Fife HR Consultant – The most common questions by our customers and prospects

As a leading HR Consultancy, we always want to provide our customers with the best information upfront. Please find below a list of the most common questions we are asked about our HR Services.

How long is the contract?

 

The HR Booth does not believe in tying our clients into long‐term contracts. Furthermore, we understand that business circumstances can change. If you opt for our retained service, we have a standard 12-month contract, after which time there is a 90‐day notice period for you to cancel your contract with us.

 

Clients do not have to agree to a retained contract option. You can choose a pay as you go service if this is better suited to your requirements. This can be discussed fully before any agreement is made.

 

Are there any additional set up costs?

 

We do not have any setup costs and if you opt for the retained service, your monthly fee is all you pay.

If all you’re looking for is a contract of employment or employee handbook, we may also ask you to pay a 50% deposit with the remaining balance to be paid on completion. In addition, this will be within 14 days of the invoice being raised.

 

What’s in the small print?

 

As a professional business, we obviously do have terms of business that our clients’ sign with us. In addition, we are completely transparent. To demonstrate this, we also have an example of our terms of business for you to review. We’re sure you’ll find these are reasonable. If you would like to view these please contact us and we’ll happily send you an example of our terms.

 

Who will I be dealing with?

 

As a small business, you will be dealing directly with our HR Consultants and Advisors. The team understand and appreciate the needs of your business. We are also a small team of 5 people, therefore you won’t be dealing with any large contact centres. We’re big enough to matter and small enough to care!

 

Where are you based?

 

The HR Booth is based in Fife and Edinburgh. We currently support clients across Scotland. This includes Aberdeen, Dundee, Perth, Fife, Edinburgh, Glasgow, East Lothian, West Lothian, Falkirk and Dunbartonshire.

 

What hours are you available by phone or e-mail?

 

Our normal office hours are 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. However, due to the nature of some of our clients’ businesses, we frequently support HR activities in the evening and at the weekends. If you do require out of office support this will be discussed when we agree on terms.

 

What are the benefits of outsourced HR Support?

 

There are many benefits from having outsourced HR support. In addition, here’s a blog we published on this subject which explains these benefits for you. 

 

Does my business need outsourced HR support?

 

Can you help with recruitment?

 

Yes, we have a recruitment service and retained clients receive a discount on this.

The HR Booth can help take away the strain of searching for new employees. In addition, this is done by advertising job roles, short listing candidates and arranging interviews. We also sit in on interviews along with yourself allowing a second opinion on candidates. Our team will also obtain any references for new employees. This allows you as a busy business owner to focus your time on other business matters.

 

What expertise do you have?

 

Our HR Consultants and HR Advisors have to maintain their expertise to be valuable to their clients. Small-business owners who don’t have a dedicated HR department can benefit from an HR Advisor who can provide guidance on the day-to-day operations. The HR Advisor can advise on HR functions that will sustain employee engagement and productivity.

Our HR team work hard to continually upgrade our knowledge and expertise in HR best practice. This is so we can market high-quality services to clients and ensure that their clients trust our advice. We are CIPD qualified, which is the professionally recognised HR qualification in the UK. More importantly, we have the experience to match our qualifications.

 

Do you help with Training and Development?

 

Training and developing is important for any company to grow and succeed. Furthermore, our HR Advisors can help train and develop your staff. This is done by delivering appropriate workshops on such things as and managing absence in the workplace. We will also look at how to manage performance in your teams and how to engage and retain talent in your business.

To get the best out of your people, it’s important to develop them and ensure they are highly engaged. Therefore, as part of our proactive approach, we deliver workshops to ensure your line managers are equipped to manage your people effectively.

 

What experience do the HR Consultants have with companies in the same line of business as mine?

 

In the last 8 years, Alistair has worked extensively with SME businesses. This is including family business, businesses that are maturing and young start up organisations. Our clients are from a range of sectors including retail, manufacturing, farming, technology, leisure, charities and social enterprises. We also work with companies in engineering and warehousing to name a few.

Alistair and John have significant HR experience within defence, telecommunications, IT, contact centres, retail and construction. They also collectively have over 50 years senior HR management experience.

This includes recruitment, disciplinary, grievance, redundancy, restructures, TUPE, case management, dismissals, engagement, retention, absence management, employment tribunals and managing performance. We are equipped to deal with any HR challenge you may have.

 

What is your client retention rate?

 

For our retained service, we have a 97% client retention rate and some customers who previously were on a retained service continue to use us on a pay as you go basis due to a change in their business circumstances. Here are comments our customers have left about us: Testimonials.

 

What qualifications and experience do your HR Consultants have?

 

Alistair is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (FCIPD). Alistair has worked at a senior HR level for a number of businesses, including regional HR roles, supporting various businesses with their HR plans.

John is also CIPD Qualified.

Calum holds a BA in Business Management is currently completing the CIPD Qualification at Fife College.

 

What happens to my Employee Handbook and contracts of employment if I cancel the services?

 

These documents belong to you and you are free to use them as and when required. There’s no cancellation fee or penalty for cancelling and it’s up to you to do what you wish with these documents. However, it would be worthwhile to ensure these are kept up to date as and when legalisations changes and if you cancel the service, we won’t be able to do this for you.

 

How long does it take for an Employee Handbook and Contract of Employment to be produced?

 

That would depend on if you already have something in place. If you do, then we would conduct a full audit (usually before we have agreed to terms with you and as part of our proposal) and outline what is required to ensure these are legally compliant and fit for purpose. In this case, we can normally do this with a week of commencing our agreement.

If you do not have anything in place, we will start these from scratch and agree on a plan on what you require. Again, this would normally take place prior to us agreeing on terms as we would share our recommendations with you.

We would have a first draft within a week of commencing the project, and you will then likely have questions and amendments to this first draft. From our experience in having worked with other clients, we would estimate there could be 2 or 3 versions before we agreed on a final version.

Timescales may also depend on other priorities you have in your business but we generally aim to have completed these documents during the first 2 to 3 weeks of our agreement commencing.

 

What sectors/industries do you support?

 

We work with all types of businesses across various sectors. These include family businesses, start-ups, charities and businesses that are growing. To give you a flavour, we have clients operating in:

· Retail

· IT/Technology

· Engineering

· Manufacturing

· Agriculture

· Care

· Health/Wellbeing/Entertainment

· Food

· Hospitality

· Construction

· Home Improvements

· Social Enterprise/Voluntary

These are just an example of some of the areas we support – we can support any industry in the UK.

 

Don’t see your question here?

 

You can ask us anything and we’ll get back to you as quickly as possible with an answer or solution, please contact us.

 

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