No-strings HR support
“♩ ♪ ♫ ♬ I’ve got no strings, to hold me down, to make me fret, or make me frown.
I had strings, but now I’m free. There are no strings on me. ♩ ♪ ♫ ♬”
Now, we know that you may well be considering a retainer arrangement when looking for outsourced HR support. Because, on the face of it, knowing up-front exactly what you’re going to be paying each month seems to make total sense from a budgeting perspective.
But before you make that decision, we’d like to invite you to spend a moment considering our pay-as-you-go (PAYG) alternative.
No onerous 5-year contracts, or indeed any tie-ins at all, here. And no paying for time that you don’t end up using. Or sneaky contract auto-renewals with tiny cancellation windows. Or creative definitions of ‘unlimited’ use. Or crafty exclusions that rule-out most of the types of work that you actually need doing. And no sudden huge jumps in pricing, simply because you’ve had the audacity to employ one more person, or ‘overuse’ the support.
So, just buy what you need, when you need it. Fixed hourly rate. Itemised billing. Totally straightforward. Completely fair and transparent. Absolutely no ties, restrictions, small-print, or other underhand trickery.
We means we can provide a particularly cost-effective solution if you already have an internal HR team or standalone HR professional that just needs a bit of extra assistance once-in-a-while.
Since day one, we’ve bucked the trend within our industry by not adopting a business model based on tying you into a retained HR support service. In contrast, we think client retention should simply be a natural consequence of providing a high value service. We’re confident in the service we provide, so if we can’t add value to your business, then you’re free to walk-away at any time, with absolutely no consequences. We’re all about fairness, and creating a relationship that works for everyone, not trying to trap you.
Fair HR support
We simply don’t think it’s right that companies which infrequently need our assistance, since they’re effectively managing their workforce themselves, should have to pay the same as, and therefore subsidise, those that need constant help dealing with re-occurring workforce issues that they are unwilling or unable to tackle the root cause of. Which is exactly what happens with retainers, particularly where pricing is simply based on blunt metrics like workforce size.
To put things in perspective, the median monthly spend of our active HR clients is less than £50. In case you’re not already familiar with the term ‘median’, it’s just a specific statistical method for calculating the figure that best represents what the typical client pays on average.
So, how does that compare with even the cheapest HR retainer package you can find?
And do those retainers actually include anything other than helpdesk support for simple HR queries? Probably not. All the ones we’ve seen from competitors charge consultancy for complex cases on a time-spent basis, in addition to the monthly retainer fee.
Business-focussed HR support
We genuinely want to see organisations develop positive workplace cultures where staff development and wellbeing is taken seriously, so that they can become an employer-of-choice.
So, if you don’t need much help because you’ve got everything pretty much under control, we honestly think that’s great, and that you should be rewarded for that by not paying through the nose for day-to-day HR support.
Whilst this all might seem somewhat unbelievable, since it looks like we’re doing ourselves out of business, our values are such that we’d much rather work with you more holistically on the kinds of positive strategic HR, training, wellbeing, or recruitment projects that can make a real difference to the future of both your employees and organisation, rather than just constantly handling reactive firefighting for you.
And you can see that our approach actually works in practice because, despite having no contractual tie-ins, we continue to maintain numerous long-term client relationships. Indeed, we still provide HR support for our very first client. If you’re still not convinced, just check out what our many satisfied customers have to say about working with us!
No-nonsense HR support
So, in summary…
- No sign-up fees
- No annual contracts
- No auto-renewals
- No minimum periods
- No workforce size limits
- No use-it-or-lose-it rules
- No penalties
- No limits
- No restrictions
- No exclusions
- No nonsense
Transparent HR support
We know you’re probably shopping around for HR support providers, and we’re not the sort of people to waste your time by forcing you to phone us up just to find out how much we charge, only to face a hard-sell.
We’re not afraid to publish our prices, as we think they’re completely fair for the level of expertise and experience that we offer.
We know we’re not the cheapest, and totally understand if you’re on a budget and need to go with a lower-cost alternative.
But just ask all our previous customers if they think we were worth it.
So, in the interests of being completely up-front and helping you to make a quick decision as to whether we might be right for you, this is what we charge:
- £120 per hour for straightforward HR support
- £150 per hour for complex HR support
These prices are subject to VAT.
Following an initial discussion, your dedicated HR consultant will advise you as to which pricing category your work would fall under, and provide an estimate as to how long the job might be expected to take. You can then make a fully informed decision as to whether you’d like us to proceed.
By ‘straightforward HR support’ we mean things like…
For some of these more routine tasks, we might alternatively offer an up-front fixed-price quote, rather than charging an hourly rate.
By ‘complex HR support’ we mean things like…
- disciplinary and capability support
- grievance and sexual harassment processes
- outsourced investigations
- settlement scenarios
- restructuring support, including TUPE and redundancy
- strategic projects
We’re extremely experienced in resolving these types of high-risk cases, and handle the kinds of challenges that an internal HR professional might have to deal with only once a year on a weekly basis.
Which is why we split our rates. In line with our previously mentioned ethos of fairness, organisations who only ever face simple HR issues can then receive cost-effective support, without having to subsidise the availability of expensive specialist trouble-shooting skills only required by those experiencing much more challenging HR problems. Consequently, the median monthly spend of our active HR clients is less than £50, much lower than a typical fixed monthly retainer fee. Nevertheless, we’re still able to provide highly-technical niche expertise from senior-level HR consultants for the occasions that warrant it, in a way that simply wouldn’t be possible with a budget-value retainer arrangement. And indeed, many of our current clients have switched to us from the big retained HR providers for precisely those reasons.
We can help you with pay-as-you-go (PAYG) HR support!
Already know what you want?
Great, let’s get to it!
Not sure exactly what you need?
No problem!
Our friendly and down-to-earth HR consultants will point you in the right direction. We’d love to have an informal chat to find out more about your business and so help you identify the areas most in need of attention.
We’re not after a quick sale, we’re all about building long-term relationships. In fact, we don’t even employ any sales people. Which means that right from the start you’ll be talking directly to someone who can actually help you.
We’re ready and waiting, so just get in touch!