Harmonics

I had the pleasure of working with Harmonics when I decided to make the leap from corporate world to starting my own business in early 2009. Although I had wanted to start my own business for a long time, my coach helped me to go from idea to action. My coach is a very personable, direct and supportive business consultant who focused on transforming my service from a CV to a business profile. She is a highly action orientated person and brings a wealth of experience and talent to every meeting she manages. She takes a personal interest in every person she works with and brings a highly professional yet personable approach to every scenario.

Working with Harmonics has truly been a life changing experience for me. The coaching sessions consistently provided me with an opportunity to step back and discern the true nature of my life & career situation. My Career Coach was never pushy, but always challenging and helped me become clearly aware of where I am, where I really want to go, but most importantly, what I need to do to get there. My Coaches style provided me with a gentle but effective accountability mechanism to keep me on the track and I am so happy with my decisions and outcomes as a result. The only way I can describe a course of coaching sessions with Harmonics is like a long over due spring clean for my life and career.

We first used Harmonics in March 2008 when it was announced that a team in our local site was to be restructured. This was the first restructure of its kind that any of us had experienced in a long time as the business had definitely benefited from the Celtic Tiger. From the start of our relationship with Harmonics, they tailored their services to suit the needs of our business. They have provided excellent support to all levels of the business and we have received continuous, positive feedback from all employees that availed of the service throughout recent activities across the group.We believe that a core element of supporting our employees throughout recent restructures is the consistent provision of high quality career management, and indeed this has been provided to an exceptional standard by the team at Harmonics. Their team of coaches are fully trained to tailor their services to meet individual needs - from life coaching to setting up ones own business to simply coping without work and settling into a domestic environment.The Outplacement support that Harmonics provided was invaluable for morale within the groups that underwent a restructure. Investing in our people not only emphasized the value that we place on our people but also motivated the retained employees also. As a result of the support received from Harmonics, we as a business have been able to maintain the corporate image that we have worked very hard to build in Ireland To sum up, Harmonics offer a Premium Service, at a location that suits your business for a reasonable price. The service that they offer is tailored to suit the needs of your business and indeed the needs of the individuals involved. We would have no hesitation recommending the service to any business/employee and we look forward to maintaining and developing our relationship with the team at Harmonics in the future.

We availed of the services of Harmonics to assist us with a major restructuring project, which involved closing one of our stores and making 400 colleagues redundant. It was important to Superquinn to ensure that we gave our colleagues the best possible service in terms of outplacement support to give them the skills and confidence to find employment once they have left the business. We met a number of companies who offer this service however, one company in particular stood out from the crowd – and that was Harmonics.
What was different about Harmonics was the fact that they not only gave examples of their experiences working with other organizations but they were able to provide examples of the materials that they use to achieve their results. They are not about just sending participants away with a typed up CV but they are giving them the skills to identify their strengths and the courage to build on them.
The approach that we used with Harmonics was that as a starting point we ran a series of one-hour information presentations to the colleagues who were eligible to apply for the Voluntary Severance package. These presentations allowed those colleagues to address any questions or concerns that they had about the process and enabled them to make the best possible choice to suit their personal circumstances.
The next stage of the process occurred once colleagues had applied for the process whereby they attended a one-day Self Marketing workshop. These workshops allowed the participants to identify not only the skills that they use on a day-to-day basis with their job roles but also those latent skills that they enjoy using in their spare time as hobbies or pastimes enabling them to think outside the box in terms of their future career.
The feedback from these sessions was excellent and many of the participants were really impressed at the level of service that the company had provided for them. A colleague who had worked in the company for over twenty years wrote in to say how the session had given her the skills to find a role in another premium retailer. She believed that she would not have found the confidence to achieve this without the training she had received from Harmonics.We found our experience with Harmonics to be a very positive and fruitful one and we would have no hesitation is using their services again.

12 months ago we went to the market looking for a Supplier whom would work with us to create a bespoke management programme for 27 of our Sales and Marketing Team. We met with a number of providers, outlined our brief and they all presented to myself as HR Manager and the Managing Director. This in itself was somewhat of a new process as in the past we had worked with various Suppliers whom we were happy with and to that end had returned to them, however on this occasion we decided to take a chance and see who else was out there and what they could offer. We were immediately impressed with how quickly John and Maeve understood what we were looking for, which was a practical programme built around a number of competency gaps in conjunction with opportunities for practical learning in a safe environment. We were really excited by the proposal from Harmonics and on paper it appeared to address exactly what were looking for. Now 10 months later as we complete the last day of this 7 day programme, I can honestly say that the programme has surpassed our expectations. The feedback from all colleagues has been extremely positive and strong, with colleagues really enjoying and benefiting from a programme that combines a classroom style learning environment and 1 to 1 personal coaching. John and his colleagues from the outset took the time to understand our business, its challenges, the skill level within the team and as a result the programme was tailored and pitched at the right level for all participants. They have worked with us throughout the 10 months to ensure that each element of the programme has met our needs, which it has. We have really seen the benefits of this programme which wasn't as obvious from other programmers. Commercial colleagues are working more closely and effectively together, the whole area of feedback (good and bad) has come to the fore for the first time in a long time which we are very happy with and as a result of the success of the Coaching sessions we are looking at how we can continue this. We have no hesitation in recommending John or any of his colleagues that we have worked with and should you wish to speak to me further, I am happy to do so.