Liverpool Daily Post My Working Day: Elaine Courtney, Courtney Consultancy Ltd.

01/01/2011

Providing advice on people and problems 

Elaine Courtney is founder and managing director of Merseyside-based Courtney Consultancy Ltd, which provides HR and recruitment support to firms across the North West.

She lives in Vauxhall, Liverpool.

7am:  A freezing start to the day walking my Lhasa Apso dog, Oscar, along the canal side near my home, but it’s a chance to grab some peace and plan the day ahead.

7.45am: It’s back home to thaw out and get ready for work.

8.30am:  I arrive at the office and check my emails over a coffee. We are looking for an additional HR advisor to join the team and I’m pleased to see the applications coming through seem to be of a high calibre.

8.45am: With the team here we have a quick update meeting to check all is well and run through the appointments in the dairy.

9.30am: I hit the phones to return a few calls. A client has recommended our monthly HR retainer to one of his contacts and I pop a meeting in the diary for next week.

10.45am: I scan the tender websites for opportunities. After recently winning a tender for HR support across the North West, we’re keen to get a few more.

11.20am:  A client calls having forgotten their password for the client area of our website. Clients sometimes wish to deal with HR matters themselves and here they can gain access to key documents such as letter and appraisal templates.

11.40am: We’ve recently launched a series of free ‘HR Power Hours’ for busy employers, giving straight forward essential HR must-know training. My colleague Sue gives me an update on numbers registered for the January 14^th sessions before I dash out of the door for my lunchtime meeting.  

12 noon: I arrive just in time for the Enable Panel meeting. It’s a volunteer panel of people, who together make up a ‘panel of intelligence’ which uses its networks and contacts to support anyone in the community wanting to start or expand a business.  

2pm: I grab a sandwich and head straight into the city centre to visit one of our newest clients. We’re carrying out a HR Assessment with them to identify areas where they are at risk from a HR point of view. It transpires he doesn’t have a staff handbook and has recently faced issues with employee absence. We arrange a follow up meeting to discuss the findings of the HR Assessment. He’s also planning to recruit additional staff so I offer some advice about the requirements for businesses with more than five employees. Sometimes just a little bit of advice to a client can help them make a small change which will safeguard their company.

5pm: Back in the office, I call a lady I met at a networking event in the week. She runs a care agency and is keen to get some HR advice in preparation for the new personalisation agenda coming into force in 2011. This will pretty much turn the care agency business on its head, resulting in all sorts of staffing changes and employment related issues.  We schedule a follow-up meeting.

5.40pm: After a non-stop day I head home, which lucky for me, is just minutes away from the office. But before I can put my feet up and have dinner, I must walk Oscar.

LDP Business 29.12.10

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