Who: New Forests| Industry: Sustainable Asset Management / Forestry | Headcount: 100+
New Forests operates as a sustainable real assets investment manager, offering leading-edge strategies across forestry, land management, and conservation.
The Challenge
The company initially lacked a dedicated HR resource, creating a pressing need to update existing policies and procedures to align with current legislation and establish consistency across different teams and offices. Having grown rapidly, their primary challenge and objective was moving away from ad-hoc processes toward a sophisticated, structured best-practice HR model while managing the organizational change process that comes with it.
The Solution
The Solution (How Harrisons Helped): To establish a formal learning and development (L&D) program, Employee Matters introduced Harrison Assessments, a holistic tool designed to pinpoint strengths and growth areas across work-related traits. Our expert collaborated closely with the company to conduct individual, face-to-face debriefs with all employees to address initial resistance, followed by a company-wide results presentation at an all-staff retreat.
The Results
The process provided clear visibility into development areas, allowing the company to successfully construct its long-term L&D program. It empowered employees to become highly proactive and open when discussing their professional growth and interests. Furthermore, it served as a significant team-bonding experience where staff openly shared their results, gaining deep insights into collective company traits and learning how to better navigate clashing communication styles
Client’s Own Words
“Having our Employee Expert allowed me to focus on formulating our longer term HR strategy whilst getting our company to a standardised set of HR policies and practices. It has taken the pressure off dealing with many of the day to day issues and brought a professional and thoughtful approach to dealing with a broad range of matters. It has allowed me to set the platform for our executive team in formulating priorities for HR in our business planning and to develop a resource that is well respected and integral to the success of our business.”
Kym Hooper, Chief Operating Officer