Answers HR expands into Canada

Jonathan Dart – British Consul-General, Alasdair Ross – We do HR, Mike Bennett – ENGAGE human resources solutions, Julie Ross – We do HR, Sir Neville Trotter and David Coppock – UKT&I

A Darlington-based HR company is celebrating going global by breaking into the Canadian market.

Answers in a box has launched its new human resource management system, Answers HR, into the Canadian market by signing a partnership with Ontario-based consultancy ENGAGE human resources solutions, who will distribute the product, following support from UK Trade and Investment.

Husband and wife team, Alasdair and Julie Ross, have spent years in the development of Answers HR.

Alasdair said: “Answers HR is a fully secure web-hosted employee self-service system offering employers everything from holiday and absence management to relevant policy and procedures. A major difference to other HR systems is that it has been designed with the end user in mind making it easy and intuitive for employees to use and access, and all at about a third of the cost of similar HR software.”

The new system made an impression when it was launched into the Canadian small business market at an event hosted by its new Canadian business partners ENGAGE. Mike Bennett of ENGAGE said: “As a growing consultancy, we were seeking ways to support the smaller sized businesses more cost-effectively and Answers HR hits the mark.

“Through the system we can deliver an effective toolkit of human resource material to local HR consultants that will help businesses to grow and become more strategic when managing their people issues. It is an exciting time.” Answers in a box are also planning to take the product into Australia and have received interest from New Zealand, the Netherlands and Austria.

Alasdair added: “Going global with the product has helped us access a whole new market that we wouldn’t have got into in the past. It offers new opportunities for growing the business – it’s challenging and scary, but it’s also exciting.”