Download our HR Consultancy brochure
Take a closer look at our services and how we can support your people and your business.
HR Consultancy for Charities and Non-Profit Organisations
Running a charity means doing more with less. Your mission drives everything, but the people stuff doesn’t stop just because your budget is tight.
A difficult disciplinary. A volunteer dispute that’s escalated. Contracts that haven’t been updated since the organisation was founded. Sound familiar? These are the situations that land on charity leaders’ desks every week, and they’re exactly what we’re here to help with.
Limelite HR & Learning is a charity HR consultancy working with charities, not-for-profits, social enterprises and hospices across Worcestershire, the West Midlands and beyond. We understand the sector, we understand the pressures, and we make HR simple, practical and stress-free so you can focus on what actually matters.
What Makes Charity HR Different
HR in the charity sector isn’t the same as HR in a commercial business. You’re managing a mix of paid employees and volunteers. You’re operating under Charity Commission governance. Your budget is scrutinised by trustees and funders. And the people you employ are often deeply values-driven, which makes people management both more meaningful and more complex.
We’ve worked with charities of all sizes across the region, from small community organisations to large hospices and housing associations. We know how to navigate the nuances without making things unnecessarily complicated.
What We Support Charities and Non-Profits With
Our charity HR consultancy service covers the full range of people challenges that come up in the sector:
- Employee relations, including disciplinary, grievance and capability procedures (download our free Employer Guide to Capability Issues)
- Volunteer management, agreements and safeguarding considerations
- Contracts of employment, trustee agreements and policy reviews
- Absence management and long-term sickness support
- TUPE transfers and organisational restructures
- Redundancy and change management processes
- Safer recruitment and DBS compliance (download our free Employer Guide to Talent Attraction)
- HR audits and compliance health checks
- Leadership development and people development programmes
- Retained HR partnerships for ongoing support
We work with CEOs, heads of operations, people leads and trustees. However your leadership structure is set up, we’ll work around you.
Retained HR Support for Charities
Many of our charity clients work with us on a retained basis. That means a named HR consultant who knows your organisation, available when you need them, at a cost that makes sense for your budget.
It’s a genuinely cost-effective alternative to employing someone in-house. You get senior HR expertise without the salary, NI, pension and management overhead. And because we’re sector-aware, there’s no time wasted getting up to speed on how charities work.
HR Project Support for the Third Sector
Not ready for a retained arrangement? We also support charities with specific projects and one-off pieces of work.
If you need a full policy review, support with a restructure, help handling a complex disciplinary, or an HR audit to understand where your risks are, we can scope the work and deliver it. No long-term commitments, just the support you need.
Working With Worcestershire County Council
Limelite HR & Learning works closely with Worcestershire County Council and regularly has access to funded support programmes for eligible organisations. If your charity is based in Worcestershire, it’s worth asking us what might be available to you.
Ready to Talk?
If your charity or not-for-profit needs HR support from people who genuinely understand the sector, we’d love to have a conversation.
Book a free 30-minute discovery call with the Limelite team. No obligation, no jargon. Just a straightforward chat about what you need and how we can help.
FAQS
Do charities need HR support?
Yes. Charities must comply with the same employment law requirements as other employers. Professional HR support helps ensure policies, procedures and employee management practices are legally compliant.
Do volunteers require HR policies?
While volunteers are not employees, charities should still have clear agreements, safeguarding processes and expectations to ensure effective volunteer management.
Can small charities outsource HR support?
Many small charities choose to outsource HR rather than employ an in-house HR professional. Outsourced HR support provides access to expert advice without the cost of a full-time HR role.
What HR policies should charities have?
Most charities should have policies covering areas such as disciplinary procedures, grievance handling, absence management, equality and diversity, and safeguarding.
Looking for HR support that understands your sector?
Speak to our team about practical HR consultancy, leadership development and people support tailored to your organisation.
HR Support
Our retained HR support packages are designed to provide you with ongoing, dedicated HR support and partnership, providing proactive, expert guidance and reliable assistance right when you need it.
HR Project Support
Limelite HR & Learning delivers tailored HR project support to help organisations navigate change, reduce risk and build amazing workplaces.
Improving your culture
Explore strategies for improving company culture and transform your workplace into a positive environment for all.
Pay, Reward and Benchmarking
We provide market-led salary benchmarking, clear pay structures and practical reward guidance to help you attract, retain and motivate your people with confidence.
Breathe HR Software
Streamline HR with Breathe HR, the award-winning HR software for SMEs. Manage employee data, holidays, training and performance in one secure, cloud-based system.
Health & Safety
Practical health and safety support, helping organisations stay compliant, reduce risk and create safe, confident workplaces.
Developing your Teams
Limelite HR & Learning develops confident leaders, capable managers and high-performing teams through engaging training, leadership development, management programmes, DEIB workshops, DiSC profiling and coaching. We help organisations build inclusive, people-focused cultures where employees grow and thrive.
The people we support, supporting us
At YMCA Worcestershire, we have been through a period of substantial change and development. As part of this we refreshed our vision, mission and values. We also did some solid work in creating a strategic framework with top line objectives. While we had done some preliminaries on further development of this into measurables, a challenge of capacity issues with a need for more operational focus was emerging. We were keen to get through this bottleneck because we knew the strategic planning and implementation would help to ease the operational challenges.
We were very grateful to get Workforce Planning support for this through consultancy work with Limelite HR who reviewed what we’d done so far, liaised with key staff members and helped us to harness this into a more complete and workable format. This is now enabling us to have a clearer road map in our efforts and a means by which to monitor progress and will, in this respect, enhance our impact for those we serve in our charitable and transformative work. We very much appreciated the timely help with this – thank you to Workforce Planning and Limelite HR!
Dr Annette Daly, CEO
YMCA WorcestershireThank you Helen and Lisa. Working with Lisa Murphy and Helen Scullion at Limelite HR has been a hugely positive experience for us at TOP Networking.
From the very beginning, they took the time to understand not only our business and its community but also the culture and values that sit at the heart of everything we do. The Culture Handbook they created for us is a perfect reflection of our mission and people-first approach. It captures the spirit of our organisation in a way that is both professional and engaging, giving our current and future team members a clear sense of who we are and what we stand for. Alongside this, the employment contract template and step-by-step guide to hiring have been invaluable, giving us the tools and confidence to grow our team in a structured, compliant, and values-led way.The support of Limelite HR’s expert guidance, has enabled us to take significant first steps in our business in building a consistent people strategy. Without this consultancy support, we would have been left piecing things together ourselves, which would have taken far longer and risked inconsistency as we expand. Lisa and Helen brought professionalism, warmth, and real expertise to the project. Their work has already had a lasting impact on our business, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them to any organisation looking to strengthen its culture and HR foundations.
Richard Frazer, Director
TOP NetworkingAs well as having a staff handbook, I now have a fabulously created Culture Book that shows off working at and being employed by Hill HR. Thank you to Limelite for creating this book for us and making the process very easy. They understood exactly what I wanted and created a book that truly reflected our identity.
Claire Hill, Founder
Hill HRWe recently had the pleasure of working with Limelite HR & Learning for our Leadership and Management training, and the experience was brilliant. The course was well-structured and highly interactive, allowing our managers to engage fully with the material. What impressed us was their extensive knowledge, approachability, and flexibility, which truly made a difference. They took the time to understand our business context, which enriched the learning experience and made the training relevant and applicable. We are grateful for the valuable insights and skills our team has gained, and we look forward to continued collaboration with Limelite in the future. Highly recommended.
Clare Flemming, People Director
Auriga Services
The companies creating amazing workplaces
