Client overview
Red Frog for Families (RF4F) is a family owned and operated allied health practice, based in Newcastle NSW. They have a team of over 65 occupational therapists, speech therapists, allied health assistants, and disability support workers who collaborate closely to share their experiences and knowledge to provide the best outcomes for families.
The challenges
With a growing team and recognition of the importance of team engagement, retention and development across the organisation, the Owners identified the need to build a culture and team that is engaged, committed and scalable. Their aim was to remove the need to heavily rely on the Owners on a day to day basis, with a strong, embedded and effective culture to enable quality and consistent delivery of support for their families at all levels of the organisation.
Starting Point
RF4F commenced their journey with Seed in 2022, via facilitation of team days and initial work with the team on establishing culture and behaviours. Following this, the Owners identified the need to engage external specialists in leadership, teams and culture to support the development of a strategic approach to enable a thriving future for their team. RF4F were looking for a retainer set-up to enable predictable costs and reliable access, where work was done by the right people for the right cost.
The solution
Initially, Seed were engaged to provide operational-based support and streamlining of processes and procedures. With solid Cultural and Behavioural foundations laid in the initial retainer period, RF4F took the opportunity to re-engage Seed to work closely with the Managers across the organisation to build capability and confidence.
Over the course of our second and third retainer engagements, Seed have worked with RF4F to design and execute a number of projects, including:
- Organisational reviews, including interviews and focus groups held with internal team members to understand how best to future-proof the organisation in terms of structure and role design;
- Remuneration review and recommendations;
- Development and implementation of employee competency frameworks;
- The development and facilitation of a tailored Leadership Development Program for the newly-formed RF4F Leadership team;
- Individual and group coaching sessions with new and existing members of the RF4F Leadership team;
- Change management processes to support the ongoing evolution of the organisation, with a focus on engaging and consulting with the team to ensure maximum commitment and understanding; and
- On-call advice, as needed, to support the embedment of the projects and culture initiatives and provide support to Leaders throughout the retainer.
A massive thank you to Seed for their invaluable assistance!
Their expertise, dedication and unwavering support have greatly benefited our business in many ways. They have assisted our leadership team to streamline our HR processes and create a tailored solution to supporting our growing team. Seed have partnered with Red Frog for Families to create a culture that we are so incredibly proud of. This has led to greater employee and leadership satisfaction. We are so very grateful for their outstanding support.
Rochelle Appleby
CEO, Red Frog For Families
With this staged approach as part of a retainer agreement, Seed have been able to assist RF4F to establish practical and effective processes and procedures, as well as increase the capability within the team to lead and drive a positive culture. This has meant that instead of reactive, problem-focused HR, the team have been able to focus their energy on more strategic, value-add initiatives to really benefit the RF4F team and organisation as a whole.
The results
Given the initial engagement with RF4F was only 6 months back commencing January 2022, we’re proud to have continued our partnership with RF4F for over 18 months providing leadership, teams and culture development support on a retainer basis.
Over the course of our People & Culture Retainer we have:
- Co-designed and facilitated annual all-in professional development days contributing to the positive culture at RF4F;
- Seen a significant decrease in operational and reactive ‘people issues’ due to increased confidence and capability of management team;
- Successfully developed and implemented multi-levelled employee competency frameworks; and
- Completed organisational structure review and recommendations including remuneration guidance for the two branches of the organisation (Therapists and Administration).
The retainer agreement has allowed for Seed and RF4F to consistently review and assess progress and adjust or shift course or priorities as required, based on what was happening in the organisation at any time. This approach has been ideal for an organisation experiencing significant growth and has resulted in some amazing achievements for both the Red Frog for Families and Seed People Consulting teams.
As of September 2023, the RF4F Leadership team feel well equipped and confident to continue their HR journey solo, choosing to finalise their retainer agreement and engage Seed on an ad hoc basis as needed in the future for support with annual professional development days. From Seed’s point of view, this is a key sign of success – to have educated, supported and assisted an organisation and their key people to feel capable and confident, with the right resources and HR foundations in place, to manage and maintain their own culture and teams moving forward.
