UK Enterprise Awards 2021

177 | UK Enterprise Awards 2021 Best Emerging HR Consultancy - Wales Touchpoint HR is an independent HR Consultancy based in Cardiff covering South Wales and the West of England. The company was founded by Emma Nash (MCIPD, MSc), following her work as a generalist HR professional for more than 20 years. Born and raised in Cardiff, Emma moved to Portsmouth in Hampshire in 1994 when she was 23, but returned to her home city in 2016 where she founded Touchpoint in 2020. “I lost my job during the initial state of the lockdown, so decided to start up on my own!” Emma says, explaining the rationale behind the inception of her company. As a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, and with a Master’s degree in Human Resources Management & Development under her belt, Emma has a wealth of knowledge and experience of working in the private and public sectors as well as with Third Sector charities. “The clients I have are small to medium sized businesses who may not have their own Human Resources department, but need support, advice and guidance on HR related matters,” she continues. “For example, I have recently supported a new business which has taken on its first employees, and I have worked with a large organisation taking on a grievance investigation as well as managing a redundancy process, to name but a few.” Emma provides all manner of HR services, from offering a one-off ‘HR Check’ to businesses on a pay-per-project rate which investigates and assesses its current HR policies and procedures, to providing full HR services and support for a monthly consultancy fee, covering the areas of recruitment and selection, advice and guidance, training and development, and HR documentation reviews. With values centring around “trust, integrity, collaboration, and respect,” which Emma assures us haven’t changed at all since she started in the industry many years ago, it is clear to see how Touchpoint uses its strong client relationships to differentiate itself from competitors in the sector. “I believe that my clients’ relationships stand out as unique,” she says. “I like to work with the client in much the same way as an internal HR Manager would rather than an external consultant. I believe this provides the clients with a great deal of trust and we can work with a more collaborative approach.” Emma has noticed, particularly over the last 12 months during the turbulence of the Covid-19 pandemic, that many small to medium sized organisations are now starting to outsource their HR functions and tap into that expertise as and when they need to. “I have also seen more and more HR professionals who have left organisations, either due to redundancy or for some other reason, and have decided to set up their own consultancy, like myself,” she elaborates. “This is not just in the HR industry; there was a 41% increase of new start- ups during 2020 compared to 2019.” Although still a relatively young operation, Emma is determined to continue to offer the best HR services possible to companies and organisations looking to outsource this function and is even considering authoring a book focusing on certain aspects of the HR industry, in order to offer her guidance and advice to a wider audience. We wish her all the best as she takes on these exciting endeavours and continues to grow Touchpoint HR into a leading consultancy of Wales. Contact: Emma Nash Company: Touchpoint HR Web Address: www.touchpoint-hr.co.uk Apr21766 Sole practitioner and Founder Emma Nash established Touchpoint HR with a strong ethos of building positive relationships with clients while focusing on providing top tier HR services and support to SMEs and organisations. We spoke to Emma to learn more about the trends she has seen emerging since the pandemic hit.