“Once I knew how good they were, I wanted to roll that out on a national basis and now they work across all Penna’s UK offices.”
“Inspiring solutions, delivered with excellence” is the way that Penna chief executive Gary Browning describes the company’s philosophy.
It’s a philosophy that has worked well for Londonbased Penna. Since it began life as Sanders and Sidney in 1974, it has grown organically and by acquiring other HR consultancies that broaden the scope of its services, so they now support every stage of the employee lifecycle.
Today Penna is the UK’s number one provider of outplacement services and operates worldwide through a network of more than 200 offices and partnerships, working with high profile clients including the BBC, BP, the government’s Department for Work and Pensions, Flybe, Tesco and both retail and investment banks.
A key part of Penna’s success has been to work only with people who share its philosophy, which explains why the company has enjoyed a successful relationship with Birchwood Investment Management since 1986.
Rosemary Smart, head of client services, has worked with Birchwood since she joined Penna in 2005. At the time, much of Birchwood’s work for Penna focused on providing financial review workshops at Penna’s offices in London’s West End, but Rosemary was quick to spot the potential for development.
She says: “Once I knew how good they were, I wanted to roll that out on a national basis and now they work across all Penna’s UK offices. In fact, they are the only supplier of their kind we use that is truly national.” Rosemary highlights Birchwood’s understanding of Penna’s business and its clients as a key reason why the relationship works so well, along with their flexibility in delivering everything from one-to-one consultancy to large group sessions for Penna clients across all sectors and industries.
She says: “They are very, very flexible – we can just ring up and say we need them for an assignment in X, Y or Z tomorrow and it is never a problem. They are patient too – I’m not always easy to get hold of, but they are very persistent!
“We also receive consistently positive feedback on the way that Birchwood’s consultants are able to demystify what can be quite complex issues. They target the level of their advice to their audience and don’t speak in financial mumbo jumbo, but make things really easy to understand. They are also incredibly approachable and easy to talk to.”
The quality of Birchwood’s service and support is highlighted by a recent project, which involved Penna working with a major public sector organisation that required financial awareness workshops up and down the country, over a period of several months, targeting potential candidates for voluntary redundancy.
Now that a second phase of the initiative is planned, Penna has already indicated that Birchwood would again be its preferred supplier – clear evidence of what Rosemary describes as the “productive working relationship” shared by the two businesses.
