Mango HR
A disruptive HR consultancy based in South Wales and the south of England that has been in operation for over two years.
Learning points
- External support and training to access and exploit superfast broadband are essential for small businesses.
- High-speed internet not only increases efficiency and effectiveness, but also allows service firms to look professional and keep up with their clients.
- Cloud-based applications can help achieve a competitive advantage in the market by enhancing the scope and quality of services, also allowing businesses to tap into new social networks and geographical markets.
Overview of the business
The business helps start-ups and established firms in technological and creative sectors to put together and implement a people strategy. Mango HR team comprises five consultants that work on-site and remotely with companies to make sure all strategic elements in an employee life-cycle are covered, from recruitment to organisational culture, reward, well-being, and internal communications.
Mango HR information flow diagram
Highlighting the internal and external communication flows of the business.
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Superfast broadband adoption
Although Mango HR consultants often work remotely, they still use their Chepstow office as a base. Therefore, adoption of superfast broadband has significantly improved the speed of connection at the office and enabled the use of cloud applications. Originally receiving broadband speeds of 0.5 Mbps, the business now enjoys superfast speeds of around 60 Mbps.
Mango HR adopted superfast broadband six months after starting the business and experienced a smooth transition. The business was assisted by Spectrum Internet in Cardiff with setting up and received a £600 voucher via Newport Council to fund installation at the premises. There was a slight delay on the Council’s side to get the voucher processed, before the broadband was installed.
The ongoing broadband subscription cost is paid as part of business expenses each month. After superfast broadband installation, the business also invested around £6,000 in hardware and software platforms, and has an additional ongoing cost of around £100 a month associated with the website domain, the e-mail address, Office 365 and People HR system.
All our software is cloud-based and low cost, the laptops are the biggest outlay, at about £1,200 each.
IT skills capacity
To keep pace with its clients in the technological high-growth sector, over the next year the business plans to double in size to ten employees.
Mango HR receives ongoing technical support and advice on the latest technologies that will enhance business efficiency from Net Support UK. For example, Net Support UK has assisted in installing a verified web protection program on all laptops of Mango HR consultants to secure clients’ data stored on platforms like People HR and Office 365.
Initially we were a bit confused about how Office 365 worked in practice. Since we’ve started working with Net Support UK, they have shown us how to use it more effectively and securely, and how to fully maximise Office 365. For example, we now use the collaboration tools of teams, planner and share point
Although the overall integration of superfast enabled processes did not disrupt the functioning of core business activities, Mango HR developed a training programme to get the employees up to speed with the services.
Use of digital technologies
Mango HR uses a number of cloud-based applications to run the business, so access to superfast broadband is absolutely vital. Although consultants spend time on clients’ sites, the company still needs to use videoconferencing and upload media at the premises. For marketing purposes, the company uploads videos and other materials onto Hootsuite. Mango HR also uses Office 365 to communicate within the team, share calendars and do all work from the share-point, storing everything in the cloud.
The business uses cloud-based applications and platforms such as Dropbox, JIRA, and Confluence when working with its clients. Mango HR partners with technology firms to provide cloud-based solutions which they offer as part of their service to clients. It also uses an online HR system called People HR, which enables secure storage of employee data, recruitment and performance assessment. The system records and stores employment documents on the cloud rather than on paper, including compliance data and proof to work in the UK for new employees.
Mango HR also uses online psychometric testing provided by Colour-Me.
When clients are recruiting, they want to make sure that they get the right cultural fit. We send an online survey to the candidates and, after completion it tells the employer what their preferred behaviours are, and how they work as a team.
Business performance
Prior to superfast adoption, Internet was sporadic and it would take twice as long to complete a task. Superfast has allowed Mango HR to work with clients efficiently and effectively, to look professional in the eyes of high-tech clients who are already using superfast.
Now we’ve got superfast, we don’t really give it a second thought. It’s almost taken for granted that we can work quickly and efficiently. Previously constant buffering meant essential tasks took twice as long!
Mango HR’s positive experience using superfast broadband has also influenced others in their supply chain and some clients have followed the recommendation to use Spectrum for their Internet.
The use of cloud-based applications has allowed employees of Mango HR to work remotely from home or clients’ site.
We would have higher costs because we’d have to get bigger premises for everyone to stay in if we didn’t have that remote working option. The remote working means we haven’t got to have an expensive office and can employ people nationwide.
Access to superfast broadband has also enabled Mango HR to communicate more frequently on social media platforms such as LinkedIn, which also helps build physical networks beyond social media. The business is part of a networking group in Bristol called Pitch Me, and also engages with a Slack group, where the participants can collaborate, share ideas and help each other with running their businesses. In the future, Mango HR is planning to get a CRM system to enable more work to be done online.
Access to superfast broadband has also changed the geographical scope of the business. Mango HR has a client that is based in Bristol, which also has an office in Boston, USA. It uses videoconferencing to manage this relationship with the client.
The ability to offer employees the option to work from anywhere has provided more flexibility and reduced the amount of driving, the level of stress for the team and pollution. One unexpected benefit associated with superfast adoption is that Mango HR has been able to recruit all of its employees via social media.
Potentially we wouldn’t have found our consultants if we didn’t have superfast broadband, as they are all through connections on LinkedIn - that’s where all our talent pipeline comes from.
According to Mango HR, although the aforementioned benefits would have emerged with standard broadband, access to superfast broadband has significantly improved speed of doing things efficiently. The business now has access to clients at any time, including global clients, and is able to offer a whole host of services to clients online, ranging from the psychometric testing to HR Systems. Although difficult to quantify the benefits and total cost savings, the company believes it would not have as many customers and would not be as big since it would not be able to offer all the current services.
Mango HR believes that there are still many small companies in traditional sectors with physical servers that are not accessing superfast nor using the cloud, and are still doing many tasks manually.
