HRLife turns 2!
Happy birthday to us, Happy Birthday to us, Happy birthday to HRLife, Happy Birthday to us!
Launched on October 2nd, 2017, HRLife is now celebrating its 2nd year! The fond memories of drafting the initial website design, choosing the database, reigniting our network and getting some of the basic processes set up are now just a distant memory as it’s been a busy two years but wow, we have loved it! Juggling a new start-up and ensuring we found a balance between work and family life was always going to be tricky, but we feel we’re getting there and have even managed to pick up a few hobbies on the way – yoga and netball amongst them!
A massive change for both of us having left the corporate world behind, but we have loved setting the company culture, direction and really working out what is important for us, our clients and candidates and putting our mark on something that we’ve created and think is really very special. We were asked the other day what three words we’d use to describe the culture at HRLife (a question we ask all candidates!) and we quickly agreed on flexible and collaborative, but the third was harder to decide on and we bounced around knowledgeable, friendly, perceptive, open and honest. I guess that the third one will be up for debate for a little while longer.
Having celebrated our first-year milestone and felt the magic start to really happen, year 2 was very much about revamping our website and strengthening our social media and brand presence. We partnered with a digital media agency that supported us with this in various ways – if you’re following our company page on LinkedIn, you’ll have seen some of the new stuff we’ve launched so far. More exciting things to come further down the line.
Whilst no two days have been the same and our individual learnings have been high, there have been some sizeable shifts and developments outside HRLife, in the HR market too. Things have moved on quite considerably – are we on the cusp of a ‘’people” revolution? Is People the new HR? Job titles have gone crazy – it feels as though so many are trying to cram the word Talent into every single one and so we’ve seen some extraordinarily long ones! IR35 looms over us in the private sector too. The only thing that hasn’t moved on in two years is Brexit (the least said about that, the better!). With wellbeing, mental-health and D&I being pretty much top on most HR agendas nowadays, things feel like they’re about to get really interesting.
Looking back, we can’t say we had a set-in-stone 2, 3 or 5-year business plan, but we did have a few key HRlife goals….
- Think like entrepreneurs and set up a business we believed in – tick
- Step out of our comfort zone and learn new skills – double tick!
- Gain a better work / life balance – tick
- Be the heart of HRLife and get back on the tools – triple tick
- Tailor our approach every time to ensure it works for our clients – tick
So, all in all, a fun and rewarding 2 years – thanks to everyone who has been part of it and we are looking forward to seeing what year 3 brings…