HR Voices Podcast

Episode 16: Running an Award Winning HR Consultancy Business - Emerging Talent

A podcast for independent HR and people, professionals, and the businesses they support.
Hosted by Charlotte Allfrey and Mary Asante of HR Independents Ltd.
DATE: 5th February 2024
Episode 14: Running an Award Winning HR Consultancy Business - Emerging Talent
Guest: Laura Reilly of Taurus HR Solutions
In this episode we showcase the winner of the Emerging Talent Category of the HRi 2023 Awards. This award is for an Independent HR and People Consultant or Practice, building a business of high potential or are innovative in their approach to business and have been in business for less than 3 years. 
Laura Reily of Taurus HR Solutions is the winner of the Emerging Talent category of the HRi 2023 Awards. She discusses her remarkable journey to setting up her Independent HR and People business. Laura talks about her experience in trialling different business models to find out what works best for you. She started Taurus HR by acquiring another business and has now taken on employees to further develop the business. 
Laura shares some great tips for growing a successful HR consultancy business. 
Thanks for listening to HR Voices! 
If you enjoyed this episode, we'd love it if you could leave us a review. 
www.hrindependents.co.uk
 
Join the HR Independents Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/hrindies/ 
www.taurushr.co.uk
www.linkedin.com/in/laura-reilly-hrd
https://www.linkedin.com/company/taurushrsolutions/
https://www.facebook.com/TaurusHRSolutionsUK
 
About our Speaker:
 
Laura is a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management, Chartered member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, and an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives with a certificate in employment practice.  She also trained in employment tribunal advocacy through Central Law Training, with coaching from an experienced retired employment judge and trainer of solicitors and barristers, and thoroughly enjoys advising and representing clients in employment tribunals in addition to undertaking mediation work.  
 
Laura’s team offer generalist HR advice and support, with the aim of keeping clients out of tribunals wherever possible.  Laura’s mission is to make work interesting and enjoyable, she advocates best practice within her own company and ensures her employees are supported with their professional development as well as enjoying a work/life balance.   Laura noticed a gap in affordable legal services, being able to manage and advise on risk – particularly for smaller businesses. Taurus HR was born and founded from Laura’s legal roots (her dad was a commercial solicitor before sadly passing away) and desire to help businesses access affordable, practical HR and legal advice.

Episode 15: Running an Award Winning HR Consultancy Business - Inspirational Indie

A podcast for independent HR and people, professionals, and the businesses they support.
Hosted by Charlotte Allfrey and Mary Asante of HR Independents Ltd.
DATE: 22nd January 2024
Episode 15: Running an Award Winning HR Consultancy Business - Inspirational Indie
Guest: Michelle Hartley of People Sorted
In this episode we showcase the winner of the Inspirational Indie Category of the HRi 2023 Awards. This is a peer-to-peer nominated award, which recognises an Independent HR and People Professional who has inspired or supported others on their indie journey and made a significant difference for them. 
Michelle Hartley of People Sorted is the winner of the Inspirational Indie category of the HRi 2023 Awards. She is also the founder of the HR Geeks Squad. Michelle is a breath of fresh air to the HR Indie Community. The wonderful nominations she received from her peers is a testament to her. She shares with us her journey to becoming an Independent HR Consultant and the importance of collaboration and community when you are running your HR and People business. 
Michelle also shares her top tips which includes having a clear plan, networking and collaborating with others. 
 Thanks for listening to HR Voices! 
If you enjoyed this episode, we'd love it if you could leave us a review. 
www.hrindependents.co.uk
 
Join the HR Independents Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/hrindies/ 
www.peoplesorted.co.uk
www.linkedin.com/in/michellehartleyfinderofawesome
https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-hr-geek-squad 
https://www.linkedin.com/company/find-your-awesome-business-partner 
 
About our Speaker:
 
Michelle regularly speaks about  her lived experience with burnout, mental health, women in the workplace and is a passionate advocate for her 'micro' concepts in both inclusion and self care. 
 
She works with organisations on a wide range of topics including Equity, Diversity, Belonging and Inclusion, Insights Discovery, HR and Team Building.
 
Her business, People Sorted has a mission to SLAY death by PowerPoint and rage against the beige label that HR seems to attract!

Episode 14: Running an Award Winning HR Consultancy Business - High Growth Indie

A podcast for independent HR and people, professionals, and the businesses they support.
Hosted by Charlotte Allfrey and Mary Asante of HR Independents Ltd.
DATE: 8th January 2024
Episode 14: Running an Award Winning HR Consultancy Business - High Growth Indie
Guest: Jo Taylor of Let’s Talk Talent
In this episode we showcase the winner of the High Growth Indie Category of the HRi 2023 Awards. This award recognises an HR Independent Consultant or Practice that has experienced high growth in profit, sales, or employment levels. 
Jo Taylor, the winner of the High Growth Indie category of the HRi 2023 Awards and Managing Director and Founder of Let’s Talk Talent, shares with us her amazing journey. Jo started her HR business in 2015 and now has a team of 10. She talks about the benefits of having a coach in running a successful business and the importance of finding your style as a business owner. 
She shares some valuable top tips for growing a successful HR consultancy business. 
Thanks for listening to HR Voices! 
If you enjoyed this episode, we'd love it if you could leave us a review. 
www.hrindependents.co.uk
 
Join the HR Independents Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/hrindies/ 
https://letstalktalent.co.uk/ 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jotaylorc4/ 
 
About our Speaker:
 
Jo Taylor has 25+ years experience in HR as Head of Talent at TalkTalk, and Head of Learning at Channel 4, and is now Managing Director of Let's Talk Talent.
 
Let's Talk Talent https://letstalktalent.co.uk/ is a Talent Management Consultancy based in the UK that help our clients strategically unlock the potential of their people.

Episode 13: HR and People Consultants Journey Recap & Thoughts

In this episode of HR Voices, Mary and Charlotte discuss the key takeaways from their chats with our guests over the past 7 episodes and offer their thoughts as experienced HR and People Consultants.
In this episode, we cover:
The different routes into HR and People Consultancy 
The importance of adopting an entrepreneurial mindset 
The essence of working on your business as well as in your business 
How surrounding yourself with positive people is good for your business
There is no one size fit all approach to setting up and running your HR and People business
Tapping into the expertise of other professionals to help you grow your business
Building your business with your exit strategy in mind
Skillsets you develop in running your HR and People business are transferable to other businesses
Thanks for listening to HR Voices! 
If you enjoyed this episode, we'd love it if you could leave us a review. 
www.hrindependents.co.uk
 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/maryasante/ 
https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlotte-allfrey/
 

Running a HR Consultancy Alongside Other Business Ventures

HR Voices
A podcast for independent HR and people, professionals, and the businesses they support.
Hosted by Charlotte Allfrey and Mary Asante of HR Independents Ltd.
DATE: 27/11/2023
Episode 12: Running a HR Consultancy Alongside Other Business Ventures
Guest: Anabela Yourell of Stress Free HR 
In this episode we Anabela shares her story of how just under 2 years in to her HR Consultancy journey she had a lightbulb moment which helped her find her niche and within 9 months her client base had grown 300%.
Anabela demonstrates how you can have other passions and business ventures outside of HR and still run a successful Consultancy. Her focus on future retirement plans has led her to retrain in fitness and now she runs 2 ladies only gyms alongside her HR business, with plans for more!
She shares some fantastic top tips for HR Consultants, which we know you’ll find valuable..
Thanks for listening to HR Voices! 
If you enjoyed this episode, we'd love it if you could leave us a review. 
www.hrindependents.co.uk
 
Join the HR Independents Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/hrindies/ 
www.stressfreehr.co.uk
www.fitterbodybootcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/fbldaventry
https://www.facebook.com/FitterbodyLadiesSouthMK
https://www.linkedin.com/in/anabelayourell/
 
About our Speaker:
 
Anabela Yourell is an entrepreneur who took her 20+ years of HR skills and experience into the fitness industry and now runs and operates 3 businesses, her HR consultancy and two ladies only gyms. 

HR Consultancy - The Interim & Contract Model

A podcast for independent HR and people, professionals, and the businesses they support.
Hosted by Charlotte Allfrey and Mary Asante of HR Independents Ltd.
Monday 13th November
Episode 11: HR Consultancy - The Interim & Contract Model Guest: Amber Massey of Massey Technical Services
In this episode we chat to Amber about how she moved away from in-house HR roles to a successful career working on Interim and Contract projects, with a mix of independent consultancy too!
Amber shares how she has successfully approached companies advertising permanent roles and challenged them to consider offering the roles on a fixed term basis. She talks about the need for a good accountant if you are going to do a mix of invoicing, umbrella companies and being on a payroll.
As with all our guests, Amber shares her top tips on moving into the Interim and Contract market, including how to find roles. A great episode for anyone thinking about exploring Interim and Contract roles.
Thanks for listening to HR Voices!
If you enjoyed this episode, we'd love it if you could leave us a review. www.hrindependents.co.uk
Join the HR Independents Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/hrindies/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/amber-massey-461553149/
 
About our Speaker:
Amber is an experienced Human Resources Professional with a demonstrated history of managing change - TUPE transfers, restructures, redundancies, settlement agreements, flexible working requests - as well as day to day operational HR matters - disciplinaries, grievances, performance and absence management.
She has successfully delivered TUPE projects in the private and public sector and works in contract and interim roles, alongside her HR consultancy business working with small clients.

Growing Your Business Using the Associate Model

A podcast for independent HR and people, professionals, and the businesses they support.
Hosted by Charlotte Allfrey and Mary Asante of HR Independents Ltd.
DATE: 30th October 2023
Episode 10: Growing Your Business Using the Associate Model
Guest: Claire Watt of Ditton HR
In this episode we chat to Claire about how she has very successfully built her HR consultancy using associates. Claire took on her first associate 5 years ago and now has 18 associates supporting her.
Hear from Claire about how she protects her business with really good consultancy agreements, provides inductions to ensure associates deliver to her standards and ensures they are in control and can say no. She carefully matches associates to projects and spends time mentoring and developing them. 
A great episode for anyone wishing to learn more about an associate model for HR consultants.
Thanks for listening to HR Voices! 
If you enjoyed this episode, we'd love it if you could leave us a review. 
www.hrindependents.co.uk
 
Join the HR Independents Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/hrindies/ 
 
www.dittonhr.co.uk
 
https://www.spreaker.com/show/watt-about-hr
 
linkedin.com/in/⭐️claire-watt⭐️-chartered-fcipd-11b77730
About our Speaker:
 
Ditton HR is a Human Resources, Recruitment and Training Consultancy run by Claire Watt (FCIPD), supporting businesses in London and the surrounding areas since 2012. 
 
Ditton HR helps with all aspects of employing and developing employees to bring out the best in people, resulting in high performing employees who drive businesses forward.​​ We support small businesses who do not have any HR function right up to larger organisations who have an HR team but need additional expertise or support. We pride ourselves on our relationships with clients where we very often become the trusted adviser to the CEO/HR Director. 

A L&D Consultant’s Journey

A podcast for independent HR and people, professionals, and the businesses they support.
Hosted by Charlotte Allfrey and Mary Asante of HR Independents Ltd.
DATE: 16/10/2023
Episode 9: A L&D Consultant’s Journey
Guest: Katy Walton of Make Real Progress
In this episode we chat to Katy about how she moved away from in house learning and development roles to starting her own business.
In this episode, Katy shares:
How she gave herself permission to experiment for the first 12 months of going out on her own, to truly understand what she enjoyed 
The steep learning curve of starting your own business
How making connections on and offline and building those relationships has been the biggest angle factor that has helped her
The importance of making time to allow yourself to think
To expect feast or famine in the first year and tips for managing your finances
Not to rush to create your website until you are sure what you want to offer
How she uses AI as a time saving tool
Thanks for listening to HR Voices! 
If you enjoyed this episode, we'd love it if you could leave us a review. 
www.hrindependents.co.uk
 
Website: https://makerealprogress.co.uk/
 
The Progress Place: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theprogressplace
 
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katy-walton-make-real-progress/
About our Speaker:
With 27 years coaching, leadership and talent development experience, Katy is a specialist in her field. She founded development and coaching business Make Real Progress in 2020. 
Her passion for high-quality development inspired her to develop other Coaches, Human Resources and L&D Professionals in the specialism. Following 2 years organising and hosting local development events for the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development, she founded The Progress Place in 2020, with over 2300 global members. A community to develop yourself to develop others.
In response to requests for additional L&D support, she now runs an innovative programme to enable people to design and run training workshops, whilst also sharing best L&D practises. “Build it Quickly” is open for bookings from Sept 2023.

HR Consultancy - A Social Media Journey

A podcast for independent HR and people, professionals, and the businesses they support.
Hosted by Charlotte Allfrey of HR Independents Ltd.
DATE: 2nd October 2023
Episode 8: HR Consultancy - A Social Media Journey
Guest: Katie Elliott of HR Katie
In this episode Katie shares the inspiring story of how she successfully launched her Consultancy on Instagram.
In this episode, we also cover:
Why Katie chose Instagram over other social platforms
The importance of seeing your socials as a shop window
The need for patience when developing your business on social media
Niching your business
The importance of dedicating time to focus on your content
Plans Katie has for transforming her business further
Thanks for listening to HR Voices! 
If you enjoyed this episode, we'd love it if you could leave us a review. 
www.hrindependents.co.uk
 
About our Speaker:
With 10+ years working in HR for a variety of different companies, after the trials and tribulations of the pandemic, I realised that I was looking for new motivation and inspiration.
And so, I decided to take the leap into the world of HR consulting, and HR Katie was born!
I am passionate about working with small brands and helping them get the most out of their employees. Based in Hertfordshire, I am available to help your small business with HR in St. Albans, Harpenden, Redbourn, or further into Central London.
 
Connect with Katie...
www.instagram.com/Hr.Katie
https://www.hrkatie.co.uk/

A Journey into HR Consultancy

A podcast for independent HR and people, professionals, and the businesses they support.
Hosted by Mary Asante and Charlotte Allfrey of HR Independents Ltd.
DATE: 17th September 2023
Episode 7: A Journey into HR Consultancy
Guest: Kate Van Der Sluis of Humber HR People
In this episode Kate shares with us her consultancy journey and how she ensures she plays to her strengths of business development and commerciality.
Kate has opted to expand her business by employing people, as using Associates did not suit her, find out more by tuning in.
In this episode, we also cover:
Knowing your skillset - what you enjoy doing and what suits you but being realistic about what SME’s need
Having a clear vision for your business and the courage, guts and faith to keep going
How to make the move from in house to consultancy
The need for mental agility to switch from client to client and different projects
How once you are a consultant you are actually a business advisor and need to change your language and approach
The importance of financial targets to bring you focus
Finding your niche and target audience
The importance of not skimping on marketing spend
The realisation that your sales pipeline will never be ‘done’ it needs to constantly be worked on
Funding your consultancy
Thanks for listening to HR Voices! 
If you enjoyed this episode, we'd love it if you could leave us a review. 
www.hrindependents.co.uk
 
https://www.linkedin.com/company/humberhrpeople/
 
www.humberhrpeople.co.uk 
About our guest:
After 20 years in the UK recruitment sector and interviewing thousands of employees, I know why good employees leave. I have used that insight, my HR knowledge, and my passion for helping people to create an HR consultancy that stimulates growth and motivates leaders and employees to be the best they can be. Humber HR People is now 5 years old, and we have 6 permanent team members with plans to expand further in 2024. We offer:-
A choice of flexible contracts - PAYG, Monthly, or One-off ProjectsOver 50 years combined experience.Bespoke software to streamline HR administration and save time. Clients benefit from monthly workshops, training breakfasts, and networking lunches.