Neathouse Partners Ltd

HR & Employment Law Consultant

Sekoya Specialist Employment Services

Sekoya Ltd are a South West based consultancy specialising in employment law and generalist HR, led by an employment solicitor. This role reports to the HR and Operations Director.

My main responsibilities are: 
•	Chairing & supporting disciplinary hearings.	
•	Occupational health referrals. 
•	Chairing & supporting grievance hearings.	
•	Performance management. 
•	Investigations. 	
•	TUPE.
•	Drafting contracts of employment.	
•	Preparation of documents for employment tribunals.
•	Reviewing and drafting policies.	
•	Engaging with and instructing counsel.
•	Writing proposals for new business. 	
•	Management of long-term sickness for clients.
•	Advising employers on how to exit employees from the business lawfully and fairly.
•	Having difficult conversations with employers and employees.
•	Writing and delivering training for employers and managers.

Human Resources Business Partner

Astute HR Solutions Ltd

I launched Astute HR Solutions Ltd in September 2021 as an independent HR consultant offering outsourced services to small businesses in Plymouth and across the UK. 

I have worked with my clients in the following areas: 
•	HR documents & systems.
•	Starter & leaver processes.
•	Drafting contracts & policies.
•	Recruitment & selection.
•	Capability management.
•	Start-up strategy.	
•	TUPE.
•	Redundancy & change management.
•	Employment law advice.
•	Employee relations casework.
•	Payroll.
•	Succession planning strategy.

My key achievements were:
•	Working in a stand-along role in my own company.
•	Being nominated for ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ in the West Country Women Awards 2022.
•	Designing and delivering training sessions for managers.
•	Leading a consultation process for a client changing employee contracts of employment.

HR Consultant & Owner

Vospers Motor House Ltd

Vospers is a vehicle sales and repair company based in the South West and this role reported to the HR Director.

My main responsibilities were: 
•	Employee relations casework.
•	Absence management. 
•	Contractual changes.	
•	Recruitment & selection.
•	Coaching and mentoring of managers.
•	Strategy development. 

My key achievements were:
•	Implementing an applicant tracking system for recruitment, meaning that line managers can log into their account to view CVs and notify HR of the outcome of the application with one click. 
•	Writing strategies for recruitment and selection, and renumeration and reward, making short- and long-term plans for improvement to each area.

Human Resources Advisor and Senior Human Resources Advisor

The Cyber Helpline

The Cyber Helpline is a not-for-profit organisation run and led entirely by around fifty volunteers dedicated to helping victims of cybercrime recover and learn from their attack. This role reported to the CEO and I was a member of the Senior Management Team. 

My main responsibilities were: 
•	Creating and working to my own KPI's.
•	Creating an SLA for the HR department to follow.
•	Updating frameworks for all role descriptions.	
•	Creating shortlisting and selection criteria. 
•	Developing the company strategy. 
•	Line managing two HR volunteers.

My key achievements were:
•	Researching, writing, issuing and analysing a volunteer engagement survey and implementing the recommendations I had made, leading to better communication and training for volunteers. 
•	Re-designing the recruitment, selection and on-boarding process, which meant a fairer selection process and better on-boarding which saw higher retention of volunteers.

Human Resources Manager (Volunteer)

chapmanbdsp

ChapmanBDSP are a building services engineering consultancy based in London, and this role reported to the HR Director. 

My main responsibilities were: 
•	Recruitment and selection.
•	Creating offer letters and contracts.
•	Welcoming new joiners and giving the HR induction.
•	Providing advice to employees and line managers.	
•	Managing sickness and absence.
•	Managing benefits.
•	Conducting and writing up exit interviews.
•	Recruitment and selection activities.

My key achievements were:
•	Digitalisation of HR records leading to better GDPR compliance and a more effective and efficient use of HR admin time, instead of physical filing. This including digitalisation of the new joiner process so that new employees enter their data directly into the system. 
•	I managed the recruitment and selection of twenty graduates and apprentices, leading to successful on-boarding of the largest intake the company had ever taken.

HR Coordinator

HR Team Administrator

I am a CIPD level 7 qualified HR professional with experience in consultancy and in-house. My favourite part of my work is providing advice on employment law. 

Professionally, I am: 
✔️ Experienced across a variety of industries and company sizes
✔️ Highly qualified with a Master’s degree in HR management
✔️ An associate member of the CIPD
✔️ Commercially aware while remembering employees are also people!

My experience & knowledge includes:
✔️ Employment law and other people-centric advice
✔️ Contracts, policies, documents and handbooks
✔️ Employee engagement
✔️ Development and implementation of HR systems 
✔️ Recruitment & selection
✔️ Employer branding 
✔️ HR software
✔️ People strategy
✔️ Change management
✔️ Employee relations (Disciplinary, grievance, absence & performance management)
✔️ TUPE, redundancy and organisational change management
✔️ Team management 

Outside of HR I am:
👩🏻‍💻 Learning code, becoming proficient in HTML & CSS and basic Java/JavaScript
👩🏻‍💻 Advanced in WordPress & web design 
👩🏻‍💻 Getting to grips with SEO 
👩🏻‍💻 Experienced in Canva and InDesign 
👩🏻‍💻 Qualified in Digital Marketing via Google 

Personally, I am:
👶 Mummy to a 3 year old
🏴‍☠️ Military/pirate wife 
🏎 Big into F1 (I support all of the British drivers!)
👑 Bit of a history geek (monarchs of England)
👀 I’m a huge fan of the TV series Archer, probably not one for everyone though… 🙈

 📧 gracepariser@gmail.com
📱 0787 191 2038

Not all employers follow the law.


There, I said it. And it's something that shocked me when I first started consulting.

Throughout my CIPD studies, everything was about best practice. Follow the ACAS Code. Conduct thorough investigations. Document everything meticulously. And don't get me wrong – these are important principles.

But here's what nobody tells you during your Level 3, 5 or 7: your clients aren't looking for a textbook answer. They're looking for commercial advice that helps them run their business.

I've lost count of the number of times I've seen HR consultants tie themselves in knots trying to force best practice onto situations where it simply doesn't fit. They're so focused on doing everything "by the book" that they forget to ask the most important question: what's the actual risk here?

Because that's what our clients really need from us – a clear-eyed assessment of risk and consequence.

I'm not suggesting we advise clients to break the law or ignore their legal obligations. But there's a massive difference between legal compliance and gold-plated best practice.

Your client doesn't care that ACAS recommends allowing a companion at every meeting. They care about solving their problem efficiently whilst staying within acceptable risk parameters.

The shift from "this is best practice" to "here's your risk profile" was genuinely difficult for me. It felt uncomfortable at first, like I was somehow betraying my HR principles. But actually, it's made me a better consultant.

Now when a client asks "do we have to do X?", I don't automatically say "yes, because ACAS says so". 

Instead, I ask:
🚀What's the legal minimum requirement here?
🚀What's the practical risk of not following best practice?
🚀What would a tribunal likely award if this went wrong?
🚀How does that compare to the cost and disruption of the "proper" process?

Then I let them make an informed decision.

That's what commercial HR advice actually looks like. It's not about being the HR police, enforcing every rule in the book. It's about being a trusted adviser who helps clients navigate risk intelligently.

Some clients will always want to follow best practice regardless of cost – and that's absolutely fine. Others will consciously accept small risks to resolve problems quickly. Both approaches are valid when the client understands what they're choosing.

This isn't about lowering our standards. It's about raising our value by giving advice that actually works in the real world.

Grace Pariser

Fixing HR problems | Scaling tools for HR consultants | Employment law | Websites | Documents | Handbook Portal | Easy HR Audit

I'm closing my door for big employee relations projects until January - because I'm full! 


And I only have a couple of retained associate support spots left! 

It's a lovely problem to have – I'm flat out! But I never want to be so busy that quality drops or I'm rushing through cases that deserve proper attention. 

The question rattling around my head: do I build a small team?

There's clearly demand for reliable associate support. HR consultants need people they can genuinely trust with their clients. 

But I keep coming back to the same considerations – how do I make sure any associates I bring on board deliver the same quality and care as I do? 

And equally important, how do I make sure it's actually beneficial for them and for my HR consultant clients?

"Oh, I probably should have mentioned..."


Five words that can completely change a case.

You're advising on a performance issue. There's a performance improvement process underway. The manager's frustrated, the employee's not improving, and everyone's ready to move towards an exit.

Then the client casually mentions the employee disclosed a health condition eight months ago.

And suddenly you're not talking about performance anymore. You're talking about reasonable adjustments. Whether they were offered. Whether they were even considered. Whether this "performance issue" might actually be a disability discrimination claim waiting to happen.

It's rarely deliberate. Clients aren't trying to mislead you – they often don't connect the dots. The health thing was "ages ago." It didn't seem relevant. HR weren't told. The manager forgot.

But now you're unpicking months of management action that might need to be completely reframed.

It's why "is there anything else I should know?" isn't just a box-ticking question. It's why we ask about absence history, occupational health referrals, anything the employee has ever mentioned about their health or circumstances.

The information you don't have can hurt your client far more than the information you do.

What's the most case-changing late revelation you've had? Did it make you want to bang your head against a wall and scream into a pillow?

There's no greater feeling than finally hitting send on a complicated investigation report.


You know the ones. The cases that follow you home. The witness statements you're mentally reviewing while making dinner. The timeline you're still piecing together at 11pm when you should be watching telly.

Multiple witnesses. Conflicting accounts. Evidence that raises more questions than it answers. You wake up at 3am suddenly remembering something someone said that didn't quite add up.

You've read through everything twice. Triple-checked the findings actually match the evidence. Made sure your recommendations are practical and not just textbook perfect.

And then it's done. The case that's been living rent-free in your head for weeks is finally out the door.

That moment of quiet satisfaction before the next one lands is genuinely one of the best parts of this job.

The government have given way to the Lords on day one employment rights. 


Everyone has a lot to say about the Lords being anti-democratic but… they’ve saved the day for businesses on this. 

Why?

Because some of the Lords have actually run successful businesses and actually understand the impact that this will have.

Couple of nights away in Bristol for Evolving HR™️which means MORE SLEEP! 


Gleefully set my alarm for a whole 1.5 hours later than usual! 

Woke up 1.5 hours earlier than usual. 

Never mind! Today will be an awesome day and I am looking forward to seeing some of my gighrly peeps plus meeting some awesome new people!

Evolving HR™️

gighrly

Following an incredible session at Evolving HR™️facilitated by the amazing Olajide Alabi last week, I've had a bit of a lightbulb moment.


We were exploring values – not the corporate poster kind, but the ones that actually drive how you work. And I realised something I probably should have spotted some time ago: my values have been underpinning everything I do. 

I just hadn't put them into words.

So here they are – the three things that matter most to me when I'm working as an associate for fellow HR consultants:

🚀 Reliability 
When you trust me with your clients, you need to know the work will be done properly and on time. I deliver to the deadlines we agree – often before – and to the highest professional standards. You can step away from the work knowing it's in capable hands.

🚀 Respect 
Your business is yours. I'll never approach your clients directly or use our working relationship to build my own client base. I work within your processes, use your templates and follow your way of doing things. To your clients, I'm simply an extension of your consultancy.

🚀 Empathy 
HR work is people work. Your clients going through a difficult restructure, an employee facing disciplinary action – everyone deserves to be treated with care and understanding. I bring the same compassion you would to every conversation and every case.

These aren't aspirations. They're how I've always worked – I just hadn't articulated them before.

If you're looking for associate support that fits seamlessly into your consultancy, let's have a chat.

Culture & People Experience Leader | Equity, Inclusion & Wellbeing Advocate | Speaker, Podcaster, Author| Facilitator, Coach & NLP Practitioner | Building Inclusive Spaces That Thrive.

I built something awesome that I don’t talk about nearly enough.

The Handbook Portal has been quietly ticking along in the background – businesses using it daily, employees actually finding their policies (revolutionary, I know) – and I realised I haven’t shared it properly in ages.

So here’s what it does.

It turns your client’s employee handbook into a branded online portal. No more PDFs lost in email chains. No more “I didn’t know we had a policy on that.” No more version control nightmares when legislation changes.

Employees get a simple login, see their company’s branding and can search for exactly what they need. Managers can point people to the right policy in seconds. And when something needs updating? You change it once and everyone sees the current version immediately.

What I’m genuinely proud of is how flexible it is. Each business gets their own look and feel – their colours, their logo, their structure. It doesn’t feel like some generic HR software. It feels like theirs.

You can set it up with individual logins for each employee (complete with analytics so you can see who’s accessed what) or keep it simple with one shared password for the whole site. Whatever works for that particular client.

For fellow HR consultants, there’s a reseller programme at £20 a month per client. It’s completely white-labelled – your branding, your pricing, your service. Charge whatever makes sense for your business.

If you’ve ever had a client ask “where’s that policy again?” for the fifteenth time, you’ll understand why I’m so chuffed with this one.

You know when you’ve got your diary all planned out, investigations scheduled, meetings booked in…


And then someone decides they’d rather explore “new opportunities” before you get the chance to have that conversation?

Funny how that works sometimes. 🙄

The upside? I’ve unexpectedly got capacity for an investigation or project before Christmas.

If you’ve got a case that needs handling before the year ends – or you just want to clear your plate before the mince pies come out – I’ve got space.

I offer associate support on an hourly basis or through retained packages if you’d prefer ongoing capacity in your back pocket.

Get in touch for more info or visit my website!

I had to wear my son's yellow bunny rabbit sunglasses today in the car.


He's six. It wasn't a cool look on me.

Why?

Because the dog ate my sunglasses.

The dog has also eaten:
🐕 The cats food
🐕 Rubbish from the bin
🐕 My breakfast/lunch/dinner
🐕 My webcam cable
🐕 The smart metre 
🐕 The furniture
🐕 Cushions and blankets
🐕 My son's homework
🐕 Her bed
🐕 THREE dog leads 
🐕 Goodness knows what from the woods that we walk in 

Her current project is trying to eat the power cable for my computer. That's not going to end well! 

Thinking of getting a lab? 

Don't!* 😂


*I don't mean that, she's super cute and sometimes stays still for long enough for a cuddle!

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