What is HR? This is a question that we are often asked and can be hard to describe in one or two sentences.
HR has changed massively over the years, from the days of “personnel management”, focusing on admin tasks through to its current role. Today, the responsibilities are vast….legal compliance, wellbeing, training, and strategic partnership now form part of the HR role.
As consultants, we tailor our approach to work with various organisations. Some clients we work with need very little input, just having us available for queries that may come up. For others, we work onsite regularly and work as part of the team.
In September, these are the kinds of things we got involved in –
- delivering lunch and learn webinars
- delivering managers training
- undertaking DISC profiling for clients
- writing newsletters (3), blogs (3) and article submissions (3) for HR Prime, CV Prime and our HR network group, HR People Hub
- scheduling socials posts for the 3 companies
- coaching sessions for management mentoring
- networking (attending and hosting our own)
- monthly drop-in sessions at Colbea
- case management / customer HR work (absence, disciplinary, redundancy, change, expenses, recruitment, job analysis, mental health support)
- ad hoc customer redundancy projects
- ad hoc grievance investigations
- updating ourselves on employment law changes
- Internal mentoring sessions for Amanda, Sam and Ben
- recording podcasts
- devising 2026 lunch and learn programme
- working on our next projects – the portal, more training, new services
- meeting new clients
- meeting local businesses
- board members of local charity (Sam and Tracey)
- analysis of figures and producing reports for clients
- video interviews with our supporters (menopause coach, mental health, and disability advocates)
- updating forms, policies, handbooks etc
- compliance audits for local care homes
- delivering CV and employability workshops in local schools
- researching and securing grant funding to support businesses
With such a diverse mix of roles, we work as a team, but all have our own areas of specialism
Tracey – manages the business, contracts etc as well as consultancy
Eloise – consultancy and training
Sam – admin, training and compliance
Amanda – HR coordinator and client meetings Ben – social media and marketing
So in answer to “what is HR?” It is all of the above….and more! We genuinely love the challenges and enjoy working with so many businesses. We work hard to dispel the myth that HR are only called in to sack people, and to get to know all of our clients on a personal level.
If we haven’t been to visit you yet, we will be scheduling visits over the coming months. Alternatively, if you are ever in our area, please do let us know and come and visit!
