“What is it that you actually do?”. It’s a question that can prompt much eye-rolling among specialist consultants, but not us! The OutThere team can wax lyrical all day about the professional outsourced HR consultant services we provide, and our passion for getting the most out of your company’s greatest asset – your people.
But for the sake of writing a blog article that you may actually want to read, we’ll cut to the chase and tell you what, why and how we do it.
What is Human Resources?
Hiring, firing, training and disciplinaries, right? Well… yes, to a degree, but that is a very superficial definition of a broad and complex area. Quality HR consultancy offers so much more than the traditional personnel department.
Thankfully, these days HR is widely recognised as a strategic as well as a process-driven function. At its very best, an HR department is there to help embed company culture, create an environment in which employees can thrive, and actively support business goals.
Of course, the function of an HR team is also to take care of the nuts and bolts of employee management – business administration, adherence to company policies and procedures, compliance to employment law, hiring, firing, etc., etc.
It is a multifaceted discipline that requires a broad range of skills and an abundance of experience, which is why outsourcing your requirements to a dedicated HR consultant, so as us, can be very valuable.
What services can an HR Consultant provide?
1. Learning and Development
Learning & Development impacts the overall profit and productivity of any organisation. Employees who are fully confident within their role and given the opportunity for personal development will be more motivated and perform more efficiently. We can work with you to assess any skills gaps within your workforce, and address them by creating and delivering appropriate training sessions.
Allow us to help you devise a strategy to manage the talent within your organisation and deliver L&D solutions to increase productivity. To find out more, see our Learning and Development page or contact us.
2. Recruitment Process Outsourcing
Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) is when an organisation transfers all or part of its permanent hiring to an external provider. As your RPO provider, we can act as an extension of your company’s HR or Resourcing function, and provide an end-to-end hiring solution. We are recruitment process experts and our services include everything from managing single campaigns, to a fully outsourced internal recruiter.
Following a briefing from you, we can manage every stage of the hiring process, including advertising, telephone screening, interviewing, skills assessment and psychometric profiling. We can also deliver numerous onboarding initiatives to ensure that new recruits are engaged from the word go.
3. Executive Search
Did you know that the UK’s post-lockdown boom has led to the biggest rise in hiring confidence in more than 20 years? And while this is good news for job hunters, employers are struggling to fill roles. This is because recruitment is both an art and a science. And although you don’t need to have a degree in espionage to work in this industry, you do need to be able to gain an understanding of what motivates and drives potential high level candidates in order to give them a reason to gravitate towards your company.
Finding quality, qualified senior managers often requires ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking, exploring beyond your industry sector and being open to recruiting talent with transferable skills and qualifications. At OutThere we can put together an Executive Search Strategy that uses scientific search tools to source candidates, whilst understanding the culture of your business and your talent criteria.
Related: Our guide to the Executive Search Process.
4. Employee Wellbeing
Recent surveys show that 1 in 5 adults take time off from work due to stress, costing employers £70-100 million per year. This shocking statistic is the reason that more and more responsible employers place their staffs’ wellbeing at the heart of their business. By creating a happy, healthy workplace where employees can thrive, they are rewarded with improved morale and engagement. And as we all know, engagement is essential to performance.
We can offer professional advice on mental health at work, provide mental health awareness training, or create and implement an entire Health & Wellbeing Strategy.
5. Health & Safety
All employers have a legal duty and responsibility to provide a safe and comfortable working environment for their employees, regardless of whether they work from home, in the office or out in the field. But making sense of specific and complex HSE legislations and regulations can be time consuming, whilst the consequences of negligence can be costly!
Our knowledgeable HR consultants can assist to make sure that you do more than just tick the boxes. We can identify potential hazards, provide staff with training, welfare, and information and complete a thorough risk assessment on your behalf. To find out more, check out our Health & Safety page.
How does HR consultancy outsourcing work?
These days we are all au-fait with remote working, and you can comfortably work with an HR consultant online and over the phone. A good HR consultant will insist on regular face-to-face meetings however, to monitor how the relationship is going and to provide additional support.
Most HR consultants are very flexible, and the level of service you opt for very much depends on your company’s size and life stage. For example, you may use the services of an HR consultant just for ad hoc advice, or to assist with recruitment initiatives, or, you may benefit from a fully-fledged outsourced HR department at your disposal.
HR Support & Advice
Whilst some businesses choose to outsource their entire HR department to us, others simply choose to use our human resource management team to tap into our various areas of expertise.
Our HR consultancy team is dedicated to delivering the flexible and practical employment support that your business needs. We offer a range of outsourced HR consultancy packages and can provide project management and ad-hoc services that help take the stress out of managing your workforce.
If you are looking for HR support and advice on how to keep your employees engaged, onboard and supported and want your business to feel the same, now might be the time to hire a dedicated HR support consultant like us.
Fully Outsourced HR Function
Equality, inclusion, flexible working, employee safety and wellbeing – there have been huge technological, legislative and cultural changes in the last few years that have had a significant impact on the employment arena. And, as new developments, expectations and opportunities continue to arise, so do the HR challenges facing businesses today!
At OutThere we are not shy when it comes to taking on a challenge, and our HR consultants can help you plan for every eventuality as part of our fully integrated outsourced HR function.
Strategic HR Business Partnering
HR has always traditionally been viewed as an administrative and compliance function, however, in a fast paced business environment, it is important that you think strategically.
At OutThere, we immerse ourselves in every aspect of your business. From its structure to its goals, people demographics and organisational culture, we develop people solutions that not only help achieve business objectives but enable employees to flourish.
By partnering with you, we can create meaningful relationships with key people and teams across your organisation and use data to deliver a portfolio of business relevant solutions that meet the evolving needs of your organisation.
What makes OutThere HR consultants different?
The OutThere team can provide you with all of the services we’ve covered above, and then some. We have vast commercial/operational experience and impeccable HR credentials – but that’s a given. What really sets us apart is the unique culture of our business, which encourages positivity, ownership, and a passion for exceeding expectations.
We practice what we preach and have achieved that elusive work-life balance. As a result, you could not meet a team of more dedicated and hard-working professionals. We are also a very amiable bunch, and enjoy building relationships with our clients. Basically, we come to work each day to give it our all and to make our business the best, and we want to help you and your employees to do the same.
We are the number 1 choice for HR consulting for countless organisations throughout Portsmouth, Southampton, London, Essex, Kent… the list goes on!
So if you are looking to outsource your HR policies and procedures, need someone to project manage your people or require HR related advice then why not partner with us today?!