders need to know their people and really listen and support them through change. Also, it helps to connect an exciting vision of the future to today and explain how you’re going to get there and how each person’s role will contribute.

How important are people and culture when building high achieving teams? 

Culture is so important - especially trust. People and teams won’t thrive if they’re not trusted to be accountable for their work and to do the right things, as long as they have support and the skills needed.  

High achieving teams have a strong sense of purpose, autonomy to influence how work is done and are great at what they do. The author Daniel H. Pink talks a lot about this.

Culture is clearly important, but with it being so intangible it’s really difficult to measure. What are the best ways to build a great culture and how do you measure it?

You can build a great culture – you can decide what you’d like it to be, define it and work on creating that. You can get feedback from staff to establish a realistic picture of today’s culture, then continue to measure it primarily through feedback.  

There are various frameworks for how to change culture. Once you decide what you want your culture to look and feel like, use this as your compass and make sure it’s part of everything you do: hiring, learning, communications, marketing, client interactions, everything.

How does a solid people strategy contribute to a company’s growth aspirations? 

If people are part of your business then you absolutely need a people strategy to support your business strategy – i.e. what is needed from a people perspective to achieve business goals?  

For example:

• Recruitment: How many people do we need to hire? In what roles? When?
• Performance & Development: What is our performance philosophy? What skills and training do people need as we grow?
• Reward: What’s our approach on pay. What benefits should we offer?
• Structure: How should we organise teams to be scalable and effective? What leadership roles do we need? How will we continue to hire, engage and retain great people?

What do you like most about working in HR? 

I actually just love talking to people to be honest! I’m genuinely interested in and curious about people and I really enjoy helping people develop and be happier and more fulfilled.

I also get a buzz from helping businesses thrive, and I genuinely believe the two - people and businesses thriving - are interdependent.

Thanks Vicky.

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