Penny Appeal: design, establish and sustain a staff representative group

I was commissioned to design, established and sustain a staff representative group. It had previously existed but had ceased to operate due to it no longer delivering it’s original objectives, impacted by low morale. I worked with management to help them understand what they needed from such a group, worked with management and staff to jointly create a new TOR, recruit new members, and agree ways of working. I then chaired the group for 6 months, eventually passing it onto the HR team to take forward in-house. Penny Appeal then continued to commission me for various pieces of work, including embedding safeguarding across ways of working, line management of HR team, and a restructure of the International Programmes team.

As CEO of the international development charity Penny Appeal, I hired Hannah in 2022 to set up our staff representative group, and then chair it for 6 month period. We had been going through a period of change and the group was an important forum for staff to share, input and feedback. Hannah led the co-creation of the group’s TOR, secured buy-in from across a range of teams, and ultimately created a constructive space where staff felt empowered to speak and be heard. She was especially good at ensuring the quieter voices were given a platform, and bringing everyone (especially the sceptics) along on the journey. Hannah is engaging, perceptive and diligent. I thoroughly recommend her for similar work.

- Harris Iqbal, CEO, Penny Appeal.