Our Services
We provide the expertise your business needs to get HR and employment law right. No matter what kind of HR challenge you face, we will find you a workable solution to meet the needs of your business.
Contract and Handbooks
Every employee must be given written information about their terms and conditions on employment before or on their first day of employment. HR policies keep you legal and facilitate the professional running of your business.
Retained Outsourced HR
If you currently have no HR presence, or an inexperienced HR person who needs support, you may need the comfort of an experienced, HR professional in your business on a weekly or monthly basis to provide HR support.
HR Projects & Board support
Rather than sign up to one of our retained HR services you may prefer us to work on a specific HR project on a ‘pay as you go’ or project fee basis. Given the experience of our HR Associates, we are able to make a big impact on difficult HR issues.
Training AND DEVELOPMENT
Training staff is important as it will help develop a skilful, engaged, high performing team that will bring about enhanced business performance. Training will also motivate your staff and improve retention in your business.
Restructure and redundancy
If you have to undertake a restructure, this could result in either changes to terms and conditions of employment or even redundancies. In both situations, it’s necessary to follow a legal process that can appear complex.
Organisational Development
This may sound complicated but from an HR perspective, it’s simply making sure you have the right structure, processes and people in place to help the organisation grow and adapt.
Grievance and Disciplinary
Failure to deal with grievance or disciplinary matters correctly can be costly and could expose the company to potential claims so it’s important they are dealt with quickly and you get some expert advice
job Evaluation and Salary benchmarking
To retain the best people and maintain a motivated team, you need to be sure you are paying salaries that are competitive in the market and fair throughout your company.
Contract and Handbooks
This can be a simple document but must contain certain key information. An Employee Handbook may feel too much but it will contain all your HR policies and procedures so employees know what is expected of them and the policies are key in helping you deal with any HR issues. It really is an important and very useful document. It also ensures you are legally compliant
Creating Contracts and Handbook will keep you legally right and help you manage the people side of your business. Definitely a worthwhile investment!
what we can do +
We will discuss all your terms and conditions of employment and how your company operates. This means that we can create Contracts and a Handbook that are bespoke for you and legally compliant. We will leave you with a set of template contracts so when at new employee starts all you have to do is to complete their personal information, making the process quick and simple.
If you already have Contracts and policies, we can review these to ensure they are legally compliant and reflect your business needs.
We don’t make any HR documents complicated; they are written in simple straightforward language and will reflect your company style.
Retained Outsourced HR
If you currently have no in-house HR team, or you have a relatively junior or inexperienced HR person who needs support, you may recognise that you need the comfort of an experienced, HR professional in your business on a weekly or monthly basis to provide strategic HR support. We can offer services on a retained basis which means you would spread the cost of HR support over a year’s (or longer) contract, accessing a bank of consultancy time which you can draw down as and when you need it.
What we can do +
For retained clients, we would provide:
Employment contracts tailored to your needs and updated whenever employment law changes;
Company policies created specifically for your business, prepared in a branded Employee Handbook;
Straightforward, practical advice on managing any HR issue;
Strategic, Director-level support to your senior management team or Board;
Full support through tricky issues such as employee disputes, redundancies, disciplinaries, capability issues, family leave, TUPE, lateness and sickness etc.
HR Projects & board support
Rather than sign up to one of our retained HR services you may prefer us to work on a specific HR project on a ‘pay as you go’ or project fee basis. Given the experience of our HR Associates, we are able to make a big impact on difficult HR issues.
Our Associates are also experienced at working in partnership with Boards of Executives and Boards of Trustees.
What we can do +
Some examples of HR projects we would help with are:
Restructuring and Reorganisation – including assisting businesses close some of their locations as well as assisting with collective consultation regarding changing contract of employment and / or redeployment of employees to alternative roles.
TUPE Consultations – relating to both business acquisitions and service provision changes.
Reviewing and designing performance management systems.
Workplace mediation
Absence Management – managing persistent short-term absence issues or employees absent on a longer-term basis
Draft and implement strategic people plans or help design and shape company values
Advise and support Boards, offering expert guidance and pragmatic commercially focused solutions.
TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
You will invest a significant amount of money in the salaries of your staff so it makes sense to ensure you are getting the best performance from them. Many people will have natural ability but more often than not you will need to provide training to give them the skills to perform their job to a high standard.
Supervisors and Managers have responsibility for your expensive resource, your staff, but are given limited training on how to manage people; particularly when they have been internally promoted into the role. Dealing with people problems can be complex, challenging and costly if it goes wrong so it’s important to provide your Supervisors and Managers with the skills on how to deal with their staff. For example, having a member of staff off sick is costly in terms of sick pay and time as you need to find cover for the role; a skilled manager will know how to deal quickly and efficiently with sickness issues and reduce the frequency of sick absence.
However, the commitment of time and money (both of which can be in short supply) can deter companies from implementing training. This is where we can help.
What we can do +
We can create and deliver bespoke Supervisor and Management training covering subjects such as Basic Management Skills (leadership, motivation, delegation), Dealing with HR Matters (absence management, performance management, disciplinary and grievance), Dealing with Conflict, and Conducting Performance Appraisals. The courses we run are not just about theories, they are practical and we use our decades of HR experience and knowledge to provide practical support.
Restructure and redundancy
There is nothing more constant than change.
A restructure maybe necessary to reduce costs, improve efficiency or adapt to changing markets. A restructure will invariably impact of your staff ranging from small change in job titles, changing terms and conditions of employment through to the need to make redundancies.
Changes to terms and conditions of employment and redundancies both require the company to undertake consultation with the affected staff. The type and length of the consultation period will depend on the number of people who will be affected. All consultation must be genuine and meaningful and a process followed to avoid potential claims for either constructive or unfair dismissal.
What we can do +
We will work in partnership with you to listen and understand your business needs to then provide a solutions-based approach. We will help you to review your current structure and develop a detailed plan to support the required changes, including possible redundancies.
We can provide as much or little support you require from just providing advice to drafting all relevant documentation to conducting the consultation meetings and support you fully through the entire process.
Organisational Development
You may have a business plan or even thoughts about where you want your company to be, or achieve in the next 3 years, it is therefore necessary to look at organisational development to provide a structured approach to ensure success in what you want to achieve.
Organisation development will often require change which invariably have people at the core so it is necessary to have an expert HR professional to guide you through the change process to ensure success.
What we can do +
We will talk to you about where you want your business to be, the challenges and opportunities and identify what you need from your people to achieve this. We can then identify the gaps and what needs to be done to ensure you can meet your business objectives.
Possible actions could include, reviewing (or introducing) a Performance Management process (Appraisals), identifying the skills that are needed and the learning and development required, how to attract and retain the right people, develop good HR processes and practices and how to support with change.
Grievance and Disciplinary
From experience, we know that dealing with HR matters can be time-consuming and stressful for all concerned, particularly if the matter is complex and serious.
The ACAS Code of Practice specifies specific processes for dealing with grievance and disciplinary matters and it is important these processes are followed.
Grievances can be sensitive and complex, particularly within teams who have to work together. Grievances can range from a simple unhappiness to complaints about sexual harassment or bulling and harassment, particularly challenging if they are levelled at management.
A disciplinary matter could be as simple as continual lateness to serious incidents such as theft. In every instance it is important to follow the correct disciplinary process as a dismissal could result in an unfair dismissal claim if not done properly.
What we can do +
If you receive a grievance from an employee or have a potential disciplinary matter, we can provide as much or as little support as you want. We can simply give you advice and send you template letters and scripts for the meetings, or we can be completely hands on and take over dealing with the matter for you. This means we will conduct all the meetings, deal with paperwork and make the ultimate decision on behalf of the Company.
job evaluation AND Salary benchmarking
The purpose of job evaluation is to identify the relative importance of each job in a company and ultimately put them into a hierarchy. This is done by systematically and objectively assessing each job, which avoids prejudice or discrimination. Once a hierarchy is established, this forms a good basis for a fair and equitable pay system.
You probably have a good idea of where your salaries are pitched compared to your competitors for some of your roles, but maybe not for every role nor the benefits that are offered. It is therefore good to have a more detailed salary benchmarking exercise so you can identify where your salaries and benefits sit in the market therefore can make informed decisions about any changes you feel should be taken.
What we can do +
We have access to a recognised job evaluation system therefore can use this to help you evaluate your jobs and if necessary, create a grading system with an associated pay structure.
We also have access to comprehensive salary data so can conduct a salary benchmarking exercise that is relevant to your industry and company size.
Free hr Audit
double check your compliance
As part of our HR audit, we will check over your current employment practices and identify areas for improvement or change.