When Chris Hart became the Operations Director of AIT Partnership Group, a provider of infrastructure services and solutions, he knew the company needed the help and advice of HR experts. He saw a number of things that could have resulted in major issues, further down the line, if left unresolved. Fortunately, he knew just who to turn to – Gap HR. Chris had previously engaged their services when he was the co-owner and IT Director of Amicitia Limited.
Chris and his ex-business partner knew the limitations of their expertise and realised they needed some HR guidance, specifically with issues related to maternity leave, conflict resolution and sick pay. “The catalyst for engaging Gap HR was our duty of care to employees. They created our handbook and did all our employment contracts and kept us on the straight and narrow in relation to HR.”
Like anyone who contracts a professional service in an area that is not their expertise, Chris originally had concerns about whether Gap HR could deliver what they said they could. Any fears he had were soon put to rest.
“We knew nothing about HR and so at the time we were reliant on someone we didn’t know and in truth could’ve been giving us information that was incorrect. You get to trust someone fairly quickly when you are in a position to need their expertise and advice that proves to be right.”
“At Amicitia we had to deal with
a particularly toxic member of staff. Honestly, that was a distraction for us because we were trying to run the business and this guy was causing us all sorts of trouble. Carolyne and the team were excellent and it was great to have them underpin everything we were doing, ensuring we were following due process and weren’t leaving ourselves open to any sort of litigation. And that’s where the trust comes in. When you are in that situation and it’s that serious, the advice you get is crucially important.”
When Chris joined AIT in 2015 one of the first things he did was to look at the employment contracts. He saw they were missing a number of elements and felt that some of the information was superfluous. So once again, he put in a call to Carolyne and her team.
“They rewrote our handbook and contracts of employment and helped me out with important staffing issues.”
HR is a critical part of any business, be it start-ups, SMEs or large corporations.
“Well, it is like a tap, you can turn it on or off as you require. From a cost perspective, it’s better to do that rather than have a HR person in the company who you’ve got to pay a salary. Also, to know there are people working behind the scenes who are up-to-date with changes in employment legislation takes the burden off me trying to keep up. Working with Gap HR is just very, very comforting.”
Chris Hart
Operations Director, AIT Partnership Group