Companies scaling too quickly, restricted access to mentorship and uncertain succession plans have led Ottawa HR consultant Karen Craft to launch a new business aimed at helping those in C-suite roles navigate workplace issues.
Craft (formerly Brownrigg) is best known in the city for her work at the helm of iHR Advisory Services, which she started in 2016 with the goal of helping small businesses adapt to change. Last week, she announced the launch of a sister company, CraftXecs, an advisory firm aimed at helping executives at larger companies with workplace issues.
Craft said that while she was always focused on iHR, the new firm is an extension of other work she was already doing.
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“I’ve always done customized work on the side,” Craft told OBJ. “We’ve been quietly supporting those (larger) organizations through change, disruption or transformation … It needed its own place and we needed to describe who we are and what we do.”
Over the past three years, Craft said she’s seen an alarming increase in HR issues, many of which came out of the difficulties faced during the pandemic.
“It has been one curveball after another. People are tired. They need help and if it’s not done properly, there’s a tremendous amount at stake. We’ve seen an increased need for support for medium and large organizations who are going through mergers and acquisitions, scaling for growth and navigating complexities (in their) leadership teams,” she said.
CraftXecs will be “executives (supporting) executives, whether it’s at the helm of the organization or the HR team,” Craft said. She added that her team members are prepared to address many issues because they’ve “walked a day in the life.”
Services will include team-building, dispute resolutions and mitigating HR risk through assessments and audits. In addition, Craft said that the pandemic and recent tariff woes have put succession plans into question.
“In the current climate we’ve got a scenario where business owners are really looking deeply at their succession plans. We’re seeing many situations where they thought they had a plan, but we’re seeing a lot of hesitation. The plans are falling through and their runway for designing new plans has shortened significantly,” she said.
When succession plans go awry, employees might find themselves in leadership roles sooner than they expected and sometimes without much mentorship, Craft said.
“They’re being plunked into these roles without having the benefit of watching and learning through mentorship. If you don’t have those mentors to lean on and do a ride-along with as you’re working through leadership challenges, it becomes pretty scary,” she said, adding that CraftXecs will help upskill employees so they feel more confident in more senior roles.
While Ottawa is home to many successful companies, especially in the tech industry, that are looking for opportunities to grow, Craft said that some are scaling too quickly, which may lead to undue stress on the workforce.
“A lot of businesses are doing really well, are scaling for growth, but are trying to do it too quickly. It’s easy to say, ‘We need to increase our workforce by 20 per cent to meet demand,’ but they’re not equipped to onboard that many people at once and be successful,” she said.
“If you’re trying to figure out the design of the jobs as you’re going through (growth), maybe you aren’t integrating the folks in your organization well. Your leaders might be burning out and there’s a reputational challenge if you’re not able to meet what you’ve committed to,” she added.
Some companies’ plans for growth include merging with or acquiring another company, meaning two distinct workplaces need to become one.
“You’ve got two HR teams who are each embedded in their home organization. So they hire us because we’re coming in as the objective and trusted third party … What do the people in each organization need to feel supported through this change? We’ll lead those meetings and discussions … and facilitate restorative work through individual coaching, group coaching and conflict resolution.”
HR risk is like a leaky boat, Craft said, and if the leak isn’t addressed before embarking on a voyage, there could be a domino effect of issues.
“It’s all well and good when times are going really well but we don’t often talk about it when times aren’t going as well and organizations recover from those situations more than we realize. It’s the courage and determination of these business owners (that’s needed) to steer with a steady hand through difficult times (so they can) rebuild trust and work towards a new vision.”
Craft said that with the launch of CraftXecs, she is transitioning out of an operating role at iHR.
“iHR was in startup mode for a number of years and now there’s a level of maturity. It’s at a steady state and it doesn’t need me steering as firmly as I used to,” Craft said. “Now I can go over to CraftXecs and give it the time and attention that’s needed but, frankly, once a startup leader, always the desire to be a startup leader.”
Craft added that she might write a book on her experiences throughout her 30-year career. “I think that’s probably next on the books for me because I think I’ll have a little more bandwidth to be able to do that at this juncture in my career.”
