At face2faceHR we’re passionate about working with and becoming part of our local business community, and we find that clients like this too. One of the things we get a lot of feedback on when we ask clients why they contacted us or decided to work with us was that they were looking for an HR consultant who was local. But why is this?
Virtually all of our clients are local businesses themselves, set up by local people, employing local people and mainly serving the local community. Not all by any means, but a significant proportion. They know the value of support and interaction with their local business community, and benefit from that themselves. In turn, they also like to support local small businesses and providers, and understand how doing this benefits the local business community and the economy where they are based.
But as well as that, many of them tell us they definitely feel they get the service they want from us partly because their consultant is local. Their consultant understands them and their business, their people, their priorities and where they fit into the local economy, and clients feel this adds value.
Of course the priorities and approach we use to small business HR support works at long-distance as well. We can and do understand the businesses, concerns and issues of our clients who are based elsewhere, and provide high-quality tailored advice in line with their priorities and business objectives. We visit them, work closely with them and become part of their businesses just as we do a client who is very close by (my record for closeness of a client was 30 seconds walk away – now that’s local!).
But we need to be passionate about working with and supporting our local community. It’s something clients are looking for anyway, but also it’s how most of our work comes in. By becoming an active part of the local business community, marketing becomes much easier, as local businesses frequently seek recommendations for HR support from other local providers. And being in business is also more enjoyable that way, and a lot less isolating.
If you’re passionate about supporting local businesses and thinking about launching your own HR consultancy, do get in touch to discuss becoming a partner.