We’re Spark HR

the HR consultancy for digital, creative & tech businesses.

About Us

We provide flexible and uncomplicated HR and training solutions to ambitious businesses in the digital, creative and technology industries.

Whether you’re a creative agency redefining brands or a digital business at the cutting edge of technology, a heritage brand at the forefront of fashion or a retailer reshaping the world of e-commerce, we can help you to get more from your people.

We know that it’s the people that make a business succeed and really stand out from the crowd. To enable this, you need to have the right people, with the right skills, performing to their potential. Our vision is, quite simply, to help our clients achieve this.

We therefore offer versatile HR consultancy to meet your business needs, including:

Retained

A retained “HR Manager/Director” service which provides you with all the benefits you would expect of an in-house HR department.

Project

Working on a project or assignment basis to support a short-term business need.

Ad-hoc

Ad-hoc HR support and advice, as and
when you need it.

Meet the founder

Spark HR was founded in 2013 by Dan Burt (BA Hons, MCIPD).

After spending over 15 years working for the likes of Aegis Densu, WPP, Vodafone and Xerox (to name a few), Dan wanted to take his HR knowledge and expertise and offer uncomplicated, jargon-free HR and training solutions to businesses who are creative, ambitious to grow and who really value their people.

As a consultant, he has worked with businesses big and small, helping them gain accolades including ‘Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For’ and ‘Investors in People’ accreditation.

Unusually for a HR professional, Dan loves to ask lots of questions, understand the problem and talk about what you can do – rather than tell you what you can’t do. He firmly believes that the role of HR is to work collaboratively with the business to achieve its vision and goals.

Outside of work, Dan loves coffee, cold mornings running through muddy fields (in the name of fitness!) and following the mighty Tottenham Hotspur.

What we do

Whether your business is big or small, starting out or established - we offer a range of HR and training solutions to help you grow and succeed.

The very best companies have strong values that sit at the heart of their culture. They know exactly what behaviours represent these values and therefore know what they expect from their people. We can help you to define the values and behaviours specific to your company culture. We can then work with you to link these to how you recruit, develop and retain your talent, and in turn help to drive a culture of high performance.

Making the wrong hiring decision can cost your business thousands, so investing time in getting this right is a smart move. This starts with clearly defining roles and responsibilities, having robust job descriptions and ensuring that line managers know exactly what they’re looking for. We can help you by reviewing your recruitment and selection strategy and provide practical support to make it as efficient and effective as possible.

We provide assessments to enable you to identify exactly the right person, by understanding their skills and ensuring they will be a good ‘fit’ for the team. Our assessments provide an independent measure of a person’s competencies, personality and motivations which are proven to predict future job performance and potential.

Induction and on-boarding are critical to the success of new joiners and set the tone for the rest of their time with you. Get this right, and not only will your new joiners be engaged from day one, they are more likely to be successful and therefore stay with you for years to come.

One key factor in employee retention is that people want to continue to grow and develop their skills. We can help you to identify and address your training needs. We offer a range of bite-sized training workshops including:
- Team-working & Collaboration
- Feedback: giving & receiving
- Effective Communication
- Being Effective (Time Management)
- Assertiveness
- Resilience
- Presentation Skills
- Train the Trainer

Setting expectations and providing regular feedback and recognition is critical to managing performance. Employees who have clear objectives, and receive regular feedback, stand a far greater chance of succeeding. We can help you develop and implement an appraisal system that is right for you and which will help you to harness the power of your people.

Reward and benefit schemes are not as unaffordable as you may think and can help you to recruit and retain the best people. They’re not just for corporates, many small and medium sized businesses also use them, to give them a competitive advantage and to set them apart as an employer of choice. If you’re interested in introducing a reward and benefits scheme for your people, we can help you.

Under-performance is easy to spot and often perceived as difficult to fix. The good news is, with the right support, you can overcome that hurdle. Poor job performance can be caused by several factors, the trick is to be able to identify them. Whatever the reason, you can benefit from the years of experience we have in resolving these issues.

People don’t quit their companies, they typically quit their bosses. The role of the line manager is one of the most important in a business. One of the strongest ways to create engagement and improve retention is through positive relationships between managers and their team. We can work with you to help upskill your managers either through a structured development programme or through more tailored 121 coaching.

There is a direct and proven link between engaged employees, client satisfaction and increased revenue and productivity. Employees who exhibit high engagement at work will infect countless customers with their enthusiasm and satisfaction. We can help you to run staff engagement surveys to accurately measure how happy, satisfied and motivated your workforce are. We can then work with you to use this insight to improve engagement and retain your people.

Managing your people issues can be a time-consuming activity for managers. Furthermore, employment law is complex, and mistakes are easy to make and costly to remedy. Our HR support service enables you to get the advice you need, when you need it, from an experienced, qualified HR consultant who understands your business challenges. This advice and support can be delivered over the telephone, via email and/or on-site as required.

It is essential to have robust policies and procedures to protect your business in the event of employee disputes. In addition, a company handbook projects a professional image of your company and helps induct new employees and set standards and expectations. Let us help you to get this right for your business.

BOOK A CALL

We follow a four-step process with our clients:

How we work

1. DISCOVER

Firstly, we make sure we fully understand you and your business. Putting knowledge before assumption means we will always make recommendations from a position of “we know” rather than “we think”.

2. CREATE

Following the discovery phase, we work with you to agree tailored priorities, plans and activities that work for your business.

3. EXECUTE

We help you to take the knowledge and recommendations and turn these into tangible actions. We work collaboratively with you to deliver your goals, making sure everyone and everything stays on track.

4. NURTURE

We will continue to work in partnership with you to ensure that we keep your approach to HR and talent management fresh, engaging and relevant as your business grows and evolves.

WHAT OUR CLIENTS SAY

"Dan has been supporting our business for over 4 years. He is always on hand to assist with tricky situations and provide the business with a way forward. Dan delivers a level of service that goes beyond normal consultancy, he feels part of the team and goes out of his way to make sure he really understands our people."

Amy Webb, Finance Director, Angel Solutions
"Dan's not your typical idea of an HR expert. And that's a good thing. Instead, his obvious expertise is matched with an approachability and informality that feels in tune with a more modern way of working. He's a good guy. We love him."

Dave Palmer, Executive Creative Director, LOVE Creative
"The service that Truth has been provided by Spark HR has been first class. Their advice and guidance has made often potentially difficult siturations straightforward and stress-free and I would not hesitate to recommend Spark HR to friends and peers."

Lisa French, Managing Partner, Truth
"Working with Dan has been invaluable. To a small business like ours, he brings a level of expertise that we simply couldn’t justify on a full-time basis. He’s implemented a comprehensive recruitment process and introduced tools such as psychometric testing to improve the way we assess candidates. Thanks to Dan, we’re now operating a league above where we would otherwise be able to."

Rob Gray, Founding Partner, Squad
"As a high growth business, we’re very time poor and our HR demands are constantly changing and evolving. Working with Dan to create a strategic plan for HR, implement improved systems and processes, and provide us with day-to-day support has been and will continue to be invaluable."

Nick Howe, CEO & Founder, Uniform Group
"We have been working with Dan for coming up to 2-years and Dan’s support is immense and vital to the growth of our company. Going from a small team with minimal processes/HR policies, Dan came in and pulled together a 12-month plan which took us to a organised people focussed organisation. Because of Dan, we have become an attractive employer and a team functioning very strongly."

Ash Rishi, Founder &; CEO, COUCH Health
"Dan has been an enormous help to us at SLG Agency. He’s worked to make every member of the team feel comfortable with some pretty significant changes, helping us to develop, embed and enhance our culture in a meaningful way. He’s part of the team."

Ryan Jones, Managing Director, SLG Agency
"Dan’s assistance has been invaluable at a time where we are growing quickly and haven’t yet got the infrastructure to support that. He very quickly got to know the business and its strengths and weaknesses, gave us actionable assistance to develop our HR processes and team, and gives us regular and valuable candidate sourcing for a variety of types of roles."

Marek Narkiewicz, CEO, GWD
"Dan has been part of our UK business for many years. He always has the right approach - paired with the experience needed for a successful result. On top of everything, he has a great sense of humour which makes working with him something to look forward to."

Marie Flackerup, CHRO, Axiell Group
“Dan has been a fantastic support to our small business, from helping us identify how we can improve our overall HR processes to advising us on how to approach difficult HR conversations; his advice and knowledge is truly invaluable. I’d highly recommend him to any business looking for an approachable, friendly, and proficient HR advisor!”

Charlotte Geer, Executive Assistant, Milky Tea
"Dan has a welcome common-sense approach to all matters and has carried out some very valuable team seminars to promote better performance and understanding, at all levels. He is very much a good fit for our size of team (30 employees) and was instrumental in our studio's winning submission for a very prestigious employee-ownership award."

Neil Hughes, Joint Managing Partner, Hayes Davidson