Practical People
We are a one stop shop for all of your HR needs, based in Yorkshire. We can set up your ‘People’ foundations by developing your HR policies, contracts of employment and staff handbook. We can involve your leaders and staff with policy development through our Organisational Development workshops. We can train your leaders in how to get the best out of their team so that your Company goals are achieved. We can also support your leaders with any employee relations issues that they may have along the way.
Everything we do can now be delivered via zoom technology.
Companies we have helped
Leadership Development Programme
Helping leaders to achieve their business goals by developing their leadership & management skills which will create employee engagement and a high performance culture.
HR Policies & Contracts of Employment
We can work with you in creating your own HR Policies and Contracts of Employment that are personalised with your Company logo. We can also create a Staff Handbook which incorporates your Company rules and HR policies.
Organisational Development
Creating a high performance culture through a series of Organisational Development workshops. These workshops can now be delivered via zoom video technology.
FairDeal4You
We help employees get a fair deal from their employer. We can submit an Employment Tribunal claim for you if you have been unfairly dismissed. Did you know that 90% of claims are settled before they get to court?
We can also create compelling Grievance and Appeal letters that set the foundation for an EXIT strategy and financial settlement.
HR Support & Advice
With a choice of on-site or remote HR Support & Advice we can provide an unbiased approach to your employee relations issues. We can work in partnership with your leaders. Alternatively, we can manage the process from start to finish without your direct involvement
Testimonials
A Transformative Partner in Organisational Change
Julie Hayden-Baker
Clinic Operations Director
Working with Tracey from Practical People has been transformative for our business. She guided us through a complex organizational restructure with clarity and sensitivity, ensuring both employer and employee perspectives were respected. From redefining commission structures to sharpening our appraisal process and creating clear role profiles, every step was handled with a rare balance of operational skill and human compassion. Practical, insightful, and highly effective, Tracey not only gets the job done but does so in a way that strengthens relationships and builds lasting foundations for growth. I couldn’t recommend them more highly!
A Trusted HR Partner Driving Growth and Leadership Excellence
Deborah Smith FCCA, Finance Director, Multi-Tech Engineering
“We were first introduced to Tracey by Blacks Solicitors, Leeds, in 2022 when we sought advice on an employee relations matter. Since then, Tracey has become a trusted partner, supporting us across a wide range of HR and leadership development initiatives.
Her work has included delivering targeted management development training for our Project Engineer and Workshop Supervisors on subjects such as anti-bullying and anti-harassment, coaching and mentoring, developing staff performance and attitude, emotional intelligence, leadership skills, and, more recently, finance for non-finance managers for our directors.
Tracey has also conducted a comprehensive review of our contracts of employment and HR policies, and provided clear guidance through a number of complex employee relations issues. In addition, she has played a key role in recruitment projects, encouraging us to adopt innovative approaches to our benefits offering and employee engagement.
Most recently, she has worked closely with our directors to develop a robust business strategy that not only aligns with our financial objectives but also cascades into departmental and individual performance measures, ensuring clear accountability across the organisation. This process has highlighted her strong commercial awareness and ability to connect different functions to achieve shared goals.
Whatever the challenge, Tracey approaches her work with energy, professionalism, and a consistently positive outlook, inspiring confidence that almost anything is achievable. I would have no hesitation in recommending her to any organisation seeking to strengthen its HR foundations and enhance its leadership capability.
I can’t thank you enough for your contribution towards our company, it is greatly appreciated.”
A Professional HR Framework and Much More
Philip Charles, Founder & Director, PiPeLine Productions
Tracey has been providing HR support to PiPeLine Productions since the summer of 2022.
As a company that grew quickly without really taking time out to fully consider the broad spectrum of HR matters, Tracey was initially engaged to establish a professional HR framework, including the development of structured processes and systems. As part of this, Tracey conducted interviews with staff to gain a clear understanding of their roles and subsequently produced comprehensive job descriptions, ensuring each team member had absolute clarity regarding their responsibilities. From these job descriptions, she designed tailored induction and training plans for every role, creating accountability for managers to deliver training and confirm staff competence. This has made the training of new members of staff a lot more planned, deliberate, and meaningful as well as stepping up the levels of accountability.
In addition, Tracey developed new contracts of employment that not only ensure legal compliance but also include provisions designed to protect the business. She tightened up our HR policies ensuring we operated fairly and within employment law. More recently she has supported us with a new anti-harassment & anti-bullying policy with risk assessments which has ensured we are compliant with the new sexual harassment legislation. She has also implemented an online HR system, populated employee records, and provided guidance to staff and managers on how to use the platform to access their information. This has significantly improved our ability to manage areas such as sickness absence and training.
Tracey has also offered invaluable expertise in handling complex employee relations matters, including grievances, investigations, disciplinary processes, and appeals, all of which have been conducted with the utmost professionalism, fairness, and discretion.
Throughout her time with us, Tracey has supported numerous recruitment campaigns and has ensured that employment checks and compliance procedures for new staff have been completed.
And finally, on top of all of the changes she implemented and supported within the business, as a company director, Tracey has been an invaluable sounding board and confidant, providing me with a fellow professional with whom I can discuss not only HR matters, but wider business concerns, strategies, and ideas.
I would not hesitate to recommend Tracey to any organisation seeking expert support in establishing and maintaining professional HR systems and processes.
People Management and Development
Matt Gibson, Managing Director, Hambleton Steel
After an interview with our directors and investors in June 2022 Tracey was asked to help our company with our people management and development. We were starting a new phase of company development and growth. Initially we asked her to focus on the engagement of our factory staff. She quickly got to work interviewing all team members to understand what they liked about working for the company and what they’d like to change amongst other things. Tracey presented the results to the directors and proposed a leadership development programme for our supervisors. This was delivered with great success and our supervisors graduated in January 2024.
During her time with us Tracey also reviewed and updated our contracts of employment, staff handbook and HR policies. She worked well with our Payroll Officer to train staff and managers with the revised policies and processes, especially absence management. She also introduced an online HR system and worked with our Payroll Officer to create a project plan to get everyone’s data online, which is now working well.
During her time with us Tracey remained resilient and positive and I am glad we appointed her to help us. I would have no hesitation in recommending Tracey if you need to overhaul your HR and develop your managers.
One Stop HR Shop!
John Wild – Managing Director – CPOMS
In November 2019 Tracey was asked by our Chairman to provide strategic HR support to our young management team. At that time we employed approximately 50 staff and had no formal HR. Tracey interviewed a cross section of staff and all directors to understand their goals, amongst other things. She then developed a HR Strategy and framework that would support the achievement of our business goals. This included workshops with all Directors to create HR policies. They were then invited to attend a Leadership Development Programme and Executive Coaching which Tracey delivered. Whilst all this was happening she also helped to create job descriptions, accountability matrices and a performance management system that linked with a pay grading scheme.
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During the following year we created Team Leader roles. Tracey was instrumental in setting up internal interviews and assessments and supporting Directors who were inexperienced in this area. Successful candidates were invited to attend the Leadership Development Programme and were also offered Executive Coaching. During the two years that Tracey has been helping us she has transformed how we manage and lead our people. Most leaders are either coaching and mentoring a team member or are being coached and mentored themselves. We currently have a third group going through the Leadership Development Programme.
In addition to this she has also set up a recruitment process and created templates for job adverts, interview questions, contracts of employment and employment checks. She has also helped us with a few employee relations issues along the way. We now have 70 staff and continue to grow.
I would have no hesitation in recommending Tracey to any organisation who is wishing to achieve its business goals by developing employee engagement. She is knowledgeable, easy to work with and most importantly understands how HR can support the commercial aspects of a business.
Complex Grievance Investigation
I wanted to take this opportunity to recognise the great work you did on behalf of one of my clients recently.
Your thorough approach, attention to detail and skilful people management appeared to be appreciated by employer and employee alike. Whilst the parties may have been bitterly
antagonistic and distrusting of one another, it didn’t appear at any stage that either side doubted your fairness or even handedness.
From my perspective, your methodical and careful way of dealing with the investigation was enormously helpful and, I strongly suspect, played a significant part in persuading the parties to put aside their differences and find common ground in order to draw a line under the matter.
I won’t hesitate to continue to refer and recommend you where there is opportunity to do so.
Executive Coaching & Training
Since Tracey has been working with our fee earners and manager we have seen an increase in output, with one person more than doubling their productivity. We have also noticed that managerial skills have improved. The team say of their executive coaching and training:
“I really look forward to meeting with Tracey as I feel I can really talk to her“
“ Tracey is friendly and really knowledgeable and has massively helped my time management”
“We’ve seen a marked improvement in the performance of the team as whole”
Thank-you for your ongoing support Tracey!
Employee Dismissal
I recently asked Tracey, HR Director at Practical People, to help me with an urgent HR issue.
As soon as I contacted Tracey, she knew exactly what to do and started work to help us do this immediately. I was absolutely awestruck with Tracey’s professionalism, knowledge, skills, and demeanour. She was also extremely reliant.
Tracey took a huge amount of stress and anxiety away from me, allowing me to resume normal business activities as quickly as possible.
I would not hesitate to recommend Tracey to any business who needs help with their HR. Tracey is a very valued member of our team and an absolute asset to any organisation. Thank you Tracey.
Recruitment
I recently asked Tracey to support Equals One with the recruitment of a new member of staff. Tracey was sent over 200 applications to screen. She quickly and efficiently reduced this number and undertook preliminary telephone interviews. Tracey presented me with a shortlist of 6 candidates. After successfully conducting face to face interviews I have a new member of staff starting on 4th January and Tracey has also been instrumental in pulling together the contract of services.
Tracey is very thorough and professional and I would not hesitate in recommending Practical People.
Contracts of Employment and HR Policies
During the initial discussions, Tracey was very attentive to detail and took on what we required along with her expert knowledge to create bespoke HR policies, staff employment contracts and our company staff handbook. She spent a lot of time with us on the phone speaking to us about ways we can encourage our staff to bring the best out of them and provide excellent client communication. Her policies can be used for a lifetime for our company.
Contracts of Employment and HR Policies
We contacted Practical People to assist us with updating our HR policies, staff contracts, and staff handbook. Tracey was friendly, thorough, and professional and made the process very simple for our busy Managing Director. We would highly recommend Practical People’s services to any business looking to update their policies and procedures.
Recruitment
I had the pleasure of working with Tracey to recruit a new manager for our practice. From start to finish, Tracey demonstrated exceptional professionalism and expertise. She conducted thorough video interviews and then face to face one-to-one meetings with potential candidates and myself, providing invaluable insights and leveraging her extensive experience in HR.
Her keen understanding of our needs and her ability to identify the right fit for our team were truly impressive. Thanks to her efforts, we successfully hired a fantastic manager.
I highly recommend Tracey for any HR needs. Her dedication and skill make her an asset to any organisation.
Recruitment
Tracey was recommended to me as we were needing assistance with the recruitment of a new practice manager. I was struggling with how to make it a thorough and robust process. I was also finding it hard to make the time, as a busy GP partner to give the process the time it needed.
From the first contact, Tracey’s vast experience and skills were evident. She just “got it” and always had the right solution and suggestions. Nothing was too much trouble and her input was invaluable. Tracey is professional but easy to work with, always making sure our requirements were at the forefront of the process. She took the hard work out of our hands, doing the initial shortlisting, shortlisting interviews, project, and finally the interview selection day. We could not have done it without her. We were delighted with the quality of the applicants we received, and with the outcome, and we have Tracey to thank for that. If anyone is needing assistance with any recruitment process, I would not hesitate in recommending Tracey.
Successful Employment Tribunal
I became Secretary of our private members club in March 2021. The club had not had a Secretary for about 3 months prior to me joining and I sometimes wish I had never taken on the job! The club was having trouble with senior bar staff working hours that they wanted to and claiming over-time when it was not needed. This had to stop. I have never been in this kind of position before and needed help. I was introduced to Tracey Hirst of Practical People by our solicitor and it was the best thing that could have happened.
Tracey put us in the picture with employment law which none of the committee had any experience of. By this time we were also having serious issues with their conduct. Tracey helped us to navigate the investigation meetings, disciplinary hearings, grievances and appeals. In the end the staff were dismissed.
One staff member took us to an Employment Tribunal for unfair dismissal. They thought that they could win by taking us to court. Unfortunately for them Judge Jaleel said we had done everything correctly and the case against us was dismissed. I would just like to say to Tracey once again on behalf of our club thank-you for all the hard work you put in to helping me through the worst time of my life. Once again, many thanks Tracey.
Leadership Programme
Tracey is a fantastic trainer, with a wealth of knowledge and experience which brought a great deal of value to the in-depth leadership programme I recently had the pleasure of attending. She’s really approachable and makes you feel at ease and confident no matter what the content of the sessions, even around any hard hitting questions and how to deal with them. She is also very flexible in taking a hybrid approach to training, with some courses onsite and some remotely, we even had a mixture of people both in the office and at home during some of the sessions which Tracey handled beautifully. She finds really positive ways to make things interactive and maintain focus, while learning and having a great time while doing so. I have thoroughly enjoyed the course and have already started implementing a lot of the knowledge and information learned during the sessions. Many thanks again Tracey!
Complex Grievance Investigation
I engaged Tracey recently to manage a complex employee complaint and carry out an independent, objective investigation with an outcome document and report.
Her approach was both sensitive to the difficult issues , and professional throughout. She was balanced and left no stone unturned.
I would most certainly engage Tracey again to act as a non-employed, impartial investigating officer. The quality of her output was high and her general approach worked well with our business and culture.
Disability Awareness
For some time now I have had the tremendous pleasure of employing the professional services of Tracey Hirst and her business Practical People for my projects on autism awareness and workplace bullying through my non for profit organisation.
Tracey has both compiled and delivered webinars. Recently this involved delivering a webinar on autism in the workplace to a large housing association, Accent Group, with an audience of in excess of one hundred attendees with a good many more wanting to watch the recorded session.
Tracey’s experience and skills in the fields of HR are second to none, as is her passion to make a positive difference in peoples lives and support ethical values and good causes. Her commitment in areas such as stopping workplace bullying and creating fairer and more supportive and inclusive workplaces clearly comes across in her work with Practical People. The services and costs are also entirely reasonable, excellent value and provide for a very good investment
Recruitment
After trying many approaches with regards to recruitment, we decided that we needed a specialist, that could grow with us and have the knowledge to advise us on all aspects of recruitment.
We work closely with Tracey and see her as a valuable extension to our own company.
Tracey is always straight talking and approachable. Her knowledge is unrivalled and she is considered an expert within the industry.
We look forward to working with Tracey again in the near future.
Employee Relations
I recently asked Tracey to help with an HR issue, we are always keen as a company to make sure we look after our employees and want to make sure any decisions we make are under the right advice.
The issue we had I thought was a little tricky and possibly sensitive. However, we talked to Tracey and she gave us a couple of options for handling the issue, she also gave us guidance on how we could handle the situation both morally and legally.
We were also provided with all the templates we needed to deal with the employee and reach a conclusion.
Tracey gave a good commercial view and made the process very easy.
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