1st July 2021
Meet Delphic HSE and learn about the challenge they faced with their HR
Delphic HSE is a multinational consultancy providing specialist product safety and regulatory compliance services to the global consumer and industrial chemicals markets. Its experts help organisations meet the complex regulatory needs of their products and consumers.
The business, based in Camberley, Surrey, has grown over the past decade from a handful of employees to almost 60, based in the UK and overseas including Hong Kong and The Netherlands.
The company’s growth, the evolution of a line management structure, the need to support staff development, the challenges of managing international teams and the demands of recruitment led Delphic HSE’s management to seek an outsourced HR partner.
HR becomes more and more important the bigger an organisation gets.
We wanted to outsource because we needed support that was integrated into our team, and we wanted our staff to be comfortable that they had a neutral and confidential resource to go to. ERICA GARNER, DIRECTOR, CORPORATE SERVICES, DELPHIC HSE
The action taken by Reality HR
Reality HR’s first task was to review the processes and strategies in place at Delphic HSE and build a strong outsourced function to take care of day-to-day HR.
Once established in her role, Reality HR Consultant Kate Scott was given a Delphic HSE email address and introduced to the team, effectively becoming their HR contact. It was important to the business that Kate and the Reality HR team were seen as a neutral and confidential resource for staff as well as support for the management team.
Kate helped Delphic HSE identify training needs, especially to support line managers. A year-long series of bite-sized sessions was organised, covering topics including appraisals and one-to-ones, performance management and staff wellbeing. These sessions were delivered remotely during the pandemic.
As part of the upskilling of managers, Reality HR training specialist Heidi Wadsworth provided Insights Discovery sessions. Erica Garner, Director, Corporate Services at Delphic HSE, explains:
This was a very interesting process. We have a company full of scientists who are used to dealing in factual data. The sessions helped them appreciate how people are different and how they could adapt to different personalities, especially at a time when they had different ways of working and new technology to get used to.
Reality HR also supports Delphic HSE with recruitment – preparing job descriptions, highlighting the benefits of working for the company, filtering applications and taking candidates through as far as the second interview stage.
The outcome
Staff across Delphic HSE have embraced the Reality HR team as an integral part of the business for day-to-day support. Erica reports that managers are now much more comfortable with managing and supporting their teams and dealing with any issues that arise. Erica credits the Insights Discovery sessions with helping managers think about how they communicate, leading to them being more sympathetic and flexible in their approach to their teams.
Erica highly values Reality HR’s input on recruitment, saving the business a significant amount of time and improving the quality of candidates with a positive effect on performance and retention. Having supported Delphic HSE with the challenges of remote working through the pandemic, Reality HR are now laying the groundwork for the business to shift to longer-term hybrid working.
Kate and Reality HR have become part of our team. Nothing is ever too much for them – they make us feel as if we are their only client. They are a great bunch of people who truly fulfil the role of being our outsourced HR department. ERICA GARNER, DIRECTOR, CORPORATE SERVICES, DELPHIC HSE