Carrie Lentz has taken a new direction in her career path by opening her own business, The Lentz Group which targets the business community through human resource support and coaching.
It is the aim of The Lentz Group to provide all the levels of human resource management at a fraction of the cost that hiring a permanent HR Manager would require. Lentz says that in smaller businesses this often becomes a position assigned to someone who wears “many hats” and has to juggle this additional role often with little or no experience in the HR world. “I truly believe the HR platform is essential for a successful business,” said Lentz.
By bringing the HR component to a business at a consultant level firms will have access to all of Lentz’s expertise in business coaching such as business development, finance and planning. “One thing I know is the importance of setting goals to keep focused and on task. Through commitments to monthly meetings accountability can be established and progress monitored,” said Lentz.
Lentz’s career path has taken some interesting twists from when she started out in an undergraduate nursing program and shifted to commerce after 2 years. At the end of this May Lentz left her job at RBC where she had worked for 6 years, most recently in the Commercial Banking Division. In this last position she realized that she was still using her natural coaching skills even though it wasn’t on the job description.
“I believe everything happens for a reason,” said Lentz, of the flow that her life is now taking. When her 2 year old son was born with albinism it added a whole new dimension to her family life requiring adaptation that was beyond the normal demands a new child brings to a household. Her son’s light sensitivities both to his skin and eyesight make him susceptible to sun exposure and a loss of depth perception. Lentz established herself as President of NOAH which is a mostly online network supporting families who have children with albinism.
With all of this on her plate having more control over her time allows her to strike the balance between work and family. Lentz is a lifelong learner and presently she is working on her MBA and has completed her Certified Human Resource Professional (CHRP) designation which is the highest level of certification attainable in the Human Resource Field.
The Lentz Group hopes to target businesses with 10 to 50 employees offering an array of services. Lentz said, “I can provide an end to end HR Process that starts with recruitment, selection, hiring, and on boarding which includes orientation and getting employees settled in with a strong connection to their company.” She sees the first 24 hours a new employee faces as being the most important to ensuring a successful settling in for subsequent commitment and job satisfaction.
Lentz says it’s important to set in place a formal structure that includes ongoing training and development, mentoring, updated benefit reviews, and job performance reviews. She stresses that establishing these guidelines set up a company to be proactive which prevents a lot of problems down the road. A simple example is establishing an expected dress code. Lentz stresses, “With expectations already in place an employee knows where the company stands so there is no need for a reactive climate to overtake the workplace.”
Smaller businesses can often learn from mistakes made in the workplace that in the long term can be costly such as occupational health and safety issues. Lentz’s background can also help determine the needs in this area that in the long term can save a company a lot of money and heartache.
She said she is ideally looking to set up a one year contract on a retainer basis where clients would stipulate an agreement of required hours per month, typically meeting once or twice a month or some clients may prefer a per project agreement.
Lentz’s vision is to establish herself as your business coach and with her enthusiastic go get ‘em manner and professional background she is sure to take your business to new levels.
Carrie can be contacted at www.thelentzgroup.com
