Kirsten
Bhatti

Who I help

Family businesses. Large Corporates. Investment companies. Agricultural organisations.

How I help

Contract reviews. Employee handbooks. Workplace policies. Recruitment. Redundancies.

“I’m able to utilise what I learn to help more clients”

Kirsten Bhatti is an HR Consultant based in our Edinburgh office. She supports a diverse range of clients with HR support. For Kirsten, two days are rarely ever the same. For one client she might be starting the redundancy process while for another she might be looking at TUPE transfers. No matter what the task at hand she is passionate about adding value to her clients.

Communication is key

“I love having regular communication with my clients. I think it’s so important to have that communication. If we don’t regularly hear from clients, it’s hard to know if our support has been beneficial, if things are working or if there’s more that we need to do on a specific project. It doesn’t have to be every day as our clients are very busy, however ensuring we touchpoints regularly helps me to ensure projects are on track and that my clients have a platform to flag any issues as and when they arise to ensure they are dealt with as quickly as possible.

It also serves as an opportunity for clients to tell us what they want or how we can better support them. I believe it’s something clients appreciate because they know we’re genuinely taking an interest and want to deliver a high quality of service, so we have those touchpoints.”

Learning from clients, to help clients

“I love spending time with clients, getting to know their businesses and developing an understanding of what they hope to achieve and how we can support them and their teams to make that a reality. Doing so helps us to build strong relationships with clients but also helps me to develop my knowledge and experience as a whole.

We work with innovative clients who are market leaders doing incredible things. This is such an amazing opportunity for me to learn from them and also share my knowledge and experience. I’m then able to utilise what I learn to help more clients, giving them guidance and advice that I’ve gained from seeing what’s worked or what hasn’t in other similar organisations. It’s great being able to see the positive impact of that advice I’ve given them in their business.”

Having confidence in me

“In my role, I feel that it’s so important to have confidence in my abilities and knowledge- I will give clients all the facts and make recommendations based on those facts. What I tell them might not be what they want to hear but they know I’m telling them that information because they need to know and because I have their best interest at heart. It’s that confidence in my knowledge and abilities that helps me to fully stand behind my decisions and successfully support business leaders and decision-makers to make the important decisions that will propel their organisations forward.”

A balance of approaches

“Getting out of the office and getting in front of clients face-to-face will always be my preference. I feel that it’s a lot easier to establish those strong relationships and build on a foundation of trust and mutual respect when we spend time with them in person. When we’re getting to know clients, it helps to be in the room talking to them and also physically being in their offices helps us to get to know their people, their culture and who we’ll be working alongside.

That’s not to say, however, that virtual and working remotely isn’t a benefit. Technology aids us in so many ways and being able to have quick and effective communication helps us to deliver high-quality services. Clients can easily email us or send a Teams message, or we can jump on a call to resolve an issue quickly- we don’t need to wait for us all to be in the same room. Having a mix of both helps us to maintain good client relationships and deliver value for them at the same time.”

Supported in my career development

“I would consider myself to be a HR generalist but I’m also conscious that there’s going to be situations that crop up that I’ve never come across before and there’s going to be things I don’t know. The great thing about being part of such a big group and having so many experts across locations is that there’s always someone I can ask and always someone more than willing to help. I’m able to learn from others in my team which has helped me massively with my personal career development.”