The OneSource HR founder on bringing a fresh approach to workplace conduct, combining specialist HR expertise with trauma-informed practice and new technology.
Tell us about your business/idea – sell yourself/it!
I run OneSource HR, a specialist HR consultancy focused on workplace conduct, sexual misconduct, complex employee relations and trauma-informed practice.
A big part of my work is helping organisations deal with difficult issues well, including investigations, harassment, disclosures, culture, conflict and risk. I am particularly passionate about bringing trauma-informed practice into mainstream HR and the private sector, where it is still really unusual.
Under OneSource HR, I created the CEASE® Framework, a registered and trademarked continuous improvement framework specifically for the prevention of sexual harassment. It takes a Plan, Do, Check, Act-style approach, making it especially relatable to quality-driven businesses across the North.
This year I also unveiled Scenari, an AI-powered workplace conduct platform built around practice rather than passive learning. My work now spans consultancy, specialist practice and technology, but it all comes back to taking difficult workplace problems and finding better, more practical ways to solve them.
What distinguishes your approach from the competition?
I think it is the combination of being commercial, creative and credible.
I have spent around 15 years in HR, including senior roles in fast-paced, male-dominated and operational environments, so I understand that HR has to work in the real world. Advice has to be legally sound, commercially sensible and practical enough for managers to actually use.
I am also entrepreneurial in the way I work, always looking at where the gaps are and asking whether there is a better way of doing something. That is how CEASE® came about and why I created Scenari.
Alongside that commercial experience, I have developed a specialist area of practice around trauma, sexual misconduct, victim-blaming and workplace conduct. I am interested in how people actually behave, how organisations really operate and how we can build something better around that.
What is the key ethos underpinning what you do?
Creativity, practicality and humanity probably sum it up best. I want to take complicated ideas and make them useful in real workplaces.
I am also a big believer in practice. People can know a policy inside out and still freeze when faced with a difficult conversation, disclosure or piece of behaviour. I am much more interested in helping people build the confidence to respond well when it actually counts.
Everything I create tends to start with the same question: what would make this more useful, relatable and likely to work in real life?
How can people get involved with what you do?
Organisations can work with me through OneSource HR on sexual harassment prevention, CEASE® risk assessments, investigations, workplace conduct training, complex employee relations and trauma-informed HR practice.
Through Scenari, employers can introduce practice-based workplace conduct learning, giving their people regular opportunities to build confidence through realistic scenarios.
I am also interested in collaboration, particularly with employers, HR practitioners, researchers, technology businesses and organisations working around workplace conduct, culture and gender-based violence.
What does success look like to you?
Success is seeing the impact of my work inside organisations. I am very analytical and believe strongly in demonstrating return on investment, whether through improved confidence, better reporting, stronger management capability, reduced risk or measurable shifts in understanding and behaviour.
I also love seeing the lightbulb moments in training, when somebody suddenly sees an issue differently or feels more confident about how they would respond.
I would love CEASE® to become a recognised approach to sexual harassment prevention and for more organisations to apply the same rigour to workplace conduct that they already apply to safety, quality and operational risk.
