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HR Consultant

Hannah Akery

I am delighted to have joined the SYLO Beyond HR team as an HR Consultant.

I gained an interest in what makes people feel motivated, valued and connected at work whilst working at Grass Roots, a performance improvement company, where I partnered with brands such as M&S, British Gas, Lloyds Banking Group and TfL to deliver their employee engagement, benefits and reward programmes. Realising my passion lay with people over projects I took the leap into internal HR roles in 2016.

Since then, I’ve gained hands-on experience across all areas of HR and the employee lifecycle and I enjoy partnering closely with business leaders to build practical, people-focused solutions. Most recently, I was HR Manager for the European region of Blackhawk Network, a global financial services company, where I led HR operations across multiple countries, ensuring compliance whilst pragmatically supporting teams through growth and change.

I’m genuinely passionate about employee engagement and doing HR the right way – not just ticking boxes but creating environments where people can thrive and do their best work. I love helping businesses achieve their goals while making sure their people feel supported, heard and set up for success.

Q. What is the most dangerous thing you have ever done?

A. Unfortunately nothing exciting springs to mind. I think I tend to be quite risk averse… which is probably why I’m in HR!

Q. Who or what makes you laugh?

A. My two sons who are the cheekiest little boys I’ve ever met! I’ve also really enjoyed watching The Last One Laughing recently.

What our clients are saying

  • “

    We have been using Breathe over the last term to track our staff holidays. This is a great system as it highlights different cohorts of staff and when is free for others to book on the calendar. This has supported our ratio requirements and helped us to track holiday entitlements.

    We like the system so much that we have extended it to using the staffing schedules to log staff attendance and hours needed to be processed for payroll. Sharon has been so helpful in helping us set up different employees work patterns and it has been really effective for our nursery needs.

     

    ”

    Phillipa Arnold – Operations Manager. Monkey Puzzle Day Nurseries – Cambridge Franchise

  • “
    SYLO Beyond HR delivered a series of seven Manager Skills sessions for our leadership team between October 2024 and early 2025, delivered through a blend of face‑to‑face and online workshops.
    The programme covered essential topics for our managers, including Being a Role Model, Communication Skills (Parts 1 & 2), Empowering Others, Basics of HR, Techniques for Handling Difficult Situations, and Giving and Receiving Feedback.
    The training was practical, engaging, and tailored to our organisation. Our managers particularly valued the real‑world examples, the safe space created for discussion, and the actionable tools they could use immediately in their roles.
    We have already seen a positive impact in how our managers communicate, set expectations, and handle challenging situations with greater confidence.
    SYLO’s facilitators were knowledgeable, supportive, and highly engaging throughout the programme. We would happily recommend SYLO Beyond HR to any organisation looking to strengthen their management capability.
    ”

    Petrova Caldecourt, Lightfoot

  • “

    Sarah allows our business to concentrate on the jobs we set out to do, and not have to worry about the HR input, with a highly professional service that she provides. 

    ”

    Stuart Barr, Director – Barr Group, Thame

  • “

    ​I found working with SYLO incredibly comfortable.  They helped me to define the real issues and then guided me through figuring out a solution. This resulted in a huge shift in the workload I was carrying to manageable levels, greater and welcomed empowerment for the talent in my team, and a manager (mine) who was fully up to speed on what was actually going on.

    ”

    Georgina Carey, Senior Manager – Transport For London

  • “

    Thanks to Jilli Broadhurst from SYLO | Beyond HR for visiting the Richardsons’ office last week for a CPD session with the team.

    She led the Richardsons team in a session that covered adapting their communications approach to have the best possible interactions with colleagues, peers and clients.

    The session also covered other key skills such as tactics for providing constructive feedback and effectively delegating.

    Here at Richardsons, we’re proud to be an experienced training firm – and an important part of that commitment is offering our team these kinds of opportunities to learn the skills they need to grow their careers and better support our clients.

    Thanks again to Jilli and SYLO HR!

    ”

    Jemima King, Partner, Richardsons

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