Meet our Head of HR Consultancy: Remy Morland

Swindon born and bred, and using that local knowledge along with her extensive HR experience to head up our team of advisers, is our amazing Head of HR Consultancy Remy Morland.

Remy joined the HR Dept Swindon, North Wiltshire and East Cotswolds seven years ago. She’s an associate of the HR professional body, CIPD, and is highly qualified, to CIPD level 7.

She’d always been interested in working in a people-based role, and it was a suggestion from her Mum, followed by a rugby match touchline conversation with a fellow spectator, which persuaded Remy that HR was the career for her.

“When I was at college before going to university, I had a part-time job as a supervisor at the Coop in Old Town. They used to get me involved if there were meetings, or investigations between members of staff and managers, just to do some notetaking. That got me interested in people management.

“It was my Mum who first suggested that I would be good at HR. Then when I was watching my brother playing rugby one weekend, I got chatting to someone else’s relative on the touchline and they worked in HR. I explained what I had been doing at the Coop, and they started explaining different aspects of HR, and that really piqued my interest. I looked into it a bit more and liked what I learned.”

At the University of Portsmouth, Remy took a degree in human resource management and on graduating returned full-time to the Coop, getting more and more involved in HR.

Remy then joined Carfax Medical Centre in Swindon, as training and facilities coordinator. Her main focus was ensuring all the staff – from medics to admin staff – had their training in date. Again, she became more involved in HR and when the human resources manager left, Remy picked up much of her workload: looking after employee files, sickness, holidays, recruitment, and any investigations.

Two years later, Remy joined us at HR Dept as Graduate HR Adviser, and in June last year became our Head of HR Consultancy.

“Weirdly, myself and the business manager from Carfax had come to see Peter at HR Dept to talk about possible HR support and then this role suddenly came up a few months later.”

As HR Dept is a consultancy, as opposed to internal HR division, Remy and our team work for a number of businesses, some on a retained basis and some ad hoc.

Often it will be an issue, such as a grievance, which will prompt initial contact, but this can lead to an ongoing relationship. We have been working with some of our clients throughout the 15 years our business has been operating, and we welcome in new retained clients on an ongoing basis.

We cover everything from creating employment documentation and keeping it updated, to advising on complicated HR and employment law issues, to designing appraisal systems, pay benchmarking and staff surveys - everything an in-house corporate HR department would do but far more cost-effectively.

“Clients may first to come to us for advice on employment issues, which we can support them with, and the relationship develops from there.”

So, what does Remy especially enjoy about HR? One element, she says, is the variety.

“We have so much going on across our clients. For example, on the advice side at the moment we are helping with an employee absence issue, paternity leave queries, and a relationship breakdown. On the support side, we are carrying out a salaries and benefits benchmarking exercise, a quarterly audit for a hospitality client, and providing HR support because a client’s internal person has left.

“I love having that contact with the employers and employees, supporting them, putting processes in place to help them at work and often having input into the direction of the business and how people fit into this. Everything a business does, or wants to do, has an impact on its people.

“It’s very different being an outsourced team, and it’s so important to do a good job for the client. It’s not always a good outcome for the employee, if there is a dismissal involved, but the main thing is that we can be confident that we have given the right advice and that we have helped our client to follow the law and carry out due process. My main aim is that the clients are happy, and the feedback we get is that they are very happy with the work we do for them. “

So, would Remy recommend HR as a career? At HR Dept, we’ve recently recruited a new Trainee HR Advisor into our team.

“HR would suit somebody who is comfortable talking to and being around people; also, someone who has very good attention to detail, to ensure the advice we give complies with all the different employment laws. It is also important to be resilient and to be able to deal with difficult situations, and to be calm and confident, firm and friendly.”

And in her spare time, what does Remy enjoy?

“My family moved to Devon, so my husband and I – and our dog, Alfie – often visit them, or we like to visit friends, or walk with Alfie. I’m a big fan of Formula 1, and we are currently planning when we can next go to see a Grand Prix.”

Next on Remy’s work ‘to do’ list is to convert her CIPD associate membership into full membership. In the meantime, as she and our team mark 15 years in business, she’s working hard to support our clients with their HR issues.

If you are looking for HR support for your business, and would like to speak to Remy, email [email protected] or call 01793 683 398.