Policy & procedures design or review, management & strategy, specialist project support, onsite & offsite HR
Policy design, reviews & audits, site inspection, accident investigation, mitigating risk, IOSH training
Enhancing capabilities, cultivating high-performing teams, transforming team effectiveness
Strategy development, culture & change, employee engagement, succession planning, DEI
Management development, coaching, workshops & online learning academy
Confidential calls & reporting, secure case management, policy best practice & compliance
Expert tax, audit & advisory services
Financial planning, cash flow modelling, retirement planning
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AAB People / Sectors / Technology / Page 5
Start-ups. Small or medium-sized companies. Investor-backed businesses that are scaling up and don’t yet have an HR Manager. More established businesses that require additional HR support.
Understanding clients’ HR needs and priorities. Providing specifically tailored HR solutions to their problems. Providing clients with the HR knowledge and support they require.
Engineering. Technology. Life Sciences.
Internally: Payroll, Virtual Finance, Tax and Compliance, and Corporate Benefit departments.
Julie Hirst is one of our HR Managers. Julie is based in Edinburgh, and she provides strategic and operational HR advice and support to various clients. Julie’s main include carrying out HR audits with new clients to determine their individual HR needs, and priorities, and producing client HR plans that she will deliver by working as a hands-on trusted HR business partner.
Julie works hard to provide commercial and expert HR advice and support to clients on a wide remit of HR issues and projects and sets up effective and practical HR tools, systems, policies, and procedures. She also ensures the recruitment of the right people at the right time to help clients grow their businesses.
“An ideal relationship with a client would be where we communicate well together, I fully understand their HR needs, have built up trust from working together and doing what I said I was going to do, we know each other well and how we work best together, and I am delivering or have delivered on their HR plan, and they are happy with our service and would recommend us to others.
Clients expect value for money, prompt and efficient service, and good HR knowledge to advise them. They also expect trust and confidentiality, honesty, realistic timescales and to be kept up to date on their retainer in advance of going over time.”
“For me, the most satisfying part of working with clients is getting to know them individually and their business, helping them to solve their HR problems or set up HR practices enabling them to focus on their other business tasks such as growing their business or developing their products.
In terms of working with colleagues, I enjoy working for the team at AAB People we are all so supportive and there’s an opportunity to learn from and coach others which is satisfying.”
“I enjoy a mix of both the virtual and ‘hands-on’ routes to working with clients. I enjoy learning from my clients as to what apps, systems and other technologies they are using and innovatively creating themselves. I like to see how processes can be more efficient with technology so people have more interesting roles and what can be outsourced but I also like to have some hands-on routes to work with clients to get to know them and their businesses better and meet at times face to face rather than always virtually.”
“Recruiting people has been a major challenge for most of my clients especially when they are trying to find IT specialists. I work with one of our client businesses for example, for whom we have now invested in LinkedIn Recruiter so they can now do more tailored searches for their specific roles. We have also used a variety of agencies; job boards and I have encouraged them to create their own talent by taking on trainees and graduates developing their skills and promoting from within where they can. I have also seen more clients having to apply for sponsorship licences to take on talent from abroad to bring in the specialist skills they require.”
“I am excited to continually develop my HR knowledge and skills, share it with the team and progress my career with AAB. I am also excited to see how AAB People will continue to change and constantly evolve.”
“At AAB People we really do collaborate as a team. If any of us has a client query we are not sure how best to answer, we can discuss this as a team on our daily 9.30am call. We also support each other on urgent tasks for example.
It influences my work as when working with clients I can also collaborate with my AAB colleagues. I had a client for example who wanted to employ an NED in the US. I wasn’t sure about US payroll and tax so by collaborating with AAB Payroll and the International Tax and Compliance team I was able to advise my client on the best options.”
“I think I am friendly and personable for clients. I listen well to their needs and with my previous HR generalist, in-house recruiting and agency recruiter experience I can advise them on their HR and recruitment. I have also worked around 20 years in recruitment so I have a lot of experience of dealing with people and dealing with clients so I am relaxed with clients and can put them at ease.”
“I don’t like when people think HR is boring, as it is anything but boring! I get frustrated when HR is not given as much attention at leadership or board level as it requires by some organisations.”
“One of the greatest compliments I’ve received is that one of the employees of a client business thought I was a fellow employee there! I thought I must be fitting in well with the team.”
Proud to support a diverse range of clients
This 17-strong start-up team of renewable energy specialists has recently opened satellite offices in Aberdeen and Orkney in addition to the main Edinburgh base in order to meet growing interest in decarbonisation of North Sea assets. Their flagship project is the development and installation in Orkney of a prototype wave energy machine to provide green energy with zero carbon power to the North Sea.
In scaling up the team and in approaching new investors to accelerate the commercialisation of its wave energy technology, Mocean Energy wished in 2020 to develop robust HR systems, policies and procedures to support ambitious growth plans. They turned to AAB People for advice and support with employee relations, recruitment and onboarding.
The original goal was to ensure that all compliance needs were being met. But support for employee relations and recruitment followed quickly as it became clear that this would be a proactive, human partnership where AAB People would help to drive the HR strategy and suggest continuous improvements and a fresh perspective.
“AAB People are embedded in our company and have given us confidence in our ability to grow. We now have strong systems and the right culture in place to do that. We didn’t know what we were missing until we met them!”
The partnership began with a whole-team values exercise to determine the foundations of a strong, unified company culture. Trust, Expertise, Awesomeness and Morals were chosen by Mocean Energy as the basis for all day-to-day teamwork and problem-solving and for longer-term decisions about company direction.
AAB People’s own early experience as a start-up was an important influence. Helping a fledgling company develop confidence in its structure and internal systems and feel less vulnerable is key to successful growth. The depth of understanding from a similar-sized team with a similar growth history was a significant factor for Mocean Energy in choosing to work long-term with AAB People.
As well as getting to know the whole team and introducing a range of HR policies and an HR system, AAB People led and advised on the recruitment of five new hires during 2021. Job design for and consultation with engineers, technical project managers and support staff was followed by interview help and the creation of thorough onboarding and induction processes, thus relieving the management of time-consuming admin.
Employee relations, including helping the management team to support employees with any work-related concerns, is a key element of the partnership. AAB People remains on hand as another avenue for employees to discuss and address any emerging issues. The team also act as a valued sounding board for emerging conversations about people strategy and development.
MB and founder Cameron McNatt is clear about the value of having a well-aligned HR advisory team.
“AAB People are embedded in our company and have given us confidence in our ability to grow. We now have strong systems and the right culture in place to do that. We didn’t know what we were missing until we met them! Left to our own devices, we probably wouldn’t have written down those values. Now, we refer to the values in all our decision-making and hiring conversations, and to reflect on and preserve our culture as we grow.”
“As a result of having AAB People on board, our employees and our managers feel better supported and we feel like a fully developed company with good systems and foundations, rather than a vulnerable start-up. We feel like we have access to the whole team if we need it and our main contact Scott feels very much like part of our team, never like an outside consultant.”
CAS is an employee-owned technology company specialising in case management systems for complaints handling, employee relations, information requests (FOI, GDPR/SAR, EIR) and other regulated casework. Their Workpro case management software is used by public and private sector organisations throughout the UK and overseas. The company moved to employee ownership in January 2014, which coincided with significant investment in their products and processes.
The employee-owned structure at CAS drives a strong culture that focuses on client needs, exceptional service and constant improvement. They identified a business need for a strategic HR partner to support their long-term growth and deliver bespoke training and development to their management team. They required a partner with a strong understanding of innovation-led technology businesses, who understood their culture and ambitions, and who were flexible and responsive to their evolving needs.
“CAS and the Workpro Team have been working with AAB People since 2017, providing us with HR advice, policy development and training, and confidence that we have these areas covered.”
Having been introduced to CAS through their Chairman and worked with them previously providing operational HR support on an ad hoc basis, AAB People were engaged as a trusted advisor to support their strategic goals. We conducted an initial scoping session with the senior leadership team in order to gain an in depth understanding of business priorities. Together with an audit of the existing people framework, we were able to identify the key HR priority areas. These were: an update and refresh of policies and contracts to ensure compliance and culture fit; a tailored training and development programme for line managers; induction and onboarding tools and processes to support recruitment; and development of a performance management and assessment process.
The outcome was a tailored strategic HR plan, with a proposed delivery timeline, to support and enable organisational growth from a people management and development perspective.
A regular ‘bank’ of HR support was agreed, providing CAS with a full hands-on HR service and access to expert guidance to support and coach their manager group.
Employee ownership at CAS has fostered a collaborative, responsive and supportive culture which now benefits from an aligned HR strategy to achieve business goals and enhance business performance. They have well-defined and compliant HR practices, systems and supporting frameworks in place which are tailored to a work environment that fosters intrapreneurship and innovation.
A bespoke management training programme has expanded leadership capabilities and strengthened CAS’ core values, policies and processes, driving progress and efficiency. Delivered through a series of interactive workshops, this training has enabled line managers to effectively develop and support their teams.
CAS have the reassurance of having a trusted HR partner who understands their culture and strategic goals. A partner who is embedded in their organisation, supports their growth and adds value across the business. Their leadership team have access to trusted advice and guidance as and when they need it to support with all aspects of people management and development.
“AAB People’s holistic approach ensures that the guidance and support they deliver is tailored to our needs and is backed both by a solid understanding of our culture, our aims and ambitions, as well as their wider experience of working with other technology SMEs.” Chris Ellis, Chief Technical Officer, CAS
“AAB People’s holistic approach ensures that the guidance and support they deliver is tailored to our needs and is backed both by a solid understanding of our culture, our aims and ambitions, as well as their wider experience of working with other technology SMEs.”
Chris Ellis, Chief Technical Officer, CAS
