The Business
The site and buildings of the Palace is owned by the Church Commissioners and operated by The Palace Trust, a registered charity which manages the site as a heritage visitor attraction. Run as a visitor attraction on behalf of the Church Commissioners, the medieval palace welcomes approximately 500,000 visitors over its drawbridge each year – all eager to make use of the croquet lawn and cafe. At least a third of these visitors will then pay to visit the Palace itself and its 14 acres of gardens.
The Challenges and Solution
With twenty five core staff and another twenty employees that work seasonally, it’s no wonder that The Palace Trust was in need of some HR support.
“It’s not standard here, most people are part-time or work different hours, summer hours only, or annualised hours. Natalie had used SafeHR before at a previous organisation when she suggested we take a look, we thought “that looks like a great solution for us.” The software does everything. We use it for managing staff and contracts, recording one to ones – all the helpful stuff like that.”
Merryn Kidd, Interim Chief Executive of The Bishop’s Palace and Gardens
The Trust’s previous HR software just wasn’t suitable for this, but luckily their new Head of Finance had an idea.
The Conclusion
Merryn was very quick in her praise of SafeHR’s software but said what The Palace Trust had found most helpful was SafeHR’s support, which she described as invaluable. SafeHR were very happy to assist Merryn through this process, and though she led the meeting, our consultant was there for support. Merryn mentions that The Palace Trust is grateful to have our experts to turn to. They are often in touch when they want to double-check any HR queries they have.
Merryn went on to mention how impressed she was with the speed of the responses she gets from the HR team. She sees that as huge selling point of the service because, when a HR concern is raised it can be worrying for anyone involved, and the sooner that it’s resolved, the better for everyone.
