Meet the team at Orange Genie Group

Meet the team members at Orange Genie Group

Put simply we think our staff are the best and biggest differentiator for Orange Genie. Why? Because we all share the same vision and values and have the drive, enthusiasm and ambition to succeed. We recognise success doesn't come easy and passion alone isn't enough - interpersonal skills, flexibility, discipline and a very strong work ethic are all found in abundance at Orange Genie.

We're extremely proud of the team we have assembled. We go to great lengths to find and recruit the right people, they benefit from a rigorous three month induction programme before their employment is confirmed. Once on board we ensure we look after them, providing regular mentoring and coaching which in turn engenders outstanding loyalty, the team is here for you whether you are setting up a limited company, or working through our umbrella company.

Best Advice Team

Choosing the right solution for you is really important; the wrong option may cost you time and money. We have set up and trained our best advice team under the leadership of Paul Simpson, to provide you with the best possible impartial advice allowing you to choose the trading option that best suits your needs.

They are kept up-to-date with all the latest changes in regulation, case law and industry news to ensure the advice they give is accurate, impartial and complete.

• Paul Simpson, Manager
• Thema Christopher
• Ellie Dutton
• James Edwards

Our Sales and Marketing Team

Our key account managers work closely with our agency partners, supporting them, providing training and general guidance to ensure the advice you receive from the agency sales consultant is correct and accurate. We believe your referral from the agency to Orange Genie should be a seemless transition and the registration process as simple as possible.

Each account manager has a panel of agencies with who they work and are the first point of contact for those agencies.

• Stuart Roberts
• Marvin Tuckey
• Nicholas Plank
• William Edwards

Marketing is perhaps the most important activity at Orange Genie and has to work in harmony and partnership with the rest of the business. In addition to the traditional inbound marketing activities the department lies at the heart of our efforts to place the customer at the centre of our business. Working closely with operations, sales, finance and human resources our marketing team run the programme we define as customer intimacy.

• Nikita Patel, Group Marketing Manager
• Rachel Versey, Digital Marketing Executive

Genie Umbrella

Genie Umbrella has one key objective - operational excellence, nothing less will do. We are one of the best umbrella companies in the UK, supported by a hardworking, dedicated team.

The Genie Umbrella team provide the back office operations, administration and manage the customer facing support for both our agency partners and contractors for both Genie Umbrella and Genie Education. We are incredibly proud of the reputation the staff have established in the market, reputations are earned as a result of the service experience customers receive. Leadership and strategic management is the foundation to our success.

Great management has many attributes including a long term commitment, shared vision, staff development and motivation, accountability, and a genuine commitment to continuous improvement.

• Damon Cochrane, Operations Director

Employee Support

We would like to introduce our hard working, friendly Employee Support Team to you. They’re here to help you so please do get in touch if you need to. As one of the best Umbrella Companies in the UK, you’re in good hands with Genie Umbrella.

Jackie Cordy, our Head of Employee Relations is responsible for making sure the team provide you with the support that you need whenever and however you contact us, and that feedback is given to our back office teams for them to continuously improve our processes.

Jackie is supported by our Employee Relationship Managers; Sharon Heanan, Elaine Chambers, James Holt, Joe Girdwood, Faye Wright, Nicol Martinez-Holloway and Candice Crowford

Payroll

As an employer, it is vital that we operate in accordance with all current employment and taxation legislation. The engine room of the umbrella operations, the payroll team is responsible for ensuring that several thousand employees are paid correctly, accurately, and on time. In addition to the day-to-day tasks involved in processing payroll, the team have to have a complete knowledge of current and proposed changes to legislation. In the last two years they have overseen the introduction of a new payroll system, Real Time Information (RTI) and Pensions Auto-Enrolment, including planning, implementation and testing.

• Lorraine Tancell, Payroll Manager
• Emma Roscoe
• Leah Long
• Kerry Boyce
• Aqib Khan

Contracts

Our role in the supply chain is important and ensuring the right paperwork is in place is vital. The contracts team are responsible for ensuring your engagement as an employee is done in accordance with current employment legislation including your right to work.

Each time you receive an assignment our contracts team have to ensure the assignment contract between Orange Genie and the client (the agency or the end client) is correct and that the terms and conditions are suitable. As your employer we have responsibility for your health and safety at work, for the commercial risk in delivering the assignment contract and that the Ts & Cs provide for us to be paid correctly and on time.

• Jackie Cordy, Contracts Manager
• Zeeshan Anwar
• Jenny McDonagh
• Elaine Howlett
• Lucy Boland

Genie Accountancy

Looking for contractor accountants or thinking of setting up a limited company? Genie Accountancy can help & have one key objective - Operational Excellence.

The Genie Accountancy team provide specialist advice and support to freelancers who choose to operate through their own personal service company. PSCs provide Freelancers with the opportunity to plan their tax affairs and wealth management in such a way as to minimise their tax liabilities and can be an extremely attractive way to operate. However becoming a company director comes with responsibilities as a director these include the responsibility to maintain accurate accounts and to file statutory returns on time. The team at Genie Accountancy are highly qualified and undertake regular continuing professional development to ensure the advice they provide is both accurate and up-to-date.

• Helen Christopher (Ba Hons, FCA) Operations Director
• Dan Moss (MAAT) Business Development Director

Client Accountants

Our client accountants manage the relationship with our clients and are key to our success. Recruiting the right person is important with inter-personal skills and professional qualification a pre-requisite to joining the team.

• Dannielle Gadsden (MAAT)
• Beverley Wood (MAAT)
• James Davis (Ba, CIMA Cert BA)
• Gavin James (MAAT)
• Kirstie Legge
• Mohammed Imran

Administration

Genie Accountancy has invested heavily in technology, all systems link to the relevant government department/agency to enable digital filing of accounts and annual returns, the filing of VAT returns, and the filing of tax returns. Each client is provided with a cloud based book-keeping system. Our use of technology enables us to streamline our back office administration although the staff are all expected to undertake professional qualifications.

• Grant Hamill
• Ben Coleman

Genie Education

Education has been one of the fastest growing sectors within Genie Umbrella over the past few years and its importance to the Orange Genie Group was recognised when we launched Genie Education as a brand in its own right. The day-to-day operation is run by the genie umbrella team.

• Pras Desai – Operations Director

Pras has been with the Orange Genie Group since 2009 and has recently taken up the position of Operations Director of Genie Education. He had previously worked in management roles for some of the world’s largest corporations. His focus is to ensure that Genie Education plays its part in actively supporting people who work in the education sector, as we realise it can be as challenging as much as it is rewarding.

Group Finance

The Group Finance team is responsible for providing financial support to the business, which includes financial planning and analysis, financial reporting, transactional accounting and cash and credit management. The team is responsible for financial reporting and providing support to the business on all financial decision making and key performance measures. A key part of their role is to oversee the invoicing process to our customers.

• Elaine Howlett, Finance Manager
• Chris Scott, Analyst
• Andrea Bennett, Credit Controller
• Emily Summerbell
• Anthony Cusack
• Barry Woodhead

IT and Systems

IT Genie and Dr Clive Williams are responsible for new software development, maintaining our technology infrastructure and general IT support. The database and systems are looked after by our Database and Systems Development Manager, Nathan Ball. Our quality manager, Robert Brown, assists all brands in implementing efficient and accurate processes to keep the engine running as smoothly as possible.

The Board of Directors

• Graham Fisher (FCCA) - Group Managing Director

Graham is a hugely experienced CEO having started, developed and taken his own company to a listing on the London and Stuttgart Stock Exchanges. Having built the company through organic growth and some 20 acquisitions he finally sold his interest and retired at the ripe old age of 44! In looking for a new challenge he joined Orange Genie, initially as a consultant, to carry out a fundamental review of the business.

Now some years later the transformation is beginning to bear fruit. Orange Genie has an exciting and visionary management team, a fully automated and highly scalable IT platform, clear brand and corporate values, a class-leading integrated quality management system, and new purpose designed offices. Under his leadership all the staff have really risen to the challenge and is Orange Genie’s proudest achievement.

They have benefited from Orange Genie’s commitment to investors in people and have developed into a highly motivated team who have risen to every challenge they are given. Their knowledge levels, professionalism and decision making skills have been fundamental to Orange Genie achieving performance levels that we couldn’t dream of in the past. Graham is proud of Orange Genie’s achievements and is looking forward to the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.

• Ross Baker (ACMA) - Group Finance Director

Ross is responsible for the on-going development of Orange Genie’s technology platform and online web portal, in addition to financial planning and control of Orange Genie Group. The use of technology provides Orange Genie with real time access to all information instantly, allowing access to financial and management data, contact information, call recordings, campaign data and customer records.

The increasing use of technology has meant the more mundane, repetitive tasks are now undertaken by automated processes eliminating both keying and human errors. Orange Genie’s use of technology has allowed the company to more than double its contractor numbers while halving the number of administration staff. This saving has been invested into improving Orange Genie’s customer service.

Ross is also responsible for the development of our unique, integrated, quality-management system that has achieved ISO 9001:2008 accreditation to UKAS standards. This was a first in our industry and the discipline of these procedures enables us to offer a consistent and outstanding level of performance against our service levels. Compliance is critical to our long-term strategy and has grown in importance and relevance with our agency partners and their end clients. Ross is responsible for ensuring our processes and procedures comply with all current legislation from HMRC regulations to Employment Law and, from the EU’s Working Time Directive to the UK’s National Minimum Wage legislation.

• Julian Ward – Group Sales and Marketing Director

Julian is responsible for Orange Genie’s sales and marketing. He joined Orange Genie in 2006 and quickly made his mark on the company. He refocused our marketing, revised our service offering and developed clear brand values. Knowing and understanding our customers and their needs has been critical to his planning.

Thanks to Julian’s drive, Orange Genie consistently provides a level of customer service that leads the sector. In leading Orange Genie’s brand values, Julian has championed the need to provide simple, reliable and convenient services. Staff at Orange Genie don’t use jargon and every contractor is provided with an account manager. Account managers pro-actively contact contractors to ensure they understand how to get the best from our service, know who we are and what to do if they have a problem.

Providing great customer service, delivered personally by really knowledgeable staff is now central to Orange Genie’s corporate culture. Orange Genie’s aim is to provide the peace of mind of knowing that the back office is being dealt with, freeing up the contractor to focus on the more important things in life! In December 2009 Julian received, on behalf of Orange Genie, the Innovation of the Year award from The Association of Professional Staffing Companies (APSCO) at their annual awards ceremony. The award was in recognition of the industry’s first on-line health and safety training portal for contractors.

• Chris Graham, (CFCIPD, FCIB) - HR Director

We all know Chris as our contractors’ champion. He is responsible for looking after the welfare and contractual compliance of Orange Genie’s contractors. Orange Genie engages contractors on an employment basis thereby providing the contractors with full employment rights. This employment relationship means that the directors of Orange Genie have obligations and responsibilities laid down in law. Health, safety and risk awareness is an example of the work Chris undertakes in the background. Orange Genie provides generic online health and safety training to all contractors and contacts all end clients to ensure site-specific risk awareness assessments and training are undertaken. If contractors suffer early termination of assignments, Chris will take up the case to ensure that all contractual obligations have been met.

If you want to find out more about any of our team members, click on their name alternatively, give us a call and we can direct you through to the relevant person 01296 468 483