Top Benefits of Hiring HR Consultancy Services
Outsourcing to an HR consultancy can transform the way your business manages people. By tapping into specialised expertise, you gain strategies for HR & people management, compliance, talent management and cost efficiency. This article outlines how an HR consultant can help small businesses and SMEs thrive.
HR Consultant Overview
An HR consultant is a qualified, professional and trusted adviser who provides expert guidance in human resources, employment law and workforce strategies. Unlike an in-house HR role that can become absorbed in low level tasks and not adding value, an HR consultant offers an impartial perspective. Their role is to help businesses create robust HR policies and procedures that align with goals, business growth strategies and legal requirements.
HR consultants can also work alongside stretched HR teams, as an extended member of the HR team, providing additional capacity and specialist knowledge. They often support business owners, CEOs, COOs, CHROs or CPOs on strictly confidential projects, ensuring discretion and maintaining high levels of trust.
At Breen & Associates Results Through People, we specialise in delivering end to end HR solutions for small businesses and SMEs across the UK. From recruiting top talent to ensuring compliance with UK employment law. We believe an HR consultant’s role extends beyond basic HR administration and low level tasks. By focusing on strategic initiatives like workforce planning, leadership development, projects and culture building, an HR consultant helps create an environment that fosters employee morale & engagement and drives business success.
For small businesses and SMEs in the UK, the flexibility provided by an HR consultant is invaluable and a strategic investment. You may not have the budget to staff a full time HR department or stand-alone HR role, yet you still need professional guidance and expertise. This is where a consultancy service bridges the gap, providing in depth knowledge, practical solutions and scalable support that adapts to your business requirements and ambitions.
Moreover, UK businesses must keep pace with changing legislation, including the Equality Act 2010, the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act and the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010). Updates to the Employment Rights Act 1996 are expected in 2025 and 2026. Which will also provide seismic changes to employer obligations to employees. Non-compliance can lead to illegal practices, hefty fines, reputational damage, employee dissatisfaction, poor employee morale., employee retention levels and poor employee relations. An HR consultant stays updated on legal changes, works with you to ensure your business always meets its obligations for best practice and legal compliance. This proactive approach helps protect your business from financial and legal risks, whilst enabling a more efficient and people centric workplace.
In addition, an HR consultant can guide you through complex projects like TUPE, redundancy programmes and mergers & acquisitions. They will support you with the people aspects of these significant people projects. Engaging with a reputable HR consultant with knowledge and experience, like Breen & Associates Results Through People, ensures these processes run smoothly, while preserving morale and compliance.
Involvement in projects like TUPE or redundancy programmes further highlights the importance of working with HR experts and professionals to manage employee transitions smoothly. By engaging an HR consultant and getting things right from the start, you save yourself from unnecessary stress and potential tribunal costs. Ultimately, this collaborative approach helps you build a strong foundation for growth and sustainability, ensuring your business is prepared for whatever challenges come your way in 2025 and beyond.
Best Benefits of Hiring an HR Consultant in 2025
As the business landscape and legislative agenda ever evolves, the advantages of engaging an HR consultant become even more imperative. In 2025, HR consultants will not only offer expert advice and strategic planning solutions, they also help businesses navigate complex regulatory and legislative changes as well as advise on market challenges. Their specialised expertise in HR and all things people including compliance, people development and talent acquisition positions your business to remain competitive and agile in an ever-changing environment.
Expert Guidance and Strategic HR Planning
One of the most significant benefits of hiring an HR consultant is gaining access to specialist knowledge. As the world of work evolves into 2025 and beyond, businesses must adapt quickly to maintain a competitive edge. Whether you need assistance with leadership training , people development or employee engagement, an HR consultant provides strategic solutions grounded in real world experience and the latest industry trends & best practices.
Features
Deep Industry Insight: HR consultants have extensive experience working with various sectors, industries and business sizes, giving them a broad perspective and expertise on people management.
Bespoke Strategies: A consultant will tailor strategies to your specific business requirements. This will ensure your HR and people approach aligns with short term and long term business goals.
Access to Tools and Resources: From HR software systems to learning platforms, consultants often have knowledge of advanced tools that make implementation easier and more cost effective.
Ongoing Support: An HR consultancy goes beyond advice, often providing continued support and training so management , leadership teams and business owners can effectively execute recommended strategies.
Expert Guidance vs In House HR
Objective Perspective: In house teams may be too close to internal politics or historical practices, whereas a consultant offers impartial insights, identifying new opportunities and addressing blind spots.
Specialised Expertise: While your internal HR staff may be generalists, consultants bring in depth skill sets, including employment law, mediation or global recruitment strategies.
On Demand Service: You can scale consultant services as needed, paying only for what you require instead of maintaining permanent full-time salaries.
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Cost Efficiency and Resource Optimisation
Many small business owners & Founders and SME leaders worry about the perceived expense of hiring external consultants. However, another key benefit of hiring an HR consultant is the ability to reduce overheads and streamline resources. By bringing in external expertise, you can minimise costly errors in compliance or recruitment, while improving retention and performance. Some monthly retainers really aren’t that expensive and offer tremendous value!
Cost Savings Benefits
Reduced Risk of Penalties: Fines and employee compensation for non-compliance with UK employment legislation can be substantial. An HR consultant ensures you stay within legal frameworks, saving you from significant legal costs.
Optimal Staff Utilisation: Consultants conduct workload analyses, so you can allocate resources more effectively. By having the right people in the right roles, productivity increases and so do profits.
Flexible Engagement: Rather than committing to a full time salary plus benefits, you pay for a consultant’s services on a project basis or retainer, making budgeting even simpler and predictable.
Improved Retention and Reduced Turnover: High turnover is expensive due to poor recruitment decisions, recruitment costs and lost productivity. An effective HR consultant helps you develop strategies that boost employee engagement, saving you money in the long term.
Working with an HR consultant and getting things right is far less expensive and less stressful than going it alone and later paying hefty solicitor fees to avoid ending up in an employment tribunal. Ultimately, cost efficiency is not about cutting corners. It is about making intelligent investments to future proof your workforce. By putting robust and proactive HR practices in place, you can redirect your budget into areas like training, innovation and business development rather than crisis management.
Compliance and Risk Management
Compliance with UK employment law, from working hours to equal pay, is mandatory for every business. Mistakes in this area can be disastrous, especially for small businesses and SMEs that have limited resources to handle legal disputes. If things go wrong a business can go under. An HR consultant provides the level of risk management that keeps your business compliant with regulations and legislation. For example, the Equality Act 2010, the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act and the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010). Updates to the Employment Rights Act 1996 are also expected in 2025 and 2026. This approach protects against costly mistakes and reputational harm.
Compliance vs Traditional HR Management
Dedicated Focus: In house HR might juggle multiple priorities, making it easy to overlook new legislation. A consultant stays on top of these changes.
In Depth Training and Policy Development: Consultants can create robust HR policies for day to day operations, disciplinary & grievance guidelines and other statutory procedures. They also train your staff and people leaders in your business in understanding and following these policies.
Proactive Protection: Rather than waiting for complaints or audits to reveal issues, an HR consultant identifies risks early on and will work with you to implements best practices.
Tailored Advice: Every business is different. Consultants offer bespoke advice, fitting your size, industry and workforce structure, ensuring you meet both broad and specific legal requirements.
Proactive compliance management also enhances your employer brand, showing potential employees and clients that you operate with professionalism and integrity. Your brand as an employer will improve. By avoiding legal disputes, you can maintain focus on improving productivity and nurturing the growth of your people and business making your business an employer of choice.
Talent Acquisition and Retention
In a competitive UK job market, finding and retaining skilled employees can be challenging for small businesses and SMEs. An HR consultant can guide you in creating a robust recruitment strategy that targets the right candidates, while developing a retention plan to keep high performing staff engaged. They will also ensure you are legally complaint throughout your recruitment and onboarding processes.
HR Consultant vs In House Recruitment Comparison
Wider Candidate Reach: Consultants often have extensive networks, recruitment platforms and candidate databases, enabling them to source top tier talent more efficiently.
Reduced Bias: External consultants can screen candidates using objective methods, helping to minimise unconscious bias and discriminatory practices in hiring.
Tailored Onboarding Processes: By mapping out a structured onboarding process, HR consultants help new hires integrate quickly, boosting satisfaction and long term retention.
Succession Planning: In house teams often deal with immediate needs, whereas consultants can take a strategic approach, identifying and developing future leaders without the in house biases and cultural norms.
Acquiring great talent is only half the battle as retaining employees is equally crucial. An HR consultant can help design reward and performance management frameworks, employee engagement programmes and career development pathways that build loyalty. This approach transforms your workforce from a recurring expense into a key competitive advantage.
Customised HR Solutions
Not all HR challenges can be addressed with a uniform, off the shelf approach. Each small business or SME has its own culture, goals and workforce dynamics. An HR consultant excels at designing and implementing strategies that truly fit your business rather than imposing a generic model.
Key Benefits
Tailor Made Policies: From flexible working arrangements to performance incentives, your HR policies should match your unique business model and workforce demographics as well as providing legal compliance.
Agile and Scalable Solutions: As your business evolves, so do your HR and people needs. A consultant’s solutions can be adapted or scaled at anytime, ensuring you stay future ready.
Focus on Culture: Culture is not a one size fits all idea. An HR consultant helps cultivate a culture of collaboration, respect and innovation, which resonates with employees and clients & customers alike.
Data Driven Decision Making: Consultants incorporate analytics and insight to track employee performance, engagement and turnover. These insights guide strategic HR investments.
Consultant vs Generic HR Services
Personalised Partnership: A consultant builds a relationship with your business, understanding its nuances rather than offering a standard service package.
Sustainable Solutions: Generic HR services might fix issues in the short term but often fail to address deeper root causes. Consultants focus on long term stability and health in your people management.
Continuous Innovation: HR trends evolve. A dedicated consultant stays informed on the latest best practices, including digital HR tools, emerging training methodologies and new employment regulations & legislation and integrates these into your strategy.
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Conclusion
Investing in an HR consultant is a strategic move for small businesses and SMEs looking to remain competitive and compliant in the UK. From cost savings and compliance to talent acquisition and culture development, the advantages are many. A qualified consultant, such as Breen & Associates Results Through People, brings a blend of expertise, objectivity and adaptability that is hard to replicate in house.
Keep your HR on Track – Protect Your Business and Drive Growth
We’re Breen & Associates - Results Through People. We empower small businesses & SMEs with personal HR Solutions and transformational People Development. Just like car insurance protects you from the unexpected, our multi-award winning services in HR, Recruitment, People Development and Coaching ensure legal compliance with employment law while turning talent into high-performing teams and driving growth.
Our mission is to give small and medium-sized businesses access to extraordinary HR & People solutions typically reserved for bigger budgets. Unlike larger firms we treat you as partners, genuinely caring about your success and supporting you to achieve exceptional results through your people.
We won’t tie you in lengthy HR contracts that don’t work for you. Unlike Peninsula or Croner who only provide high-level HR advice, we offer dedicated personal 121 support without the price tag! Our Outsourced HR Services Pricing is transparent, flexible and fair – with no lengthy contracts and no cancellation fees.
Discover how to improve legal compliance gaps, reduce risk, enhance your workplace and drive success with our FREE People & HR Audit!
Written by Joanna Breen
Joanna Breen, co-founder of Breen & Associates - Results Through People, is a highly accomplished HR and business leader with over 25 years of experience. As a Fellow Chartered Member of the CIPD (FCIPD), she has excelled in HR strategy, operation and transformational change across diverse industries. Joanna is also a seasoned Corporate and Executive Coach, with over 20 years of experience helping leaders achieve their full potential. With a proven track record advising at board level, she blends strategic expertise with a passion for developing people and driving business success.
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