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HR Consultants
Human Resources consultants offer invaluable business support, and can play a key role in shaping your company’s future prospects.
Effective management of human resources (HR) is one of the most integral parts of any business or organisation. This is especially true when a business is growing. However, tasks such as keeping employee legislation up to date and handling staff concerns, can be time-consuming and complex. Whether large or small, enterprises need to be able to focus on their business objectives and strategies rather than the technical challenges of growth.
This is where outsourcing HR to a specialist firm can help.
In the video below, Georgia from Approved Index explains why HR is so important- and what an HR consultant will do for you.
Using the services of an HR consultancy to support your internal HR team can save your business time and money, protect your company from legal implications, and improve your business’ operations.
Click here to get a free no-obligation price quote today.
Approved Index’s personalised service will recommend and connect you with up to four leading UK consultancies, helping you get the best deal to meet your needs.
When to Hire an HR Consultant
When to Hire an HR Consultant
How do you know if your business needs to hire an HR consultant, to support or outsource some of your HR functions?
There are main three reasons businesses choose to do so.
To Improve HR Performance
If you feel that your HR systems are not running as smoothly as they could, HR consultants can help. In particular, an HR audit can identify pain points in your HR processes and recommend improvements. It will also ensure you are complying with relevant legal requirements.
To Increase HR Capacity
Sometimes there is simply too much work for your current HR team to manage. However, this does not mean you have to hire a new and expensive employee. Outsourcing certain HR functions to another company can build your business’s ability to cope with HR challenges without a large outlay. In these cases, HR support from an HR consultancy or even fully outsourcing HR can help.
To Support a Transformation
Big changes in the way your business operates can disrupt employees and HR processes. This might be because of growth, a change in direction or restructuring. Hiring an HR consultancy can support you to address the specific challenges of business transformations.
The Benefits of Employing an HR Company
The Benefits of Employing an HR Company
✔ Ensure legal compliance
✔ Identify and address any workforce issues
✔ Manage and prevent employee tribunals
✔ Increase staff engagement and retention rates
✔ Improve recruitment processes
✔ Enhance operational efficiency
✔ Stay up to date with the latest HR trends and technologies
✔ Maximise the focus on your business goals
✔ Reduced overall business costs, especially for a small business
A professional HR consultant can address even the most complicated HR problems. They can also provide ongoing support and assistance to minimise disruption to your business.
Some areas where HR problems could arise include:
- Employment Rights and Employment Law: Employees today know their rights better than ever. This means even small mistakes in complex processes can leave a business exposed.
- Employment Tribunals: Today’s statistics make frightening reading for business owners. There are approximately 250,000 new tribunals every year; almost 1,000 per working day. Figures were up 90% YoY at the end of 2017. The average pay-out for a successful unfair dismissal claim is around £8,500. Add to this the cost of legal representation and lost working days, and you might have a serious issue.
- Small Businesses: Employers of all sizes are expected to comply with the same employment laws. For large companies with a dedicated HR department, this should not pose too much of a problem. However, it can be daunting for a company that is taking on its first employee.
Help and Support
Specialist HR companies can provide a range of HR related services to take the strain off your own staff and minimise your exposure to losses. They can assist with:
- Compliance: This means getting your paperwork right. It includes developing and updating employment contracts and employee handbooks.
- Advice: The company will use their expertise and experience to help you identify and fix any problems with your processes, policies and practices.
- Legal: Help with tribunals, sometimes backed by an insurance indemnity.
Additional HR Services
HR companies are not only useful when things go wrong. There are many ongoing activities that the right HR partner can improve and manage:
- Appraisals: Putting a performance management system in place. This will reward good work, highlight areas for improvement and increase employee retention.
- Training: Ensuring all employees and managers are up-to-date with the latest procedures and regulations.
- Recruitment: Supporting recruitment processes and induction for new employees.
- HR Auditing: An HR audit involves a comprehensive review of all your HR activity, and provides specific and actionable recommendations for improvements.
- Absence Management: Reducing the time taken off by employees or managing it more efficiently, meaning lower costs to the company.
Pricing information for HR services can be found in our HR Prices Guide.
HR Consulting for Small Businesses
HR consulting is definitely not just for large businesses. In fact, it is small businesses that benefit the most from outsourcing HR. This is because for a business with fewer than around 50 employees, employing any full-time HR staff at all is not likely to be cost-effective.
In addition, as a small company, you want your employees to be able to focus all their energy on your business objectives. If they have to deal with too much HR paperwork, they cannot do that. Outsourcing HR can take those tasks out of their hands, allowing them to dedicate more time to your business and clients.
The risks of not having effective HR procedures in place can be higher for small businesses too. If things go wrong and lead to an employment tribunal, very few small businesses have the legal expertise to protect themselves.By hiring an HR consultant, small businesses can not only implement proper processes that avoid these situations in the first place, but also have specialists on their side if they happen.
Several HR companies specialise in services for small businesses. Fill in the quick and easy form at the top of this page and you can get quotes from up to 4 of them today.
Or find more information on HR outsourcing for small businesses here.
Ongoing Training with HR Consulting Firms
As with any project, ongoing improvement to HR processes will add more value than a one-time fix. Developing a longer-term relationship with an HR consulting firm means their services will be even more personalised, and the results more beneficial.
It helps to keep information fresh in your staff’s minds, so that HR processes run as smoothly as possible. This is especially important as employees are promoted to management roles.
Managers are the driving force behind employee motivation. Giving them ongoing training will make them more effective motivators, and your business will prosper as a result. By improving managers’ communication with staff, you can also lower the risk of costly HR mistakes that can damage your business.
Ongoing training is part of many outsourced HR support packages. For more information on prices, see our HR prices page, or get a bespoke quote using this form.
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Choosing the Right HR Company
Choosing the Right HR Company
Once you’ve decided that an HR consultancy can add value to your business, the challenge is to find the right provider.
The key when choosing an HR firm to work with is research, research, research. The best way to do this is to speak directly with your top options, to find out which is most suitable. Approved Index can help here.
Fill in the fast and simple form at the top of this page to receive quotes from up to 4 top HR companies.
When you hire an HR consultant you’re not just procuring a service, you’re forming a partnership. A good working relationship between you and your consultants is critical. To make sure you find the right fit, you need to ask the right questions. Here are some key factors to consider:
- Flexibility: How will they adapt their service to your needs? A fixed package often suits the provider more than the client, so make sure they are personalising the service.
- Support Levels: What level of support is being offered? For example, will you have to fill in templates or will they provide bespoke documents?
- Contract length: This can be anything from one to seven years. How far in advance is your business prepared to plan?
- Specialisation: Does the HR provider have a specialism that suits you? For example, some specialise in services for small businesses.
- Business Culture: A large corporate HR provider may not be the right fit for a family business with five long-serving individuals.
- Call Centre: Who will you call when you have an issue: a large call-centre or the same consultant every time? A direct line to a consultant could save you a lot of effort.
- Indemnity: What legal protection do you have? What does it cover? Not only can this affect what happens after a tribunal, but it might even hide a conflict of interests.
Your input shouldn’t end once the contract is signed, either. The provider is the HR expert, but you know your business best. If they suggest a change that does not sound like it will help, ask why the firm believe it will. They may have an answer to turn you around.
There are lots of factors to consider, but choosing the right firm means you can be confident you’ll get the support, guidance and advice that you need. They will use employment law to your advantage and give you the freedom to concentrate on running your business.
To get started with HR outsourcing today, fill in the form at the top of this page.
HR Consultancies in London
London is the consultancy capital of the world. It is already home to more consultancies than any other city, and is building on this by attracting more new consulting businesses than anywhere else. This means that London-based companies looking for consultancy – including for HR – are spoilt for choice.
Having more options means a more difficult decision. However, it also means that you are more likely to find a perfect fit. Because there are so many, London-based HR consultancies often specialise in a particular area.
For example, they might have particular expertise for small businesses, charities, a certain industry, or companies that work across borders.
Approved Index has over 14 years’ experience supplying tailored quotes from leading UK HR Companies to business of all sizes and levels of HR requirements. We can help you find the right consultancy to work with, for a smarter and more successful business.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is HR?
The term “human resources” is used to refer to both the people that work for a company, and the team that oversees their management and development. An HR team is responsible for all matters related to recruitment, compensation, training, dismissal and employee-employer relationships.
How much does HR consulting cost?
There is no fixed price for HR consulting. The cost will depend on which services are required, for whom and for how long. You can find more pricing information on our HR prices page, or get a personalised quote using this form.
What different options are there for HR consulting?
Broadly speaking, there are three options: an audit, temporary support and ongoing full outsourcing. An HR audit is a one-off “MOT” of a company’s HR processes. HR support can fill in any gaps left by internal HR staff. With full HR outsourcing, a specialist company takes on all another business’s HR tasks.
Do small businesses need HR?
Definitely. All businesses with at least one employee will need some HR functions. This includes simple tasks such as payroll and recruitment, but also more technical issues such as compliance with employment law.
What is an employee handbook?
An employee handbook is a document given to a new employee containing the policies and procedures of their employer. It is not a legal requirement, but helps to make sure HR policies are clear. HR consultants can help you to create one.
HR Consultancy Quotes
HR Consultancy Quotes
We’ve spent over 14 years helping businesses fulfil their needs at Approved Index. And in our experience, the quickest way to identify the right partner is always to make a direct comparison of services and price.
To do this, just let us know your HR requirements using our enquiry form.
We’ll provide you with free no-obligation quotes from up to four leading HR companies in the UK, who we think are most suited for you. It's as simple as that.
Compare free no-obligation quotes from leading HR companies in the UK with Approved Index
Further Reading
Top HR Consultants Articles
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