I worked closely with Richard over 5 years during his time as HR Director at Synergy Health and STERIS. Together, we designed and implemented a suite of bespoke HR information and workflow systems for the company intranet. Richard was the project sponsor and I acted as the architect/developer.

Throughout our time working together, I was consistently impressed by Richard’s detailed knowledge of HR legislation, company policy and business process and the way each applied to HR information systems. His expertise provided a solid foundation for me as I set out to meet his brief to deliver robust, secure, usable software which was focused on getting the right information from the end user as quickly and as easily as possible. Richard’s vision was such that, in addition to delivering a compelling user experience, the systems were also built to provide traceability for auditors and full authorisation/management information capabilities for his team of HR managers.

In the end, Richard and his team designed the systems so successfully that they were able to devolve nearly all the most time-consuming clerical tasks to business administrators, whilst retaining full control and visibility, thereby removing the need for costly, centralised HR administration and freeing them up as HR professionals to focus on matters that required their particular skills and expertise.

As the above amply demonstrates, Richard has a keen eye for innovation and he managed the projects in a way that made my daily duties very enjoyable. He has an intuitive understanding of when to take guidance and when to give it; it was a pleasure working with him and any forward-thinking organisation would be fortunate to have him as its HR Director. I recommend him without reservation.