Get home safely – this is the mantra that drives everything HR, health and safety, and wellbeing specialist THSP does.
Dealing mainly with construction industry customers, and the inevitably hazardous environments in that sector, the company understands the importance of compliance “across the piece”- as per SSIP (Safety Systems in Procurement) accreditation for example – in ensuring that people are put first.
Indeed, as Head of Customer Services and Sales Kirsty Maynard pointed out when we interviewed her about the company’s membership of Bedfordshire Chamber of Commerce recently, “people” is what the “P” in THSP stands for.
But there’s a lot more to the business than that, and if anybody should know, it’s Kirsty. She started at the company as a receptionist covering lunch breaks 20 years ago, and has experienced and contributed to every part of the business’s operations on the journey to her new position of Commercial Director from 1st September.
Hands-on, responsive, people-centric
Kirsty is keen to explain that THSP doesn’t see itself as an outsourced provider at a distance. Instead, it has always striven to work as part of the customer’s team – hands-on, responsive, and “done the people way.”
She puts this memorably - “No call centres,” she says, “no self-service-only portals, no long waits for a response to a support ticket, and definitely no chatbots!”
“You call, we listen. You need us there, we come. You ask, we answer. And if you need to learn and develop, we train and certify you. Site visits, inspections, and working within customers’ team are all part of the approach wherever needed.”
And it’s an approach that has paid extraordinary dividends. Across THSP’s combined HR, Employment Law, and Health and Safety solution, the business’s customer retention rate is 94%!
The Chamber: connections and more
Coming from an organisation so steeped in the importance of people, it’s hardly surprising that Kirsty values the Chamber highly for its ability to connect her and her colleagues to useful and helpful individuals – from potential suppliers, to potential customers, to the Chamber team itself.
“We build fantastic relationships through the Chamber’s networking events,” she enthuses, “and the Chamber team supports us greatly in our efforts to promote the business, through initiatives like the SME Bedfordshire Business Awards, which we were delighted to win recently!”
“It’s definitely a two-way relationship, and the Chamber is very open to that. For example, we provide the Chamber’s HR support line, and are running a HR lunch and learn session soon. Our knowledge and skills benefit the Chamber’s other members, and that introduces them to us as a business at the same time.”
Once again, for Kirsty, the people are the stars of the show. “Their team is so good,” she smiles, “particularly Paula and Scott. They’re totally focused, but at the same time they know everybody by name and they’re visible at every event.”
And those events have helped Kirsty enhance her own skill set. “I was not particularly strong at networking,” she admits, “but the Chamber’s events are different – they’re not forced at all, and I really enjoy them, and as a result my networking skills have improved significantly. In fact, it was at a Chamber Connect Over Coffee event that I learned to perfect my 60-second pitch!”
In short, Kirsty is clear that Chamber delivers way beyond the typical “cooked breakfast and business card” routine of many other membership organisations, and her business feels the benefit on multiple fronts.
As she says, “At the Chamber, we’re working with our kind of people.”
If you’d like to learn more about the benefits of Chamber membership, call us on (01582) 522448.
