Small Business Secret

Date: May 2008

A Melbourne-based small business servicing over 70 of Australia’s largest organisations through designing and implementing Recognition, Incentive and Loyalty solutions, is addressing its own ‘HR’ needs with an innovative approach.

The organisation, Accumulate, is addressing the skill shortage issue by giving employees the challenge of scouting for new talent and offering significant rewards if those they refer into the business remain as successful appointments.

“Reward” points are awarded to staff that refer new employees into the business. Not only do they receive points for sourcing new talent, they also receive bonus points when those they recommend stay.

These points can then be redeemed for a broad range of goods and services, such as frequent flyer points, electrical and white goods, store vouchers or even experience-based events like hot air ballooning.

With more than 80 staff, Accumulate has grown from a turnover of $6m five years ago, to over $30m per annum and continues to grow at a rate of 40 percent a year.

Accumulate’s chief executive, Adrian Finlayson, believes the key to building a successful business, quite apart from having a good product, is to have the right staff on board and the challenge is in recruiting effective employees who will stay.

“You have to hire the right people and give them the space to do their job. Without the right team and the right people in the right seats, a company simply cannot grow. How you go about doing this, however, is quite another thing.

“Accumulate employees are encouraged to look within their own networks to find ‘like-minded’ individuals who would like to work with us. As a result we have motivated staff that actually enjoy coming to work. That is extremely valuable for any business – small or large,” says Mr Finlayson.

Mr Finlayson suggests that automated solutions are now making such reward programs more practical and cost-effective for small businesses.

“This means small business can now embrace these programs and compete with larger organisations in the battle for talent,” he says.

Accumulate quite literally practices what it preaches when it comes to keeping hold of its employees. In addition to the employee referral program, it invests in its own Reward and Recognition program that allows individuals across the company to nominate and recognise each other for demonstrating behavior that closely aligns with the company value system, and that deliver business results.

“Every staff member knows what they need to achieve for the business to reach its goals, and we make sure that when people do what is asked of them, they are continuously recognised – whether that is through our real-time and online R&R program, or through regular verbal feedback.

“Reward and Recognition programs are no longer the preserve of large corporates. They are now just as practical and valuable for small businesses,” says Mr Finlayson.