Naturally with its own clients outsourcing their IT to them, Worknet recognises the power of using a specialist and when it comes to Human Resources the High Wycombe firm has been with Gap HR for three years now.
“A colleague met Carolyne Wahlen at an employment seminar right when we were having issues with a member of staff on long term sickness,” explained Worknet MD Chris Brownlee. “We discussed different approaches and how she worked and got on really well. You could see immediately how passionate she was about helping Worknet and would help us move away from our reactionary approach.
“We had used the legal helplines offered to small businesses that told us what to do with the employee, but only Carolyne gave us the HR advice that put it into context, better explained our legal redress if were required and guided us on what to do. Perhaps best of all we were able to resolve the situation to both our and the employee’s satisfaction following Carolyne’s advice.
“Then we went down the road of getting proper processes in place and wrote up the company handbook and had proper employee contracts drawn up; getting the basics in place really and better managing our nine staff.
“Since then we have used Carolyne for advice whenever an issue or concern arises. That is vital as HR law is changing all the time. She has helped us with a couple of staff issues and in turn with happier staff she is helping us improve performance.
“I have a great seasoned HR professional with a corporate background who is able to help smaller businesses like ours and we pay what seems like a trivial amount to have her on call for when we need her and that works so well, especially when there’s so much going on; it means we get the right experience, skills and expertise brought to bear on the issue, when we need it, without having to pay for it when we don’t need it. And it’s not just the ‘negative’ issues; we’re growing so it’s great to have Carolyne available to provide advice and input on recruitment too.
“We’re fans of ‘sticking to the knitting’ – concentrating your efforts on what you do best, and believe that outsourcing your IT is the way for you to really focus on your business too, without being deflected about issues that really shouldn’t be on your list – like IT and HR.
“I would absolutely recommend Carolyne; I simply cannot imagine how can sleep easily without having someone like Gap HR on hand to steer your HR. Such an expert is invaluable and not just for the HR advice, but think of the opportunity cost of handling HR by yourself?!
Chris Brownlee, Managing Director