The Kane Story – 20 Years
Celebrating 20 years this October we caught up with Managing Partner, Janice Howell, to find out how Kane began.
How did the idea for KaneHR come about?
Believe it or not, it wasn’t a grand plan, it just evolved. I was an HR Director for a consumer PR company in London at the time, with two young children, working long days. My plan was to have a career break, but when searching for an outsourced solution to pick up aspects of my work as I left , I thought, ‘I can do this!’ hence they became my first client. I left the PR company on the Friday and on the Monday I was contacted to provide some urgent help for a US based company which was making a TUPE announcement that day. I therefore travelled to Kent to help with the announcement and ended up running the consultation process for them and provided support to them for over six months. I didn’t even have a company name at that point!
How did you come up with the name KaneHR?
Initially it was my husband who was setting up a financial services business to provide wealth management to clients, many of whom ran their own businesses and wanted HR help. We wanted a name that wasn’t simply our surname. We have family links to Japan and it was literally over the kitchen table that we were discussing names and Japanese written characters when our relative came up with ‘Kane’, which loosely means house of wealth, which perfectly suited Gareth’s business managing investment portfolios for clients. The rest as they say is history; Kane Consultants was born and over time the HR side evolved into a separate business, now trading as KaneHR. If you can read Japanese you would be able to read our logo – I have come across several people who have!
What do you enjoy most about running KaneHR?
It’s always been about the client satisfaction for me. Knowing that we have made a difference to their business and helped them successfully pave their way through their HR challenges, whatever they may be.
What has been your stand-out moment over the last 20 years?
There have been too many to pick out just one, or a few! I am sure I could write a book one day on the most bizarre cases we have dealt with!
What do you think is the reason for your success?
It’s the fantastic team we have! They all share my passion for providing an excellent service and we genuinely care about our clients’ businesses, which I think makes KaneHR what it is today.
What is in store for the next 20 years?
I’m extremely excited at what the future holds for KaneHR! We’re looking to achieve a step change in our business growth, whilst still retaining our renowned personal service. We know that our clients like what we do; so, with this in mind we want to grow our team and offer the same excellent service to more clients and become known as a leader in our field.