Share |

Manage - Client Testimonials

Altran Technologies

Altran Technologies is a multi-national organisation that provides management and engineering consultancy to a wide range of clients across Europe. Altran Technologies clients are primarily based in the automotive, aerospace, defence and telecoms energy sectors.

Sarah Morgan (HR Generalist) at Altran Technologies contacted HCS via our support line to seek advice on what to do, having been advised by colleague that she was pregnant. Sarah had not been involved with managing a maternity situation before, and was not sure where to begin in terms of her obligations as an employer, or any actions the employee was required to undertake to ensure she received her entitlements.

HCS advised Sarah that the first key step was to conduct a Risk Assessment of the employee’s working environment and working conditions, to maintain safety and well being for the employee and her unborn child. HCS then confirmed to Sarah the methods for confirming what entitlements the employee should receive before, during and after her pregnancy.

To ensure simplicity, HCS provided Sarah with a chronological step-by-step checklist of the obligations for both employee and employer, to ensure that all necessary actions could be taken in a timely and structured manner. HCS offered all necessary template documentation such as Risk Assessment Form, and Maternity Leave Confirmation letters, to save Sarah the time and effort of recreating these.

Sarah said of the service provided by HCS "I hadn’t dealt with a maternity case before so was unsure of what we as a Company had to do. I was provided with a clear overview and timeline of what needs to be done by both parties, which helped to give a clear picture of responsibilities from ATUK and the employee in order to manage this."

Altran Uk

Regarding the process of TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings and Protection of Employment). We wanted to put a spotlight on one of our clients and our support to them through a TUPE process.

Altran UK is part of the Altran Group (www.altran.com), a Group of 18,500 employees worldwide dedicated to Technology Innovation, Organisational and Information Systems Change and Strategy & Management Consulting. HCS was required to provide support in the process of an intercompany TUPE merger of two businesses, which included the communication management of the implications of the transfer to the employees of the subsidiary companies merging.

HCS worked closely with the Managing Director of the transferor (Altran Technologies UK), Frédéric Jammes, to examine the implications of the transfer for employees. In this case, although it was, on the face of it, an inter-company transfer, the terms and conditions of the subsidiary companies were completely different. HCS worked to create a communication document for use by Frédéric, which would prepare him for a period of consultation with all staff of each of the organisations. Sarah Morgan, from Altran Technologies UK HR comments, “HCS provided us with a brief which outlined the process of TUPE to employees which was jargon free and which clearly outlined exactly what the TUPE transfer meant for the employees; the date for the transfer and the reason for it occurring.

HCS worked with us to create a project plan for the transfer and supported us in gaining the relevant employee liability information from the transferring company. This included information such as the identity of the transferring employees, ages, collective agreements, disciplinary action, grievances and legal action which has enabled us to manage a smooth transition of employees from the transferring company, Synectics, into Altran Technologies UK. We were then provided with support during a 'matching' process whereby we matched the employees from Synectics into the new structure. It was evident a redundancy exercise was necessary and HCS managed the process smoothly, resulting in voluntary redundancies such that risk to the business was reduced and disruption to business was minimised.

HCS provided invaluable support during the entire process, before, during and beyond the date of the transfer. The TUPE and subsequent redundancy process was very well managed by our consultant and in such a way that involved me fully in the process”

Arden Property Management

We would like to introduce Arden Property Management. HCS has helped this new network member with up to date contracts of employment and policies and procedures specifically geared to their needs.

Arden Property Management is a young, dynamic Residential Letting Agent which, over the last three years, has become firmly established in Edinburgh, the Lothians and Fife rental market. Landlords have access to a friendly professional service which can be tailored to suit their needs. Arden’s focus on customer service comes from not only a wealth of letting experience but also from a hospitality background which enables them to cater to a variety of clients from single property owners to portfolio clients. Types of property managed, includes everything from one bedroom flats to five bedroom executive family homes. Arden Property Management is committed to a clear plan of growth whilst maintaining their high quality standards.

In terms of the support provided to Arden by HCS, Catriona Waugh, Director of Arden Property Management felt that the time was right to grow her staff numbers and wanted to ensure that all employee terms and conditions were well thought out, clearly stating the company aims and that they reflected the culture of a professional and dynamic business. Catriona comments, “The relationship we have developed with HCS means that we have not only reduced potential risks in our employer/employee relationship but also that we have learned about changes in legislation may have affected our business. Having attended an HCS workshop, I feel comfortable that I have a broad understanding of the implications of employment law but also that I have a friendly and practical support line to turn to for clarification and reassurance. The contracts provided by HCS are easy to understand and have allowed us to formalise our previous informal approach. HCS provided me with practical advice on which clauses I should include in our contracts, specific to our business requirements relating our needs to those of similar clients, which was extremely beneficial to me.

Having HCS on board means that we can focus on business issues, trusting that they will inform us when we need to make changes and that we don’t need to think about paying hefty legal fees

Bellevue

Established in 1969, Bellevue provide a wholesale operation based on strength, initiative and commitment. They offer all aspects of food and drink servicing the retailer and catering trades alike, while giving promotional support and personal service to all their customers. Bellevue are regarded as one of Scotland's most significant wholesalers.

Managing Director, Graham Benson approached HCS to help him manage a restructure of the buying department. A long serving and highly experienced member of staff was about to retire which gave rise to the question of succession planning and also provided an opportunity to take a fresh look at the responsibilities shared out among the remaining staff.

Graham comments: HCS were able to help us define the requirements for the key departmental staff to undertake a role change and they did this initially by holding a workshop where we looked at what was needed, what staff felt was missing and what support they needed to make the necessary changes. This allowed us to really clarify roles of the future.

HCS helped us draw up an operational plan around the restructure and part of this was the definition of new role profiles for all of the staff. The plan helped us coach the staff through the acceptance of their new responsibilities and also laid out a timescale for the implementation of objective setting and review so that the department manager had very clear targets for ensuring that his staff were working to their new roles.

HCS came up with a built in system of staff review – unique to Bellevue's working practices - which eventually can be rolled out throughout the whole business, that evidences regular staff review and evaluation. This was done by looking at the standards of performance we want to attain for the business and encouraging staff to think about the way in which they achieve those standards. For my staff this was new thinking – for the first time they had to think about their performance in conjunction with what I am aiming for in terms of business outputs and achievements. The staff previously performed well and were motivated, but this is forcing them to find better, smarter and faster ways of working. I can see now that the buying team are looking at company aims and linking them to their team and individual performances. This will in turn provide an opportunity for effective feedback from me and will allow the senior management to recognise individual achievement.

I see the implementation of the new structure and the process of performance review as a continuous improvement process, linked to the overall business aims of Bellevue which will improve accountability for all staff within the new structure.

Charity Client

We wanted to put a spotlight on one of our clients and how we have helped overcome conflict between two individuals in their team.

We were contacted by our client, a Human Resource Manager of a Charity who explained that one of their employees had put in a claim of harassment against her manager. The complainant was saying that her manager was abrupt and aggressive in the way she spoke to her, had raised her voice and criticised her in front of other colleagues and was generally acting towards her in an unsupportive way. The complainant was suffering work related stress as a result of this, and admitted that she dreaded going to work each morning. The Human Resource Manager comments, “After the complaint from the employee arrived on my desk, I immediately called a meeting with the Manager concerned. The Manager actually had several issues with this particular employee, the main one being that the she felt that her directions concerning work and projects were not being accepted and, in her point of view, she felt that this person was deliberately undermining her authority. HCS wrote our Employee Handbook for us and we agreed at that time to write mediation into our harassment policy as in informal first stage of resolution and I decided to offer this to the complainant and her Manager as the fairest means of resolving the issues between them.

Both employees had their reservations about the value in the Mediation session, but they agreed to go ahead as they both wanted the situation between them to be resolved as quickly as possible and neither wanted to go down the more formal route of investigation.

They did see the merit in talking through their issues with the help and direction of an experienced mediator from HCS who did not take sides. The HCS Consultant arranged to meet with both of them and set aside one day for the mediation, spending almost two hours with each of them in individual meetings in the morning and then brought them together in a structured mediation meeting which took all afternoon.

By the end of this meeting, they both had had the chance to say what they needed to say to each other, they had identified the main issues and, with some help and encouragement from our Consultant, had come up with a number of practical agreements on changes for the future that would improve their working relationship (in this case mainly around how they communicated with each other). These voluntary agreements were written up by the HCS Consultant and at the end each employee was given a copy. A follow-up meeting was arranged for three months after the initial meeting when our Consultant came back to see how the voluntary agreements are working out between them. I am pleased to report that the employee and her manager are working much better together, and that the mediation session has helped them to build a better, more productive working relationship.

Clydebank Rebuilt

Clydebank Rebuilt is an organisation with 9 Staff – whose primary purpose is to promote the redevelopment and promotion of Clydebank, particularly the riverside and commercial heart of the town. Claire McGinley, administration manager, had previously worked for an IIP accredited business so she was familiar with the IIP standards but was daunted by the prospect of evaluating where Clydebank Built was currently and where it needed to move to, in respect of these standards.

Claire describes the support she received from HCS as “flexible, assistive and practical. They made sure that we had in place an action plan that measured up to what was required from the IIP standard. Clydebank Rebuilt already had robust planning in place but HCS helped us to tweak what was there to make sure that the training and development strategy was clearly detailed. HCS carried out a training needs analysis, evaluated the impact of development undertaken to date and worked with me to ensure that all staff understood the behaviours, skills and knowledge required to achieve the business strategy.

Following the training needs analysis, HCS helped Clydebank Rebuilt to incorporate learning and development planning as an intrinsic part of their performance management. This element of the process was where we needed most support. But HCS took us through the process of looking at competencies for each post and helped the staff to understand the importance of evaluating behaviours as well as skills. Importantly, Clydebank Rebuilt was able to reinforce their existing appraisal process with a process which continuously reviewed the effectiveness of organisational training and development. Clydebank Rebuilt have always cared about making staff feel welcome but HCS helped me to review and enhance our induction procedure so that it linked to ongoing development needs, which in turn linked to our strategy and team objectives.”

Claire summed up the whole process by saying “We are all delighted to have achieved Investors in People and we’re grateful that HCS was there to help us through it. The whole HCS team were involved in a variety of ways, bringing a depth of experience to the process that really made a difference.”

HCS is proud to have worked with Clydebank Rebuilt to attain this award and would like to offer them our warmest congratulations!

Gray Retail

HCS supported Gray retail to manage a request for flexible working involving reducing hours of work following maternity leave.

Elizabeth Fotheringham, Coffee Shop Manager, contacted HCS through the network support line to seek advice concerning an employee who has submitted a request for flexible working. The employee wanted to reduce her hours of work from five days to three days per work, due to her childcare arrangements.

HCS advised Elizabeth of the eligibility criteria for flexible working to ascertain if the employee fell within one of the criteria - which clearly she did as she had a baby under the age of 1 year. HCS advised Elizabeth to invite the employee to a meeting within 28 days of the request being submitted.

In preperation for the meeting Elizabeth considered ways in which the business could continue to operate effectively with this employee redusing her hours and the options available. HCS provided Elizabeth with the template letters required through-out the process from invite to meeting, confirmation of meeting held and change to terms and conditions of employment following return to work.

HCS advised Elizabeth to look at the request in terms what was operationally effective for the business. Elizabeth said " I had to look at the options available to cover the remaining hours from within the current structure of the business. I reviewed the employee's request in terms of how the reduced hours wouls impact the business operations and whether this was feasible. Without the advice from HCS I would have been unaware of my obligations as an employer. I find it most helpful and supportive in the way that HCS provide me with step by step guidance in dealing with issues and understanding the implications for the business. Receiving the template documentation to issue to the employee helps as I am confident that I am protecting both the employee and the business"

Craighalbert Centre

HCS have a new Occupational Health Service Offering. HCS has recently facilitated Occupational Health Reviews for one of our network members, the Craighalbert Centre. The Centre, based in Cumbernauld is the Scottish Centre for Children with Motor Impairments and is the national centre for young children with Cerebral Palsy.

Professor Patrick Salter, Director of the Centre enlisted the support of HCS when the centre had three full-time staff members on long term sick leave. Professor Salter comments, “We were having frequent meetings with our absent staff members, but we soon realised that we were making slow progress in terms of facilitating a return to work. We needed an impartial and objective view on the effects the various illnesses were having on the ability of individual staff to undertake their duties, but having never had the need for an occupational health review we didn’t know who to call. We’ve worked with HCS for around a year now, and trust their advice. We invited them into talk to us about the facilitation of a return to work and we were delighted when they spoke to us about their new service.

We knew what action we wanted to take and what action was best for the needs of organisation but we wanted to ensure that we took all of the positive steps in terms of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). HCS helped in all aspects of the review. They wrote letters to their Occupational Health Professionals on our behalf, describing the symptoms, the adjustments that we had already made as an employer and provided an outline of the job description. HCS asked the questions that we really needed answered, ‘When will the employee be fit to return to the duties of her role? Are any further adjustments or actions that the company could take in order to assist in the return to work?’ For each of the employees, we have found that the Occupational Health staff provided a most expert, comprehensive service. They attended the workplace to undertake the review, ensuring that they fully understood the working environment and they captured workplace measurements on our behalf, such as noise levels, lighting and spoke to staff members to understand if there were any contributing stress factors that would be influencing their absence. HCS provided us with a report that summarised their findings, their recommendations and also provided us with any missing health related policies such as mental health at work.

We are now almost at a stage when all three employees are returning to work, albeit on lighter duties or reduced hours, but we are fully aware of what we need to do as an employer to assist in this and what we can expect from our employees in the timescales suggested by HCS. We are delighted with the service, and we are positive that we will continue to use this resource provided by HCS. When we don’t have the expert knowledge of a health condition then it is reassuring to engage with a company who does”.

Lynett Leisure

HCS looks at the importance of conducting proper and thorough investigations prior to dealing with disciplinary situations. We wanted to put a spotlight on one of our clients and the support we provided to them in their application of a correct process.

Lynnet Leisure Group, which owns various top class entertainment venues, such as the exclusive 29 Private Members Club, One Up and The Rogano employs over 500 employees over nine different venues throughout Glasgow and the West of Scotland.

HCS provides support to Lynnet Leisure through its Network membership, which includes the provision of regular on-site support. During a recent potential disciplinary situation, in an alleged case of gross misconduct Michael Robertson, General Manager at “29” worked with HCS to ensure that a rigorous investigation occurred before any disciplinary action was taken.

Michael comments, “We discovered that there was a stock discrepancy involving high value items during a routine stock check, and identified that there were several members of our team who had access to this stock. We needed to address this serious issue, but wanted to take advice on how to best approach the situation, particularly given the fact that there was more than one individual potentially involved.

HCS immediately took a pragmatic view and talked us through how to investigate this matter in a fair and consistent manner. I was advised to suspend the individuals who were implicated in order that I could conduct a thorough investigation before making any allegations. This was important as our staff are well trained and trustworthy and I did not want them to feel undervalued by any false allegations. Having suspended each of them, we needed to ensure that the investigation was conducted swiftly and professionally in order to reduce any operational difficulties but the underlying factor from HCS’ perspective, was ensuring that Lynnet was not exposed to any unnecessary risk in dealing inappropriately with the situation.

I informed the individuals why I was taking the action and assured them that the matter would be investigated as quickly as possible. Our HCS consultant was available to advise me of the best course of action to take and to ensure that I was following procedures fairly at every step.

Having completed a rigorous investigation, involving interviews with staff and stock checks, the variance was adequately explained. As soon as this became apparent, I was able to contact the suspended employees to inform them of the outcome and welcome them back to work.

By following the advice from HCS, I was able to demonstrate to the staff that we take any potential disciplinary situation seriously, and that we will investigate all matters thoroughly and fairly before taking any action. By ensuring the investigation process was watertight, I was able to handle this situation in a professional manner and have the confidence of my staff whilst also sending out a clear message that these matters will be dealt with seriously and correctly.”

Maloco MooreMarshall

Having merged estate agency and conveyancing businesses in two major towns, Maloco MooreMarshall found themselves with a conglomeration of different job descriptions, job titles and staff expectations of what each job meant. Human Capital Services was appointed to assist with job evaluation in order that clear job profiles were put in place in every role, harmonising the processes and procedures across the business. Judith comments, “ We were in a position where some of what we had was well used and understood but in other parts of this newly merged company, there weren't any descriptions or specifications in place at all. It was really important for us as a company to set out the behaviours that we expected all our staff to work to and HCS helped us to look at a range of competencies and think about what they translated into in terms of staff behaviours in their role. We agreed on exactly what we wanted from a high performing member of staff and these competencies were written into every profile.

Our staff can't all be released at once for a workshop so HCS came along and over the course of a day, saw staff in small groups and explained the process of job evaluation and provided a helpful proforma for the staff to use which helped them to describe the main aspects, tasks and responsibilities of their jobs. The staff have told me that they found this exercise really helpful as some of them hadn't realised just what important roles in the organisation they were fulfilling, so in some cases it gave them a real morale boost.HCS took the proformas and then for each job, set out key accountabilities and described each of these accountabilities in language that was easy to understand. We had already agreed on one generic key accountability for every member of staff – managing relationships – so every job has that detailed within it – regardless of the role. This accountability details the Maloco MooreMarshall approach to team working, dealing with clients and providing internal customer service. The staff were given an opportunity to read their job profile and to make any changes, although in reality very few changes were made as the profiles were reflective of each role. As a business, we have now committed to regularly reviewing the content of the profiles – during our annual appraisal process and if a member of staff leaves, we will update the profile before recruiting a replacement.It has made a big difference to our company knowing that all of the staff have clearly detailed and accurate job profiles and I know that we wouldn't have managed to put them all in place simultaneously across the business, without the help of the HCS team”.

September 09 Client Focus

This client focus describes how HCS supported a client through their legal obligations to manage a restructure and changes to terms and conditions of employment.

Our client engaged us in May 2009 when they realised the need to restructure as a means of remaining viable in the economic downturn. They expected that redundancies may be likely and sought the help of HCS to manage the consultation and resultant selection of posts for redundancy and the resultant dismissals.

Importantly, the proposed action required extensive consultation and HCS were engaged to manage this process on behalf of the client. HCS provided the client with a briefing document which was used to communicate the message to all employees on the first day of consultation. During that consultation meeting an HCS Consultant was present in order that any queries regarding the process and our client's proposals could be answered swiftly and efficiently. The Consultant then attended all individual consultation meetings along with the Director of Operations and took minutes of those meetings for our client's files.

An objective review of the proposed structure was undertaken and the HCS consultant ensured that all consultation that was undertaken was 'meaningful' i.e. requesting feedback from the employees too, on how they believed the new structure could work. Our client received many opinions from the employees, some that they had not considered themselves, and HCS and the client worked together to make necessary changes to the proposed structure.

HCS worked offsite to create draft job specifications for each role within the business in order that employees could make an evaluation of any post against which they could be matched. Further feedback was received from the employees via consultation and again, further changes were made to the specifications. This process ensured that at every stage the employees felt ownership of the structure, each post within it, and the potential role they felt able to fulfil within it.

When employees had been matched to a relevant role(s) it was important for HCS to complete an evaluation of the terms and conditions for similar roles in similar industries to ensure that any changes to terms and conditions of employment, including salary were justifiable. HCS matched each role within our client's organisation to at least three similar roles externally and made recommendations to the Operations Director in relation to proposed changes to terms.

The consultation around the changes to terms and conditions of employment remains ongoing, but our client has successfully restructured their organisation and changed roles to better suit the future operation of their business successfully, through ongoing, meaningful consultation.

Our client comments, “We are now operating in our new structure, which I believe to be fit to carry our organisation forward. Due to the input from HCS and the way in which our consultation was managed, we had no grievances or appeals raised by the employees regarding the restructure. HCS provided pragmatic and swift advice when we needed it and I am very keen to further experience the business benefits as a result of their support”.

Sidey

HCS provide support to organisation faced with the prospect of responding to an ET1 or application to Employment Tribunal. Recently, HCS has helped Sidey Ltd with a claim from a former contractor claiming to be an employee.

Sidey specialise in the design, manufacture and installation of high quality PVCu Windows, Doors, Composite Doors, Composite Fire Doors, Conservatories and beautiful and functional Kitchens. Over the last 70 years Sidey has continually improved the products and services offered to customers in all sectors of business - Retail, Trade, Newbuild and Commercial. Sidey's 205 staff are employed predominately in Perth, where their head office is based, and the services of 66 sub-contractors are engaged at several sites throughout Scotland. Finance Director Ed Guest comments “We were very surprised to receive the claim from a former contractor who had been engaged on a self employed basis to fulfil plastering work on a project that had a finite beginning and end date. This person had been submitting invoices to us and no National Insurance deductions had been paid on his behalf. Because he is a member of the Construction Industry Scheme we were making tax deductions - but for a reduced amount. He used an van that belonged to us but it was not branded and neither did he have Sidey uniforms or tools etc. To all except perhaps the end client, he was a sub contractor. He submitted his claim stating that he had been an employee and was, therefore, entitled to have been made redundant at the end of the contract and to have been provided with paid notice and accrued holiday pay.

HCS looked first of all at the risks. They ascertained that he had not fulfilled the necessary criteria to be regarded as an employee and then advised us to complete a vigorous response defending the claim. ET1 applications always make an employer nervous - even when you are confident that you have done nothing wrong! HCS guided us through the compilation of the response which also stipulated that the Tribunal had no jurisdiction to hear the response on the grounds that the claimant was not an employee. HCS advised us to request a pre hearing review which would, in the first instance, establish if the individual was in fact an employee and if the Tribunal should go ahead. We are awaiting a date for that to occur but I am confident that even if it does go ahead the individual will not be in a position to argue a case. The invaluable guidance provided by HCS ensured that we completed our response on time, in a professional manner and in a way that showed from the outset that the organisation is not going to sit back and let this individual make an unfounded claim.