Case study
How Buxton Crescent Hotel has eased its HR burden and is now able to make more efficient employment decisions through expert support.
The challenge
As a new business, Buxton Crescent Hotel knew it needed HR support to help it manage its 165 staff fairly and compliantly.
In the bigger hotel chains she’d worked for before, Lisa, the hotel’s HR Manager, had been used to relying on central HR support to check her thinking around people management matters. With a sizable workforce and the pandemic presenting a steady stream of new and complex employment challenges, she knew she needed something similarly robust – someone she could call on for advice, guidance and reassurance when issues arise.
With other hotels in the Danubius Hotels Group already happy WorkNest customers, the Group’s Director recommended WorkNest as an HR provider. With endorsement from the top, and after learning more about what WorkNest could offer, Buxton Crescent Hotel came on board in February 2020.
The solution
Buxton Crescent Hotel subscribes to WorkNest’s core Employment Law and HR service, giving it access to unlimited professional advice on a wide range of employee relations issues, delivered by its own small team of qualified experts.
Lisa says: “We deal with all sorts of things, from managing a huge amount of sickness absences to making sure holidays are compliant, so we always lean on our lead adviser, Jane, for support. She’s extremely good – fabulous actually.”
Having worked with other providers in previous roles, Lisa particularly likes WorkNest’s personalised approach, which gives each client access to dedicated advisers for more tailored, relevant advice and better quality support.
Lisa comments: “I think it’s great that we have named points of contact. I much prefer dealing with somebody one on one, and Jane is very, very experienced – we’re very lucky to have her.”
In addition to telephone and email support, Jane and the team also take care of any letters or other employment documentation Buxton Crescent Hotel requires. These are then uploaded to WorkNest’s case management system, CaseNest, where Lisa can access all the documentation prepared by her team, as well as keep track of employee cases through one easy-to-use dashboard.
For added protection, Buxton Crescent Hotel also takes Legal Expenses Insurance to cover against the cost of an Employee Tribunal claim.
“It’s reassuring to know that if we follow WorkNest’s advice, we’re protected if things go wrong”, says Lisa.
Company name:
Buxton Crescent Hotel
Company profile:
- Luxury hotel based in Buxton, England.
- Part of Danubius Hotels Group, a chain of 24 hotels across the UK and abroad specialising in thermal spas.
- 165 employees.
“As a business, we’re not experts in every case – there’s things we might never have come across before. WorkNest are. They provide advice to lots of businesses daily, so they have a breadth of knowledge far beyond what companies like us have. I really trust in the support we receive.”
Lisa Townsend,
HR Manager
The result
WorkNest’s support has empowered Lisa to carry out her role more effectively and made her life easier by freeing up valuable time, removing some of the brainwork, and providing fast responses to HR and legal queries so the company can move matters forward quickly.
“My role is so fast paced, so it’s great to have Jane to offload to. She does all the thinking for me. It sounds awful, but I’ve actually become lazy because of her!”, Lisa jokes.
She explains: “Before WorkNest, I’d spend time doing the thinking, investigating, research – now I just pick up the phone. It’s nice to know I’ve got that back-up there now.”
She continues: “I’ve been an HR manager for years, but it’s so handy to be able to send things through to WorkNest and get a quick response. Plus, having someone sense check your work gives you the confidence that you’re doing things correctly.”
As well as enabling the hotel’s HR function to become more efficient, Buxton Crescent Hotel now has the confidence that it can handle even the toughest workforce challenges, with years of experience waiting in the wings.
Lisa says: “The WorkNest team are very knowledgeable. I can always rely on them to provide objective views and to help me see things from different perspectives. I would recommend them to any company, even those with an in-house HR provision, because it’s always great to have that wealth of knowledge to tap into.”
She adds: “As a business, we’re not experts in every case – there’s things we might never have come across before. WorkNest are. They provide advice to lots of businesses daily, so they have a breadth of knowledge far beyond what companies like us have. I really trust in the support we receive.”
Looking to the future, Lisa predicts that sickness absence, mental health and staff retention will pose considerable challenges for the hospitality sector this year.
“These issues are much more prevalent following the pandemic”, Lisa explains.
“Whereas before conversations surrounding mental health were sporadic, they’ve now become a weekly occurrence, affecting workload and attendance. We’ve also seen a rise in long-term absences. All of this can put a real strain on the business.”
“Thankfully, we have WorkNest to guide us through obstacles like this sympathetically and compliantly. We’re really glad to have them by our side.”
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“I would recommend WorkNest’s advice and support to any company looking for outsourced HR help – absolutely, 100%. I’m definitely sold on it without a doubt – it’s been brilliant.”
Lisa Townsend,
HR Manager