April 26, 2024
As an experienced HR consultant, Katy Williams delivers HR expertise for businesses large and small in her role as a Human Resources Business Partner at SVC Solutions. Here’s an insight into some of the services she provides.
With close to ten years of experience working as an HR consultant, and over 20 years working in HR, I have always loved the variety of challenges that the role brings and the opportunity it affords to work with a diverse range of businesses and to be able to support them in a wide range of HR requirements.
Working as an HR consultant at SVC Solutions has given me the chance to work with companies in different business sectors and of different sizes, and each business will have very specific HR requirements they are looking for support with.
Larger companies that already have HR staff may be looking for a short-term input of very specific expertise, extra support or to oversee a specialist issue. For smaller businesses without any in-house HR resource, my role is more likely to be to manage more day-to-day requirements, such as updating company policies to ensure they are fit for purpose, managing employment contracts, providing support and guidance with employee relations matters, and dealing with generalist ad hoc HR support that covers the whole employee life span from recruitment through to exit.
One of my earliest projects working with SVC Solutions was also one of my most challenging, but it ended as one of the most rewarding too. The client was looking for support to help with the HR process relating to a company purchase. As a retailer with multiple outlets, the client had bought out another retailer and wanted additional HR support and expertise as it incorporated the new business and its employees into its operations.
A key aspect of this process was making sure the client followed the TUPE regulations (Transfer of Undertakings – Protection of Employment).
My role was to be a visible and accessible HR point of contact for staff and management at the site, to oversee the transfer of employment for staff and to ensure all staff were supported in understanding company values, to ensure a good employee transition, while helping to support and maintain in high levels of productivity.
This level of transformation can result in difficult conversations and a resistance to change, so to have a qualified HR professional on site to act as an independent voice with detailed insight into employment law proved to be vital in ensuring successful outcomes. In this instance it was my role to provide expertise, clarity, knowledge, a physical presence and a level of independent thought as changes were being made to aspects of an employee’s terms and conditions of employment.
This project lasted for more than 12 months from start to finish, but one of the things I value most about the work I do is that from this scale of long-term project, I can equally find myself being called upon at short notice for short-term projects such as support in investigations, disciplinary, grievances or to support in difficult one to one meetings. If you need either long-term or short-term support with the HR requirements of your business, why not give me a call? I would be delighted to discuss what type of assistance you might be looking for and share my expertise on what might be the best way forward for your business. Give me a call on 01206 262117.
