TBN Spotlight: Chris Wilkinson of Expert HR Solutions

Chris Wilkinson set up Expert HR Solutions Limited in 2012 and recently won the best HR Service provider for the second year. Chris is a Total Boardroom Network member and is always full of useful advice when it comes to HR and employment. Here is our interview with Chris...

Introduce yourself Chris?

My first career was as a Royal Naval Officer joining in 1977. As the Military in those days did not have an HR department, all matters to do with managing people were devolved to Line Managers. I was also lucky enough to be selected to be a Staff Officer at the Officers training College in Dartmouth and to be part of the team setting up the equivalent in Saudi Arabia. On leaving the Navy I qualified as a Chartered Fellow of CIPD where I held a variety of roles including heading up the training team at the RNLI where we won the National Training Awards UK title. In 2012 I decided to leave corporate life and set up my own outsourced HR Service Company. Moira Brown, also a Chartered Fellow of CIPD, joined us in 2017 as a Co-Director.

Tell us all about your HR business?

Expert HR Solutions Limited was established in February 2012 with the ethic of adding business value to our clients in all that we do. We have always asked our clients what they think of our services and how we could improve. We use the Net Promoter score system and are very pleased to have never scored less than 75% which is considered world class. This was backed up by winning the SME Best Outsourced HR Service Provider England and Wales in 2022 and 2023. We also provide consultancy services to large corporates usually managing projects around mergers and acquisitions. We are proud to be Silver Armed Forces Covenant holders.

What are some of the services that you provide?

Our retained services are provided at three service levels.

The Silver standard is designed and priced to help start-ups be employment law compliant from the get go.

Gold is the most popular standard and includes almost every document and policy an SME is likely to need.

Platinum builds on Gold and almost all documentation can be bespoke to the needs of the client. It also offers a discount on any of our paid for services.

All three provide unlimited access to a helpline which will be answered by an assigned consultant.

The Gold and Platinum services include the Breathe HR IT system which we set up for them. Gold includes basic HR reports, Platinum includes whatever HR reports the client wants.

Was there a particular business highlight in 2023?

Obviously winning the best HR Service provider for the second year was a huge honour, but so was achieving for the second year a perfect 100% Net Promoter Score on a high response rate from our clients.

Have you got any key advice that you would like to share for 2024?

There are six very significant new pieces of employment law legislation coming into effect in 2024. All of these will affect most businesses. The first will come into effect in April. If you want to find out the implications, come along to a Total Boardroom Network meeting and find out.

What do you most love about working in Dorset?

Other business owners are so open, co-operative and willing to give their advice.

When you’re not busy working, what do you love doing in your time off?

Walking my dog.

Tell us about your favourite local restaurant in Dorset?

We are blessed with so many, but as I love Sea Food Rick Steins in Sandbanks has to be right up there.