Emily Gibson (MCIPD)
Emily began her HR career in 2004 at global airline catering company Gate Gourmet, Heathrow Airport.
She studied for her Post-Graduate Diploma in Human Resources at Farnborough College of Technology, graduating in 2007 and later went on to earn her Chartered membership status within the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development).
In 2008 Emily moved in to her first consultant role with Right Hand HR, covering the South of England. In 2012, she continued her career, in-house, within the oil & gas sector where she worked for global organisation Petrofac in Woking. However, in 2013 Emily decided that consultancy was where she wanted to be and so worked at Kane Partnership for 3 years before making the move to establish her own business at the HR patch Ltd in 2016.
Emily's early career was within food retail management and then recruitment consultancy.
Emily continues her professional development by networking with other HR personnel and employment lawyers, regularly attending training sessions and business seminars to widen her knowledge for the benefit of her clients.
In 2019 Emily applied to become a Non-Legal Panel Member with the Employment Tribunals Service and, following a thorough assessment and interview process, she was appointed as a panel member at the Reading branch, taking her judicial oath in February 2020.
Throughout her career she has supported clients in managing a variety of scenarios from the implementation of new contracts & policies, the management of complex employee issues, through to leading on larger scale projects, such as restructures, redundancies, TUPE transfers and preparing employment tribunal defence bundles.
You can learn more detail about Emily's experience and read recommendations of her work by visiting her LinkedIn profile here.
Milly Harding (Associate CIPD)
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Milly started her HR journey in 2013, working at the Head Quarters for a global franchise business based in Devon. Before that, you could find her teaching heating engineers their health & safety qualifications in the classroom.
She soon got a taste for the people element of HR and went on to work for a nationwide fire alarm business that had no HR support whatsoever and needed someone to help add structure to the business. It was then that she began her CIPD qualifications toward Human Resources. Since then, Milly has gone on to set up the infrastructure in and supported various SME’s within the South West as an in house, one-man band. During this time, she gained her Level 5 CIPD in Human Resource Management and Level 5 Leadership and Management qualifications.
In 2020, Milly took the plunge into consultancy, she is a regular on the networking scene and attends many business seminars to continue her professional development. Most recently, in 2022 Milly completed her Level 7 CIPD Diploma in Human Resource Management.
Milly’s career has seen her support clients ranging from entrepreneurial tech start-ups, to well established businesses in a variety of industries. No two situations are ever the same and Milly has experience leading on the implementation of new HR software, complex employment cases on matters such as conduct, capability and redundancy, to getting stuck in supporting with culture, motivation and engagement campaigns.
You can learn more detail about Milly's experience and read recommendations of her work by visiting her LinkedIn profile here.
Nicola Smith (Associate CIPD)
Nicola started her career in a marketing role within the public sector organisation, having completed a BA (hons) Degree in Business Management.
In 2012, she discovered her passion for people working as an HR Officer for a telecommunications company based in Cheshire. Following on from this, Nicola managed the entire HR function for a charity and its associated businesses.
In 2020, Nicola started her own independent HR Consultancy supporting small businesses and other HR consultants. Working in a standalone HR position for many years, she has gained a diverse wealth of HR experience, managing and guiding businesses through complex employment situations in a variety of industries ranging from telecommunications, health & social care, hospitality, law firms, manufacturing and charities. Nicola prides herself on her ability to identify the most suitable HR solution to suit the needs of a business, based on their individual needs.
Not only does Nicola have a wealth of experience, but she has also gained her Level 5 CIPD in Human Resource Management.
You can learn more about Nicola’s experience and read recommendations of her work by visiting her LinkedIn profile here.
Laura Fox
Laura began her HR career back in 2011 and has since worked in various roles both inhouse and in consultancy, before starting her own business in 2022 and joining the HR patch team as an associate.
She graduated from the University of Wolverhampton in 2012 with a CIPD Level 7 Postgraduate Diploma in Human Resources Management.
Whilst Laura’s career started out supporting a construction business, she has a wealth of experience in other industries from manufacturing, transport, healthcare, education, hospitality to name a few and she also has also supported businesses internationally.
Laura is particularly skilled at supporting clients with complex disciplinary and grievance cases. She also loves a good change management project and enjoys getting her hands dirty with implementing HR policies and processes for new clients.
You can learn more about Laura's experience and read recommendations of her work by visiting her LinkedIn profile here.
Katie Paskin (MCIPD)
Katie began her HR career in 2007 in the civil service and has worked in a range of different public and private sector bodies, including retail, healthcare and the charity sector.
This experience includes 4 years working with ACAS, where Katie gained immense experience dealing with thousands of Employment Tribunal claims. Katie became a mediator for ACAS, delivered HR training to businesses and specialised in unfair dismissal and discrimination claims.
Katie has her CIPD Level 7 in Human Resource Management and was awarded MCIPD status. She has worked within John Lewis as an Employment Law Specialist, providing advice on a range of issues throughout the business, across the UK. This included dealing with tribunals as well as claims within the Employment Appeal Tribunal and the Court of Appeal.
Having been a manager involved in tribunal hearings, Katie understands the importance of managing difficult staffing issues correctly.
Katie now works with smaller businesses providing advice around employment law and employee relations issues.She helps businesses to form solutions which balance their need to robustly and quickly resolve problems, while aiming to minimise risks.
You can learn more about Katie's experience and read recommendations of her work by visiting her LinkedIn profile here.
Dawn Spear
After over 10 years of working as a PA to CEO level across multiple organisations, and dealing with many aspects of HR as part of this, Dawn decided to re-focus her career on HR.
Having gained a CIPD qualification, Dawn moved into the role of HR Manager within the tech company she worked at the time, building on the small number of people practices which were in place.
Over nearly 15 years in the business, and through multiple acquisitions of other businesses, Dawn has gained a wide range of experience across all aspects of HR. In particular, Dawn enjoys working with culture, integration, HR data and systems, leading on the implementation of HR Software to help businesses manage their data and free time from admin!
Dawn started her HR Consultancy business in 2022 and helps start-up and micro businesses ensure their HR foundations are in place for their future growth.
You can learn more about Dawn's experience and read recommendations of her work by visiting her LinkedIn profile here.
Emma Shanahan (MCIPD)
Emma began her career in 2000 working for a charity, The David Lewis Centre For Epilepsy which is a care centre and educational provision for adults and children. In this role she gained a lot of generalist HR experience and also completed her level 7 CIPD diploma in 2005. She has, since then had experience of working in a number of different industries including travel, with My Travel and housing, working as a Senior HR Advisor at Trafford Housing Trust in Manchester.
After a number of years in employment, Emma then moved on to support her own family business, MAN v FAT which grew quickly into a national football league supporting men to lose weight and get fit. Emma's role was to support the business as it grew, delivering HR support and direction in a fast changing climate as the business grew from 2 members of staff to 100.
During the pandemic Emma completed her ILM Level 7 in Coaching & Mentoring and also became a Mental Health First Aider.
In 2021 Emma set up as an Independent HR Consultant and now works with a range of clients to support their HR needs, and is also delighted to be part of the HR Patch team as an Associate Consultant.
You can find out more about Emma and recommendations of her work on her LinkedIn profile here.
Trish Guy
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Prior to becoming a virtual assistant, Trish had a varied career with over 25 years experience working HR, tax and most recently in higher education. Her love of organising and helping others runs through them all and led her to join Pink Spaghetti as a franchisee in January 2023. Her clients are mainly small business owners and consultants but she also supports a small charity.
As a virtual assistant, Trish supports the HR Patch Consultants with a range of admin tasks. She has a wide range of skills and industry experience and particularly enjoys research and process improvement.
You can learn more about Trish's experience and read recommendations of her work by visiting her LinkedIn profile here.