A day in the life of a Senior HR Consultant

Every day I witness first-hand how HR helps to steer organisations’ direction of travel.

As a Senior HR Consultant, I work closely with founders and key decision-makers from organisations of all shapes and sizes – and yes, this stretches beyond conversations about hiring and firing.

HR is about more than just recruitment, a reality reflected by the fact that companies are investing significant sums in our field of expertise. For instance, according to a study by Bloomberg, businesses with fewer than 250 employees spend almost $3,000 (£2,180) a year on HR services per employee.

While JourneyHR enables organisations to enjoy the benefits of a full suite of HR services, and to tap into support from HR assistants all the way up to CPO level on a competitive retainer-style model, there should be no shying away from the fact that to reap the real benefits of HR requires sizable investment beyond simply paying somebody to administrate recruitment related tasks.  

A seat at many corporate tables – my typical day

My job is, in short, to empower managers and company leaders, as well as my own team of juniors – it’s a tremendously fulfilling and varied role that keeps me on my toes on a daily basis.

I pen this blog on my first day back at our Holborn office for well over a year. Since the COVID-19 outbreak struck in March 2020, I have been working from home across multiple platforms such as email, old fashioned phone and Teams. The latter has been a gamechanger – software such as video conferencing has enabled us to maintain that critical face-to-face interaction with clients and deliver the same level of service and attention to detail.

Let’s look at a day from last week.

Having scoured and responded to a typically full inbox (we try to respond to all client queries within 24 hours), my first client meeting is a scheduled monthly catch up to discuss a range of issues. I provided advice on updating behavioural frameworks, how to communicate performance related issues to staff, and employee succession planning.

After this I tied up a long-term client project looking into revamping their appraisal and promotion processes. Having canvassed numerous company stakeholders on the current system, I documented my findings and suggestions into a presentation for senior leadership to consider.

I then check in on my own team. This typically involves allocating projects, supporting them with any client work and ensuring they're on track to meet their own KPIs and client deadlines.  

After a quick Teams call with each member, it seemed the most opportune time to take a lunch break. I don’t compromise on this and take an hour’s downtime whenever possible (minimum 30 minutes) – I know the harm burnout can cause and implore everybody to take a proper break, no matter how busy their day might be.

From job descriptions to diversity drives

My afternoon began with another client meeting, this time a rapidly growing business which currently has just one in-house HR employee.

Our current priority, and the subject of the call, is to nail down job descriptions across the entire organisation. This is in response to an employee engagement survey we conducted that highlighted a general lack of in-depth understanding of roles and responsibilities across the business. For fast-growing companies in particular, critical tasks such as this are easily overlooked and have the potential to derail their progress. This project will later feed into a company restructure process, looking for skills gaps and finally informing a new appraisal and behavioural competency framework to assess performance against.

The next task involves recruitment support. In this case, I ran a job interview alongside a client to provide feedback and ensure the process is competency-based and not in any way impacted by bias.

The final part of the day was spent working on two areas that I tend to devote a lot of time and energy to – wellbeing and diversity.

It’s important to stress here that HR is involved in the entire employee journey, not just the recruiting, onboarding, issuance of a P45 and exit interview. Their journey with a company and overall wellbeing throughout their tenure is very much our business.

In this case, as we tick past 4pm and into the final furlong of the day, I coordinate a call with a client to discuss the provision of support relating to an individual employee’s mental health. Is enough being done to provide the help they need? What reasonable adjustments are already in place? What else can the company do to make their working and home life easier? These questions formed the basis of our discussion.

My final task concerned a client’s family friendly policies, where I’d carried out a benchmarking exercise across the industry to establish how the client could differentiate from others in their field.

To help them make informed choices, I am in the midst of preparing an executive summary on areas such as maternity/paternity leave and adoption support, challenging the client to be forward thinking and competitive in what they offer their employees.   

This, I must add, is the most rewarding aspect of the job – partnering with business leaders to impart positive change and build cultures where our policies go above statutory norms to truly enhance and embrace inclusion. 

Challenging norms and building futures

Diversity is one of the most active subjects for me as a Senior HR Consultant. By providing input at C-suite level, I help companies to position themselves competitively and push boundaries.  

Indeed, I hope my ‘day in the life’ example has showcased the broad remit within which we as HR professionals operate. In this case recruitment, albeit still a critical area of service for us, is just one part of a multifaceted day.

We are here to drive positive change, challenge the way business leaders think and, ultimately, help build better futures for organisations and the people who work for them.

If we can help your business with any of the issues or services discussed here, please don’t hesitate to contact us today.

“We are here to drive positive change, challenge the way business leaders think and, ultimately, help build better futures for organisations and the people who work for them.”