Background
- Location: Berkshire, UK
- Size: 200+ employees
- Sector: IT
- Omny engagement date: 2021
Roc Technologies is a UK-based IT services business headquartered in Thatcham, near Newbury. With a 200+ strong employee base located across the UK, Roc supports a wide range of organisations with technology solutions and managed services.
As the business has grown, ensuring that its people operations remain scalable, compliant, and cost-effective has become an increasingly important priority for the leadership team.
Challenge
In 2021, following the departure of a senior member of the people team, the business undertook a full review of its HR function.
Led by former CFO Richard Jefferies, the review identified that the existing in-house HR model (consisting of five full-time employees) was not delivering sufficient return on investment for a business of Roc’s size. Employee relations issues were consuming a significant amount of senior management time and driving higher-than-necessary costs.
There were also concerns around consistency, risk exposure, and whether the HR function was effectively supporting a value-led people agenda aligned with Roc’s growth plans.
“We started questioning whether our HR function was adding value to our people agenda in the way we as a business required it to.”
Solution
After exploring alternative operating models, Roc made the decision to transition from a fully in-house HR function to an outsourced HR solution with Omny HR. While initially sceptical about outsourcing, the business was reassured by the provider’s depth of expertise, established processes, and proven capability in handling complex employee relations matters.
The transition from the in-house team to an outsourced model was completed smoothly, minimising disruption to both employees and managers. From then on, Omny’s outsourced HR team provided consistent, compliant support, reducing pressure on the senior leadership team.
Recruitment support to find the perfect Head of People
As Roc continued to scale, the business later decided to search for an internal Head of People to act as a strategic people lead – not to replace the new set-up Omny had put in place, but to work alongside it. The outsourced team supported this next step by shaping the role specification and managing the recruitment process, ensuring the appointment delivers long-term value and cultural fit and reducing the chance of the client hiring a ‘wrong fit’ candidate.
Now onboarded, the Omny HR team continues to support Roc and its new Head of People by providing ongoing outsourced employee relations, employment law and HR administrative support.
Results
The strategic move from solely in-house to an outsourced HR model with the Omny Group has delivered clear and measurable return on investment for Roc Technologies:
1. Cost savings
The transition to an outsourced HR model allowed Roc Technologies to reduce HR headcount by four roles, achieving more than a 50% reduction in overall HR-related spend compared to the previous in-house structure.
“Our overall expenditure for the function remains less than our original model, and the quality of input and output, including the increased focus on a value-added people agenda for the benefit of our colleagues, is much higher.”
2. Time savings for leadership
Senior leaders now spend significantly less time managing employee relations issues, freeing them to focus on strategic and commercial priorities.
3. Improved compliance and risk management
Having access to specialist HR expertise whenever needed enhances consistency, accuracy, and compliance across the organisation from a people perspective. Complex employee relations cases are now resolved more quickly and confidently, reducing both operational disruption and legal risk.
“We can honestly say that outsourcing HR to Omny was a wise cost-to-benefit business decision, and the year gap between our old HR function and our new one, supported by the Omny HR team has proven to be invaluable.”
