FACE2FACEHR - Key Persons
As a fast-paced tech start up, our business needed an HR Consultancy with a professional, knowledgeable and progressive approach to people management - and that's what Kathryn brought to the table. She translates legal standards and requirements into jargon-free, practical language which suits our agile environment AND shows compassion and understanding for our diverse team. She will breathe life into your organisation, with an innovative approach to introducing or developing your HR processes. If your senior team is missing the HR expertise needed for you to realise your growth plans, Kathryn will bring this in spades. Wouldn't hesitate to recommend."
Job Titles:
- Corporate and Pescado Marketing Manager
Laura's work ethic is second to none, she is passionate about her work, incredibly knowledgeable about all things HR with a pragmatic and friendly approach! I would not hesitate in recommending Laura with supporting any organisation's HR function."
Job Titles:
- People and Culture Leader, Sundt Consulting
Job Titles:
- Blackburn Distributions Ltd
As a small business, we had historically dealt with all HR ourselves. If we'd known how much of an impact Helen's service would have, we'd have done it years ago. During recent challenging situations, I've had complete piece of mind that everything is being looked after by Helen, who deals with things in a clear and concise manner with complete competence and professionalism.""
I have asked for Eleanor's assistance on a number of occasions and have always been very impressed with her courteous nature and prompt response times. I have not hesitated in recommending her to my clients and thus far, they have all reported back that she has been very helpful and her fees represent good value for money. In particular they were complimentary about her wide range of HR skills and ability to adapt to quite bespoke situations."
Job Titles:
- Partner
- Cambridgeshire
- Founder and
Eleanor is an experienced HR professional with a background working in the private and not-for-profit sectors. She focuses her time on supporting our consultants through coaching and advice, whilst constantly developing the franchise business to ensure existing and potential franchisees gain access to the skills, knowledge and tools they need to be successful in their own business.
She is passionate about empowering people to achieve whatever their personal goals are, whether it's stressed and overwhelmed small business owners or HR professionals wanting to set up their own consultancy, and to grow it successfully.
Eleanor is also a Non-Legal Member of the Employment Tribunal, is on the panel of expert contributors for the CIPD's online employment law resource ‘HR-Inform' and provides coaching and mentoring to HR professionals who are not currently operating as HR consultants but who benefit from her guidance.
In her spare time, Eleanor is very musical and in addition to playing the violin enjoys singing in a local choir (and in the car, and in the shower…!). Her favourite place to holiday is Cornwall, and she likes visiting castles and other historical places. She has two boys and a springer spaniel named Hamish, who mainly enjoys lying at her feet when she's working from home, when he's not otherwise occupied making friends with the Cambridgeshire wildlife!
Farzana Parkar, HR consultant based in Harrow, North London, has first-hand experience when dealing with the unique challenges running a small business brings, having worked for large and small organisations in her HR career. Her positive personality helps entrepreneurs focus on running their business, so they don't have to sweat the small stuff. Offering pragmatic and focused HR advice for local businesses is her forte and she loves making a positive difference.
As well as her HR skills, Farzana is a keen cyclist having only learnt how to ride a bike in lockdown. Since then, she hasn't looked back and you will usually find her whizzing by with other local ride groups.
Farzana has two cats, Cinnamon and Oreo, who are quite literally scaredy cats (pun intended), two teenagers (well, one preteen but she acts like she knows everything) and a long-suffering husband who has to escape to another room when she starts laughing her head off during calls and watching comedies - just so he can have his meetings in peace!
Job Titles:
- Employee Experience Director, Arrow
Hannah is an accomplished administrator with over ten years of experience, both in a supervisory capacity and as a Personal Assistant. She started her own business as a Virtual Assistant after deciding she wanted more control and flexibility in her working life. Hannah joined face2faceHR in 2018 to provide additional support in all administrative areas of the business to the head office team and the growing team of consultants.
When she's not keeping everything running like clockwork at face2faceHR HQ, Hannah is quite the creative soul and spends her time knitting and crocheting children's toys and teddies. Her preferred four-legged friends are rabbits and she would one day like to set up her own rabbit sanctuary. She also likes gaming but would admit that she can be a little too competitive at times!
Helen really enjoys building relationships with business owners and gaining an understanding of their industry so she can tailor her advice and support and make a real difference to clients.
As well as her HR consultancy Helen is also a qualified coach and NLP practitioner, skills she is aiming to incorporate into what she offers her HR clients.
Outside work Helen is often to be found at the top of a hill (or even Ben Nevis!), or in the yoga studio, and her secret skill is having medals for Latin American and Ballroom dancing. She enjoys cooking, walking, going to see obscure indie bands and is also a bit of a languages whiz, speaking Italian and Spanish.
Job Titles:
- Project Manager and Consultant Blue Mint Consulting
Vanessa brings the purpose of HR to life. She cares deeply about people, and the experience they have of work. She has a fantastic amount of knowledge and expertise in HR and excels at making the complex, simple. If you have the chance to work with Vanessa, go for it. You will gain a trusted partner and experienced leader. Vanessa will get to know your business, and take care of your HR needs, so that your organisation is set up to succeed.""
Siobhan gave sound HR advice and made me feel very at ease. The advice she gave was simple, thorough and communicated in a very friendly manor. I would highly recommend Siobhan as she is professional, very approachable and knowledgeable in her field.""
Job Titles:
- Chief Operating Officer, Marra
Job Titles:
- Founding Director J4 Projects
Rachel helped me with a few HR queries I needed absolute clarity on. I would recommend anyone in a similar situation to arrange to talk to her."
Justin is a qualified franchise professional with over two decades of franchise industry experience.
Since 2000 he has worked with three industry leading franchise organisations and has performed numerous key roles within each of the businesses giving him a wealth of strategic, business and operational support as well as, developmental and compliance knowledge to assist any franchise network collaborate, engage and succeed in their industry sector.
Justin is on hand to support partners through their face2faceHR franchise journey, to ensure they hit the ground running from the moment they join, working with the head office team to make sure the franchisees have access to all of the tools and resources to develop their businesses in line with their personal goals and aspirations. Justin and the team are also responsible for franchisees unrivalled access to the personal business and one to one support that they should expect from an established, industry leading, proven franchise system.
When he's not in ‘work mode', Justin likes to unwind boating or angling on the Norfolk Broads where he is based, he regularly attends outdoor bootcamp exercise sessions three times a week come rain or shine and likes to start the working day with a run (with Tilly the Cockapoo (who's not so keen!)) or a fair-weather cycle to get ‘organised for the day ahead'.
Job Titles:
- Partner
- Chartered CIPD Member
Kathryn is a chartered CIPD member and workplace mediator with over 20 years' experience across a variety of sectors. She knows that what really makes the difference between tick-box "personnel" and flexible, people-oriented HR is communication. For Kathryn, the overarching solution lies in a very simple formula: do what you need to, but be human, constructive and compassionate.
Having run a Maison de Charme in Italy in her 20s, Laura understands first-hand the issues faced by small business owners. The support of a trusted HR partner would have helped her navigate the difficulties that came with managing a team of people, freeing her time to focus on offering her guests a unique experience.
Today Laura thrives on getting to know her clients, their businesses, and their people, providing tailored, no-nonsense HR advice and enabling them to focus on growing their business.
When not at work (can a passion really be defined as work?) Laura can be found immersed in a book, walking her Cocker Spaniel, or desperately willing her teenage boys to look up from their screens and reply with more than just a grunt (she holds tight to the promise of this being just a passing phase)!
Laura provides first class, proactive HR support for small businesses who don't have the need for an in-house HR function. She undertook a review of our existing contracts and gave some really useful feedback and improvements to implement. She also supported with new employee holiday queries. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend face2face HR Guildford to small businesses."
I worked with Rachel supporting some of the cabin crew laid off by the downturn in the aviation industry due to the ongoing effects of COVID-19. I sat through several webinars Rachel gave and was impressed with her attention-to-detail and the wealth of information she shared with the crew. She was able to help them with CV writing skills, interview techniques and looking at what skills they could take into their next position. I would highly recommend talking to Rachel if you have a small company with no permanent HR staff.""
Kirsty was recommended to us and we are delighted to be working with her. She makes the complexities of HR and associated legislation accessible, relevant and interesting. She is great to work with, always so friendly, quick to respond, practical and super helpful. Working with Kirsty has seen us able to implement and enact some really key, yet simple changes to how we run our organisation and we really value our relationship with her."
Helen has been excellent to work with, she has supported my business through difficult HR decisions and provided expert advice on critical topics that you can't just rely on Google for. She is on your side and has a wealth of knowledge to allow you to navigate the minefield of employment law whilst establishing firm but fair rules within your organisation. Highly recommended.""
Job Titles:
- Group Operations Manager, Scream for Pizza
People issues have inevitably cropped up more regularly as our company has grown, and trying to find the right balance between nurturing our team whilst also making the best decisions for our business can be tricky at times. face2faceHR Newcastle help us to be sure that we're acting legally and ethically, AND they've made managing our HR admin super easy by implementing Breathe. Don't waste your time on the ACAS website, talk to Kathryn or Nic instead."
Sarah is an experienced business manager with over 30 years office management knowhow who has been with face2faceHR since 2009, initially supporting Eleanor to grow her consultancy and then helping to develop and launch the franchise business.
Of her three lifetime ambitions - riding a horse along a beach, owning a house big enough to fit a very large Christmas tree in the entrance hall and watching a live space shuttle launch at the Kennedy Space Centre - thus far she's achieved two of those… but which two?
Siobhan provides clear, helpful and practical advice on matters of HR policy and procedure to ensure we remain up to date with current requirements, both on an ongoing basis and when specifically needed."" Tim Mole - Partner at Gould Baxter
Kirsty has been supporting us for the last year with HR services, from everyday needs, a project to update our handbook and policies and providing training courses to our team. She is friendly and helpful, always responds to our queries with straightforward advice rather than HR jargon. I would definitely recommend Kirsty!"
I approached Kirsty to assist me with the legalities and processes around redundancy. She spent time understanding exactly what was happening in the business and gave measured and practical advise on how to tackle such an unfortunate situation. Throughout, she was empathetic and credible, and gave me the confidence to know that everyone was treated fairly and as kindly as possible. Great value for money, thanks Kirsty."