The Sanderum Centre manages a network of serviced office facilities in South Oxfordshire. With buildings in Chinnor and Thame, the company provides a range of services for small businesses. These include office accommodation, meeting/conference capabilities, call handling, accountancy and IT services support.

“It is the broad range of services that distinguishes us from the likes of Regus,” said Caroline Southam, Managing Director, The Sanderum Centre. “We don’t just deliver office and meeting space. We provide all of the wrap around services that small companies need whilst they are still getting their business going. And being small ourselves we do this in a highly personalised way.”

The Sanderum Centre, along with a sibling company Sanderum Accountancy, now employ a total of seven full-time staff and one on a part-time basis. Each member of staff has been carefully recruited for a range of specific skills and motivation.

“We might be small but our business is founded on the quality of people that we employ,” continued Caroline. “Our customers rely on our staff to represent them on the telephone and in person whenever their customers contact them. So it’s vital that our staff are well trained, well motivated and above all enthusiastic for their work.”

Caroline has found that running and growing the business whilst trying to keep up with Human Resources legislation and best practice is an ordeal.

“I just can’t do both, so I decided to get some professional help on the HR side,” said Caroline. “I’d previously met with John Champion of EBS so I decided to give him a call. EBS are focused on small businesses so I felt that I’d get down-to-earth advice that was appropriate to our size and budget.”

Getting Started

EBS started the process by auditing The Sanderum Centre’s employee handbook and contracts.

“There were a number of changes that EBS recommended right away,” continued Caroline. “Whilst these were simple changes on the surface, they made sure that we were in line with all of the current legislative requirements and fully protected. It made me feel very comfortable that I’d chosen the right company to help us.”

Once the handbook and employee contracts were brought up to standard, EBS began to work with Caroline on providing ongoing HR support. There was an outstanding concern that Caroline had around one area of employee relations.

“I had a very specific HR issue to resolve but didn’t really know what to do about it,” added Caroline. “The arrangement that I had set up with EBS gave me access to one of their senior consultants whenever I needed it. So we had some long discussions and following their advice I resolved the issue in a positive way.”

This has helped Caroline maintain the consistency of staff service levels for Sanderum’s customers and has also avoided the potential cost and hassle of recruiting and training replacements.

“I’ve found EBS to be ever so helpful,” said Caroline. “Whenever I’ve got a query they respond very quickly with positive and easy to follow advice. Even if its as simple as how to calculate the holiday pay for our part-timer, EBS have a ready answer that I can understand.”

The next step in Caroline’s mind is to broaden the relationship with EBS to cover all of the health and safety issues that pertain to the serviced offices business.”

“Health and safety is a very complicated area for us,” concluded Caroline. “We have to take particular care as we have so many visitors in our facilities. EBS have a specialist consultant in that area who’ll be able to pinpoint exactly what we need to consider and how to go about it. It’ll save us a lot of time and cost. And that’s really been the theme of our relationship with EBS so far … they are well worth their fees in the sheer time and worry that they’ve saved me and my business. It’s nice to know that I’ve got someone in the background who’s constantly looking out for my interests.”

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