Kay Chapman, a woman aiming to take her business national in the next three years, has learned something new to take to the clients she mentors on employment relations: the value of being mentored herself.
It's a conundrum well known to many small-to-medium enterprises in New Zealand - the ambition for growth but a lack of knowledge about how to get there.
Chapman, owner of Chapman Employment Relations in Nelson, runs one of three SMEs selected by the Bank of New Zealand for its Supersize SME programme. The bank launched the business mentoring initiative in conjunction with Newstalk ZB to find SMEs with growth ambitions which can be mentored to reach the next level of business success.
She pitched her growth plans to an expert panel, including Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking, BNZ's Director of Partners Shelley Ruha and The Icehouse CEO Andrew Hamilton before being selected.
Chapman's business centres on one of the biggest issues facing SMEs: many become paralysed by fear when things go wrong with staff.
"We have seen it quite a bit," she says. "Companies can become too scared to do anything because they are fearful a grievance action against them could cost them $30,000-$40,000. That's why we see so many companies deciding to settle the matter when they haven't actually done anything wrong."
So Chapman and her staff mentor their clients - and have now been mentored themselves, not on staff disputes but on how to grow the business to reach her goal of being a national player in three years.
As part of the Supersize SME programme, Chapman worked with BNZ digital leaders Stephen Bowe, Head of Digital, and Donal Devlin, Head of Digital Creative Services.
"It was a great experience," Chapman says. "I would recommend it to any SME - it just gives you the opportunity to step back from the day-to-day work and take the time to really look into your business and understand it and where it might go - instead of just being wrapped up in hour after hour of consulting and dealing with clients."
The advice from Bowe and Devlin caused Chapman to deviate a little from the growth plan she had previously fastened on: "It's the same goal but a different way of getting there," she says.
A new app, unique in the field here, is still planned but Chapman says it will happen later than originally planned - as the mentors had shown her other ways to achieve the progress she wanted.
Clients had said they wanted to handle issues and topics that crop up themselves, like recruitment - but did not know how to do it.
"Many of these issues are, for us, quite routine - we often find ourselves giving the same answers to the same questions from different clients. So we hit on the idea of using an app to give our clients a resource they can access which enables them to do it themselves," says Chapman.
"That would leave us free to pursue much more higher-value interactions with clients while we also have an always-on, 24/7 resource clients pay to access."
However, Bowe and Devlin's digital advice demonstrated there were alternatives that could lead to better servicing and better use of resource - and thus more business. That included strong use of digital analytics to understand interaction with clients and how to make that better.
Her company website was being revamped to take that into account and she and the company were now holding webinars to reach business targets. She was also using Zoom as a key communications device in place of Skype - the latter a more unreliable channel, she says.
"That and the whole process also showed me what a mental block I had developed," Chapman says. "I didn't like working with consultants in remote locations; the unreliable communications did not help.
"Fortunately, the mentors forced me to take a step back and look at things and I could see how we could expand the business if we had the right communications tools in place, among other things."
The holder of a Bachelor of Arts in Chinese and studying towards a postgraduate diploma in Business (Dispute Resolution), Chapman has had 23 years' experience in employment relations, industrial relations and human resources management - and loves the problem-solving aspect of her job.
Her clients come from all over New Zealand: "I'd say nine out of 10 times we see problems arise because an employee has not been performing. It might be that the employee's behaviour and performance is not satisfactory - but the company has to jump through a number of hoops to come out the other end with a good result.
"Employees are much more litigious these days than they used to be. In previous times, disputes would be resolved far more amicably.
"Legislation changes favouring the employee are one reason; another is that people are far more able to access representation these days and can have a go at employers with very little risk to themselves."
Once a dispute has surfaced, Chapman says SMEs' biggest mistake is often not to follow the correct process.
Follow the journey on The Mike Hosking Breakfast on Newstalk ZB and at SupersizeSME.co.nz