Sarah Tomson has set up her own business and is passionate about helping business owners to identify and solve their HR issues.
She has more than 18 years experience with large businesses in Warwickshire, since she moved to the Midlands back in 2000. She started her career at Peugeot, spending time at the Ryton plant in Coventry. She then spent nearly ten years working in HR for Financial Services at NFU Mutual in Stratford Upon Avon which gave her a taste for the challenges that small businesses face through their tied agency network. Her last corporate employer was Wolseley UK in Leamington Spa where she managed a team of HR Business Partners and worked on large transformation projects.
After gaining experience in recruitment, reward, shared services, change and employee relations, Sarah decided it was time to set up her own business.
She is working with her first clients in the technology sector and is finding that sometimes small businesses don’t know that they aren’t legally compliant so she has introduced an HR Healthcheck questionnaire to diagnose where businesses need support first. Taking clients through this approach means that she can ensure that clients are complying with employment law as well as having policies that fit with the culture of their business.
Sarah received free business advice from the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce through the Coventry and Warwickshire Business Support Programme. This included workshops advising on how to start your own business as well as social media strategy and building a website etc.
Sarah said: “I ask questions to help business owners understand what they need to do to be compliant with employment law so that they can get on to the fun side of building their team and growing their business. I’m a very down to earth person who believes in coaching leaders so that they can become self-sufficient in running their teams.”
“The business leaders know that they need some help but haven’t reached the stage where it makes sense to recruit a full-time HR person. They are looking for someone to partner with them who will understand their business and make sure that any advice is right for them, rather than just being based on legislation or on best practice.”
Sarah was also supported by Margaret Bull from the Chamber: “My business advisor was one of the first people I met in the early days of setting up my business and she helped me to believe that I would make a success of it. She was there to point me in the right direction of useful resources but what I really valued was the personal encouragement that she gave me. She made me think about putting the foundations in place at the start to allow my business to grow. The free support and resources that the Chamber have provided me with have been a huge help with the steep learning curve I’ve been on.”
The Coventry and Warwickshire Business Support Programme is funded by the European Regional Development Fund, in partnership with Coventry City Council, Warwickshire County Council and the District and Borough Councils.
The Chamber’s start-up team are able to extend the support to clients that have already started their businesses but have been trading less than 12 months. It offers a full range of free masterclasses, workshops and one-to-one mentoring.
For more information or to book onto the business support programme call the Chamber on 014 7665 4336 or log onto www.cw-chamber.co.uk
