MCBS Electrical Ltd Hannah Fennelly, Head of HR & Organisational Development

Serving public and private sector clients, MCBS is an electrical contractor, headquartered in Colchester and reaching out to clients in Essex, London, and neighbouring counties.

Who?

Founded in 2007 by Shane Rayner and Ben Waldron, with Shane Rayner becoming sole owner in 2021. MCBS has very much become a trusted electrical contractor for large scale public sector organisations, including schools, hospitals and other complex business operations.

The 25-strong team provide design, supply, installation and commissioning of all electrical systems.

Some 15 years on, the firm continues to grow at pace – in scale and reputation.

The background

MCBS is no stranger to working with HR providers, nor to seeing the merits of having such a function.

The business was previously working with a consultancy, which had helped them to deliver on certain key employee matters.

However, pivotal to a need for change was the desire by the Head of HR and Organisational Development, to continue to develop further HR knowledge and bring skills of that nature ‘in house’.

Backed by the support of her Managing Director, Hannah Fennelly was supported in achieving her CIPD level 3 qualification.

This naturally changed what was required of the existing outsourced consultancy, and created an opportunity to consider what a different HR service provider might bring to Hannah’s role, and to MCBS more widely.

The case for support

Hannah’s learnings through her professional course enabled her to recognise that she could take certain practices in-house, but she was also clear that she would like to work with a trusted consultancy to continue developing as a HR professional, and to have additional support where needed.

MAD-HR was suggested to the company’s Senior Leadership Team, and the companies met in the Autumn of 2021.

The approach

After taking time to carefully understand what the company’s key leaders felt to be the greatest HR priority, and to recognise what Hannah now most needed to fulfil her role in the business, it was decided that MAD-HR’s Toolkit and Helpline would be the appropriate solution.

This would allow Hannah to call upon resources and updates available in the MAD-HR’s suite of materials, while also being able to put in a phone call for further advice if specific issues or queries might arise.

Hannah says: “While we had worked with HR consultancies before, they had different qualities and we felt that in order to further develop as a business and changes we wanted to make, working with another HR consultancy may be more beneficial long term. MAD-HR seemed a good fit due to the online toolkit being much further developed than what we had previously been working with, which enables me to be more independent in my work.”

Hannah is able to use the toolkit as and when she needs some extra support and guidance on documents which has proved to be effective in managing her work with ease.

“Having so many templates, letters and documents in one place is very useful for me to manage my workload,” she says.

“I feel I can act quite independently and with authority in so many ways, to keep our leadership team and employees informed and to handle most daily functions in a way which best fits with our culture.

“If there is an occasion where I need something further, I will drop an email or pick the phone up to MAD-HR to brainstorm ideas before coming up with a solution.”

The verdict

Since engaging with MAD-HR, Hannah is developing the relationship with working with a new consultancy and feels that adopting the Toolkit and Helpline approach has been a good way to support continual progress within the different HR functions.

“This is the right solution for us and feels like it allows us to access what we need, when we need it.

“We know that the information we’re making use of has come from a very trusted source, and that we are applying it with the back-up of a helpful, friendly and thoroughly professional team.”

Top client tip

“HR is a real important function of any business, so having access to up-to-date information is so valuable.”

*Read more about MCBS…