Companies may lose valuable employees if they fail to develop talent with ongoing efforts rather than simply train them up and expect them to get the job done.

That’s the view of Jennifer Smatt, president of consultancy Ontru, who said the company is seeing a greater need for human resources advice from businesses looking to establish a partnership with providers they trust.

Ontru, a full-service business strategy, people management and performance and training solutions firm, based at 20 Church Street, Hamilton, expanded its ranks a month ago with the recruitment of Vanessa Robinson as practice HR manager. Ms Smatt believes employers are starting to see the value in developing their people through coaching instead of just looking for employees to deal with tasks.

“Historically some employers looked at members of staff to just get the job done, but failed to realise the impact on employee engagement,” Ms Smatt said.

“If this happens they may lose headcount on talent that took years to develop.”

At Ontru they make sure employers understand what they will be losing if they fail to take talent development seriously.

Ms Smatt gives an example of Ontru’s 4321 Manage programme, which combines training with coaching and assessment and which aims to offer a comprehensive solution to people management.

“Our interest is on shifting behaviour that has a benefit to the business,” she added.

She stressed that the programme is not a one-stop shop, it is about ongoing support.

“A number of companies rely on us to give good HR advice, and the HR function that they may not have in-house and then training and development,” Ms Smatt said.

New recruit Ms Robinson will bolster Ontru’s offerings in that area. She has more than ten years of HR experience and a master’s degree in human resource management, specialising in employee relations, from the University of Westminster, London. She also holds a Senior Certified Professional designation from the Society of Human Resource Management.

“The reason for bringing Vanessa on board was to expand our HR practice,” Ms Smatt said. “There is an increasing need for extended services in that line of business which include recruitment, immigration and outsourcing.

“Vanessa will lead the HR practice and provide the full range of strategic and operational HR consulting support in addition to organisational training solutions.”

Ms Robinson said: “Every client is different. It may be as simple as infrastructure or as complex as employee relations that they need our professional assistance with.”

Ms Smatt has a background in human resources, strategic planning methodology and the theory of the balanced scorecard.

This diverse background helps her to better understand the business and provide solutions that can improve the bottom line. Her primary focus is on the business advisory and strategic planning side.

Ms Smatt said building and maintaining relationships with clients was key to Ontru’s success.

She added: “We really see the full gamut. Our clients range from small business who are dealing with employer relations issues to larger corporate environments.”

For more information, visit Ontru’s website http://www.ontru.bm or call 236-6879