Lauren
Farrell

Lauren Farrell

HR Consultant

Belfast

WHO I HELP

Business Owners & Directors. SMEs. Medium-Sized Companies. Large Organisations.

HOW I HELP

Outsourced HR Function. HR Strategy. Building Line Management Capability. Team Well-Being. Employee Relations Management. Employment Law Compliance. Optimising HR Processes. Early Conciliation, Mediation & Conflict Resolution.

SECTORS/SUPPORT

Leisure, Retail & Hospitality. Food & Drink. Construction & Property. Family Business. Public Sector.

“WE HAVE A COLLABORATIVE MINDSET FOR EVERYTHING WE DO.”

As an HR Consultant, Lauren Farrell’s role is a varied one, and she is responsible for a wide range of her clients’ HR needs.

Sometimes these are of a routine or day-to-day nature, where a client is part of our retained group. Sometimes these are more on an ad hoc basis where a client engages the team for specific projects that are perhaps a little complex, and the client is seeking professional and expert guidance to ensure compliance and best practice. These can be anything from grievances and disciplinaries to redundancies and sickness absences. Lauren helps her clients navigate these issues, and manages the processes from beginning to end.

Her main responsibilities include supporting as a secondary consultant for a number of our retained clients to help with recruitment, employee conduct, and capability issues. She also reviews and advises on policies and procedures. Lauren specialises in ‘right to work’ queries including visa and sponsorship queries, fair employment monitoring and sickness absence.

BUILDING TRUST

“For me, the most important thing in a relationship with a client is that they trust me. Building that trust can take time and sometimes it can be challenging, purely through the fact that we may not see them or interact every day. But it really is so important that they feel they can trust us and the advice that we give them – that they know it’ll be objective, well thought through, and informed by knowledge and experience.”

PROVIDING OBJECTIVE, INFORMED ADVICE

“We’ll always give our clients all the options that are available to them and offer our opinion on which would be the best course of action. Of course, they do not have to take our advice – our role is certainly not telling them what to do – but hopefully they know that we always try to be objective, and that we’re there to answer any queries or questions on anything at all. I’m here to advise, and work collaboratively with my clients. So, it’s always nice when a client values us and our advisory capacities, and it really helps foster a positive relationship.”

VALUING HONESTY & TRANSPARENCY

“Clients expect legally compliant and objective advice, as well as someone they can approach no matter what the issue. It goes without saying that our advice has to be based on correct information, and it is. We have a great team to sense check things from if we’re not sure and I think it’s also important to be able to be honest if we’re not 100% sure on something, especially as things can change so quickly in our area – there’s always someone in the team that will have the answer! It’s great when clients understand this – that we would always want to make sure that the advice we’re giving is as informed and comprehensive as possible. We would never simply pretend we’re immediately sure on something if we aren’t. Our client’s trust, giving quality advice, and honesty and transparency… these are too important to us to do that. So, if we do have to go away to double check something, it’s because we want to ensure we’re delivering the absolute best for our client.”

THE TEAM IS ALWAYS WILLING TO HELP

“We have a collaborative mindset for everything we do – our work would not be the same without it. The nature of being a consultant can be quite independent because I’ll be looking after a client who won’t be being looked after by anyone else, but we are a team! We have a whole team of consultants behind us who all have their own expertise and experience that we can all draw from and benefit from. And that’s how we all continue to learn and develop even greater understanding on various topics and situations.

Everyone is always so willing to jump on a call and help you with something – and if someone wants to get experience on a particular subject or project, we can introduce them to a client as a team member who will be assisting with it. We’re always willing to help each other, however we each might need.”

HELPING CLIENTS SLEEP AT NIGHT

“On a personal level, I love when I feel like I’m truly making a difference to a person’s life – like being able to reduce their stress and worries, or solve a problem for them that’s been keeping them up at night.

It’s fantastic to see the tangible contribution that we’re make to companies, and see how the changes they’ve implemented with our support have benefited them over time and helped them to move in a positive direction with their staff and strategic goals.”