{"id":8098,"date":"2020-10-16T11:39:20","date_gmt":"2020-10-16T10:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sage-people-scraping-gb.local\/?p=1133"},"modified":"2026-01-29T10:08:02","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T10:08:02","slug":"people-company-how-build-business-people-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/people-company-how-build-business-people-first\/","title":{"rendered":"Becoming a People Company: 5 ways to build a business that puts people first"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPeople & Leadership<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tBecoming a People Company: 5 ways to build a business that puts people first\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\tJessica Leyshon<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Do you put your people first in your organisation, over everything else?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some businesses might like to think so. In fact, 55% of senior executives thought they were a \u2018People Company\u2019 when we asked them. In other words, a company that puts their people first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, staggeringly, only 29% of employees agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Request a free, live demo of Sage People and discover how it can help your organisation attract the best people, retain your key talent and increase productivity<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u2018People Companies\u2019 explained<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Companies that put people first get ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They attract the best, and as a result, their business flourishes because they invest in their biggest opportunity for growth \u2013 their people. We call companies that do this \u2018People Companies\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019re organisations that know their people are the most valuable asset, and that company success is dependent on their workforce being successful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They get that nurturing their people is critical to growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They let their employees know how valued and important they are to success \u2013 in actions as well as in words \u2013 and this is reflected in how their employees feel about the company and their work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HR\u2019s role in People Companies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

HR teams are leading this change. It\u2019s why we\u2019re seeing the emergence of chief people officers in place of HR directors in progressive companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s also not the first time HR has transformed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personnel evolved to become HR in the 1980s. Today, HR is changing to become a people function.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you \u2013 or your employees \u2013 don\u2019t see yourself as a People Company, though, it can be hard to know where to begin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, here\u2019s our five tips to get started to become a company that truly puts people first, based on our research from 500+ HR and People leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Download your free report, The changing face of HR, and discover why ‘HR’ is changing to ‘People’<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

1. Get regular feedback from your employees<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Want to know how your employees can feel that their company puts them first? Ask them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You might be surprised at what employees say. Furthermore, the simple fact of asking your workforce what drives them will show you value their input.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a few ways you can do this \u2013 from employee forums, to feedback boxes, to encouraging line managers to regularly ask their employees. Pulse surveys are also a great option, as they allow you to get quicker feedback and take remedial action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Historically, companies have conducted annual engagement surveys to monitor their employees\u2019 engagement and commitment to the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, results from these surveys rarely led to insights or actions and employees can view these as a \u2018check the box\u2019 business commitment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, leaders need to take a much more holistic view to engaging people as part of their business strategy. Getting regular and continuous feedback is a great way to start, and demonstrate to your employees that you value their options and how they feel about their work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just make sure you demonstrate you\u2019re listening by communicating what and how you\u2019re changing \u2013 and the rationale if some things are not able to be changed right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Use data to make HR and People decisions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Understanding what the data is telling you about your workforce is another vital way to know how you can design experiences at work that make your people feel valued, truly putting them first in your business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a People Company, or a company that puts people first, leaders get insight on what drives their workforce. This means applying data-driven approaches to understanding your workforce \u2014 and how you both manage and engage them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is more than just people analytics. In practice, it means not just mining data and reporting it \u2014 but analysing it, and gaining actionable insights to test hypotheses and identify solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People Companies use insights in this way to design workforce experiences that engage employees, market themselves to candidates, and understand employees\u2019 behavior and motivations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Unleash the power of your brand: Apply external marketing techniques internally<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In a competitive job market, offering a steady position for a good salary is no longer sufficient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Companies need to work so much harder not only to attract talent, but to keep it too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Making sure your people feel they are valued and put first is essential for this. That\u2019s why it\u2019s crucial HR leaders adopt the same principles that their marketing colleagues do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the same way that marketing teams will stay on top of product reviews in places such as app stores, have a look at online review sites like Glassdoor.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are people saying about your brand, and how can you engage with them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notify your employees of any new policies, benefits, work practices and let them feedback to you too. Listen to them, consider good ideas, implement and promote them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Think also about your tone of voice and how this reflects your values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You must be genuine, credible, distinctive and attractive for existing and potential workers to listen and buy into your employer brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s also not good enough to simply pay lip service to how you value your employees and your workplace culture. Staff and potential candidates need to see the proof of this, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can they see clear career progression within your organisation, and evidence of employees being promoted internally? Are your staff advocates of your company on social media?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, just as customer case studies and reviews speak volumes in marketing, the power of employee advocates can\u2019t be underestimated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, think about how you market yourself to potential customers, and adopt some of the same practices in your talent acquisition and engagement programmes to develop an authentic employer brand that your people can buy into and benefit from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Download your free report, The changing face of HR, and discover why ‘HR’ is changing to ‘People’<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

4. Ditch the annual appraisal \u2013 and think about how you recognise the work employees do<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been a hot topic in the HR sector for a while now: the days of the annual appraisals are numbered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People Companies and businesses that put their people first know this, and instead have feedback conversations continuously with their employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They provide regular feedback throughout the year and they use approaches such as peer-led \u2018shout outs\u2019 to reward performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This enables a faster, more agile way to feedback to employees, that workers, colleagues and the business benefits from.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not just feedback that\u2019s important, though \u2013 recognition is vital to making sure your people feel valued for the work that they do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make recognition programmes inclusive, don\u2019t skimp on spending and make sure you have a range of ways to reward and recognise employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some may like a company-wide shout-out, while others may be slightly mortified at the prospect and prefer a more discrete way of being recognised, such as a personal email from a senior member of the leadership team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Try fostering a culture of recognition and appreciation. It could be the most cost-effective way to maintain a happy and engaged workforce where your people feel valued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simply by recognising and acknowledging employees for their work, you can generate a strong emotional commitment to your company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Hello flexible working<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Today, thanks to mobile technology, employees are \u2018always on\u2019 and can often work longer hours, and \u2013 at times \u2013 weekends too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The traditional model of being in the office from nine to five has changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Companies that show they value their employees\u2019 work-life balance and recognise that everyone has different ways of working will be held in high regard by workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parents shouldn\u2019t have to miss the school run just to be seen to be in the office, when they may be working long evenings too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commuters don\u2019t need to spend three hours travelling to and from work each day, when they could spend that time working from home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Give employees the autonomy to work when and where is best for them. They\u2019ll feel empowered and will be more productive in the output of their work as a result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Put in place an approach that works best for your people, and you\u2019ll be putting them before unnecessary processes and traditional ways of working which are now out of date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019ll reap the rewards in terms of engagement and productivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, it\u2019s about putting your people at the heart of everything you do<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Companies that put people first and truly value their workforce deliver great experiences throughout the entire employment journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They go beyond free lunches, great workspaces and unlimited holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They know their people and what drives them \u2013 and they use this information to create an employer journey that constantly continues to energise their workforce and get the best from them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your business isn’t doing this at the moment, it’s worth taking the steps to do so now. Your employees will appreciate it and it will help them perform at their best.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sage People live demo<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
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Want to attract the best people, retain your key talent and increase productivity? Request a free, live demo of Sage People and discover how it can help you achieve your goals.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRequest a free demo<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

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Join more than 500,000 UK readers and get the best business admin strategies and tactics, as well as actionable advice to help your company thrive, in your inbox every month.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe now<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

People Companies attract the best, and as a result, their business flourishes. We summarize five findings from our research report on how the best do it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1118,"featured_media":8061,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sage_video":false,"post_featured_image_hide":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[41,159],"business_type":[3],"lilypad":[],"context":[],"industry":[],"persona":[69,71],"imagine_tag":[92,217,96],"coauthors":[397],"class_list":["post-8098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people-leadership","tag-hr-process","tag-midsized-business","business_type-medium-sized-business"],"sage_meta":{"region":"en-gb","author_name":"Jessica Leyshon","featured_image":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2020\/10\/business-planning.jpg","imagine_tags":{"92":"HR and Payroll","217":"HR processes","96":"Medium businesses"}},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"Sage Advice UK","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/1118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/8061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8098"},{"taxonomy":"business_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/business_type?post=8098"},{"taxonomy":"lilypad","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/lilypad?post=8098"},{"taxonomy":"context","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/context?post=8098"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=8098"},{"taxonomy":"persona","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/persona?post=8098"},{"taxonomy":"imagine_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/imagine_tag?post=8098"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sage.com\/en-gb\/blog\/api\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=8098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}