What are the challenges London Nootropics was facing and how did CharlieHR help to solve them?

Challenge 1 – Slack messages, email threads, calendars and brain work to handle time off

When Sophie started at London Nootropics, HR processes were a bit scattered. When it came to time off management, for example, it was often a matter of information being spread across Slack messages, Whatsapp messages, emails and having a duty of keeping track of how many holidays she had taken and when.

At the time, the founder, who took care of HR, did the same, so it didn’t make for the most efficient or reliable system and it became quite apparent they needed to find another solution.

Result 1 – A time-off management process that takes care of itself

Through the founder’s research, Charlie came up on top and Sophie started taking care of HR soon after.

Of course, London Nootropics is a small team, so HR is not her main role, but with Charlie, she managed to take over some of the admin burden and run a time off management process for the team where:

• Everything is done in one place – from requesting time off to recording it within the app
• Overlapping time off is automatically flagged – an email goes out to her inbox and Sophie can check whether her team can take time off or not
• Allowances are automatically calculated – no manual record and no need for employees to stress, the software calculates it
• Everyone can take their time off in peace – no need to set time aside to do it, team members sort it out in a few clicks

“Before Charlie, it was something people had to think about and taking holidays almost became another job on the to-do list. It’s now so seamless we don’t even have to think about it.”
Sophie Hanman, Customer Happiness Manager @ London Nootropics

Challenge 2 – Feeling like there was a missing part to the overall employee experience

People who work at small businesses and startups always want to do more – they know it’s important to give your best for the business to grow.

But that doesn’t mean they have no expectations, and it’s clear through our conversation that London Nootropics really care about the employee experience and how they’re perceived as an employer. They really wanted to have that little plus to make their team members feel valued.

Result 2 – Performance reviews and gamification to round up a friendly UI

With Charlie, the team at London Nootropics has the ability to put some of their playful attitude into HR (which is too often perceived as quite plain):

• Performance reviews are automatically scheduled so everyone feels like their growth is at the centre of the company.
• Tips on how to run performance and one-to-ones when you’ve never done it before.
• Shoutouts are integrated within the software so people can congratulate each other.
• A reminder of anniversaries, birthdays and important dates to make everyone feel special

“It’s so important not to miss milestones in an employee’s journey – just a few words of acknowledgement can make a massive difference for someone to feel valued and recognised.”
Sophie Hanman, Customer Happiness Manager @ London Nootropics

What would you say to small businesses and startups considering CharlieHR?

“Charlie is a great platform that makes HR playful, communicative and not at all redundant – everything is done seamlessly, and that’s really what you need in your day-to-day small business life.”
Sophie Hanman, Customer Happiness Manager @ London Nootropics