How switching to Employment Hero gave Signature Career Management the support it needed
30 mins
a week is now all it takes
to run HR day-to-day
1 platform
replacing paper forms, spreadsheets and an old HR system
30 staff
the growth target by 2030
Company
Signature Career Management
Industry
Recruitment
Employees
16
Location
United Kingdom
Favourite Features
About the business
Signature Career Management is a specialist recruitment consultancy working exclusively within FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods), placing marketing, sales, e-commerce and RGM talent. Founded in 2017 by husband and wife Emilie and Andrew Gregson, the business started in their home office and has grown to a 16-person team based in Macclesfield. HR Manager Libby joined in 2023, bringing HR platform experience from larger businesses.
The challenge
When Libby joined, Signature Career Management had based their people function on People HR’s system, alongside a combination of spreadsheets and documents. Libby tried to get properly set up on People HR, but struggled to get help from their support team. Trying to get a response was, in her words, one of the worst parts of the job.
“The lack of service from People HR was a huge thing. HR can be time sensitive, and when you don’t get a quick response. You just don’t know where to go, because there’s no channels for you to speak to, and nobody follows up.”
With growth plans to reach 30 staff by 2030, Libby needed a system that would scale with the business rather than become a blocker. She wanted a platform with automated workflows to make processes simpler, and spent roughly six months researching alternatives before making the case to switch.
The solution
What sealed the decision to switch was, interestingly, the sales conversation itself.
“[The Sales Rep] wasn’t salesy at all. She asked what we needed the platform to do, told me how Employment Hero would solve our pain points, and then just said, let me know if you have any questions. I didn’t feel pushed, unlike all the others.”
Since switching, Employment Hero has taken on the parts of HR that used to consume Libby’s week. Onboarding checklists prompt the next step automatically, digital documents are signed for all policies, leave management is built with holiday group rules to prevent teams being under-resourced, and reporting keeps her on top of the business.
“The onboarding stuff is dead good. I don’t have to think about what I’m doing, it’s just there. It’s all automated so I don’t have to chase document signing and I don’t have any paperwork.”
Support that actually resolves things
For a small business with a single HR representative, how quickly a problem gets solved matters as much as any feature. This is where the switch has paid off most visibly for Libby.
Employment Hero’s AI-powered chat is her first port of call, and unlike previous experiences, it’s built to give a working answer rather than a dead end.
“It’s a really good AI support bot, one of the best ones I’ve used. Mostly, the help guides it surfaces help me resolve the issue on my own. If I do need to speak to somebody, everyone’s brilliant. They know exactly what to do and follow up by email the next day.”
That combination, AI support that’s genuinely useful for common queries plus human follow-up when it counts, has removed the exact frustration that drove Libby to look for a new platform in the first place.
The ROI
- HR admin cut to under 30 minutes a week, freeing Libby to run marketing and events as the core of her role instead.
- Support queries resolved through AI-guided self-service for common issues, with human follow-up by email when needed.
- One platform replacing paper forms, spreadsheets and an underused legacy People HR system.
- Growth-ready infrastructure, built to scale toward the target of 30 staff by 2030 without adding administrative overhead.
- Full team adoption via the mobile app, with staff citing real-time notifications for things like holiday approvals as the main reason they prefer it.
“Employment Hero has been pivotal in making HR the smallest part of my role. If I was off sick for a month, somebody could come in and it would just carry on running without me.”
Why it matters
Growing businesses rarely fail because of one big decision. They stall because of dozens of small ones, a support ticket that goes nowhere, a process nobody remembers to run, a platform that makes sense at 12 people but buckles at 25. Signature Career Management’s story is about closing that gap before it becomes a growth constraint.
For a business built on people-first values, in an industry built on relationships, having a platform (and a support team) that actually responds when it’s needed, is a key differentiator for success.
“I’ve used really rubbish systems, and I’ve used all-singing, all-dancing ones built for big global companies that you wouldn’t need at our size. Employment Hero bridges that gap perfectly.”
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Frequently Asked Questions
Support starts with an AI-powered chat assistant built into the platform, designed to resolve common queries immediately with accurate, relevant guidance rather than generic help articles. Signature Career Management’s Workplace Manager, Libby, describes it as “one of the better AI bots I’ve used” precisely because the guidance it gives usually solves the problem without needing a human. When an issue does need a person, Employment Hero’s support team follows up directly. It’s a stark contrast to Signature’s previous platform, where the biggest complaint was no clear channel to get a response at all.
The most common complaint about legacy HR platforms isn’t functionality, it’s what happens when you need help. Before switching, Signature Career Management struggled for months to get timely responses from their previous provider, with no clear escalation channel and requests going unanswered. Employment Hero’s combination of an accurate AI assistant for immediate self-service, backed by human support that follows up reliably, was the single biggest factor in Signature’s decision to switch platforms.
Yes. Signature Career Management ran on paper holiday forms and spreadsheets before implementing an HR platform, then found their first system wasn’t fit for purpose either. Employment Hero now handles onboarding checklists, digital document signing, leave management with configurable holiday group rules, and reporting, replacing manual processes that previously relied on someone remembering to run them.
For Signature Career Management, HR admin now takes roughly half an hour a week on a typical week, down from what would otherwise have needed a full-time HR function. That time has been reinvested into marketing and events, work that previously wouldn’t have fit alongside a heavier HR admin load.
It should be built to. Signature Career Management chose Employment Hero specifically because their previous platform, built for very small teams, was already showing signs it wouldn’t support their growth plans of reaching 30 staff by 2030. Libby describes Employment Hero as bridging the gap between a small SME’s needs and the more comprehensive systems used by much larger organisations, without the complexity or cost that usually comes with that jump.
