Nigel Cushion, Chairman, nelsonspirit (July 27, 2010)

"Bev has been inspirational on the nelsonspirit crews. She has a rare gift of being able to add value within the context of large organisations, small businesses and charities. She blends excellent project management skills, a passion for feedback, with a professional background and vast experience of people management issues. Her high energy and 'can do' approach make her outstanding. Unlike many in her profession, her coaching and one to one work are grounded in both leading personal development practices, and have a commercial focus. Bev has made a massive contribution to the charities she has worked with, as well as to the fellow Managing Directors on nelsonspirit. I have no hesitation in recommending her."

Michael Rooney, Chief Executive Officer, Hamlet Centre Trust (July 2010)

I have know Bev for 18 months, since I have been involved in two of the nelsonspirit Crews, which look to bring together business leaders and charity heads, for mutual benefit.

It has been in the last few months that Bev has been particularly helpful and supportive, as I have looked at reviewing the administration and financial support needs of the Hamlet Centre.

Bev's ability to hear what is being said and then very quickly and succinctly being able to come up with innovative, carefully considered actions is hugely impressive. After a 90 minute meeting, she was not only able to come up with a potential new structure, but also put Job Descriptions and Person Specifications in place based on the competencies needed for the jobs.

Bev is good fun to work with and has a knack of stimulating the kind of discussion that your business needs. I would happily recommend her to anyone as a highly skilled and experienced practitioner, project manager and leader.

Katie Hanger (Owner), Lola Charters

Bev has been my mentor now for 4 months and has already made a great difference to me personally and to my business.

Over this time we have identified areas of my business that need working on, such as my seasonal pricing strategy, and discussed more personal subjects that got me realising what I value in life and what makes me "tick". Most recently Bev encouraged me to enter the EDP Business Awards, for the Young Entrepreneur of the year...and so far I have made it through to the final 6!

The relationship between us is so special because I can be totally honest and open with Bev, and in turn, I get honest and open feedback from her that I would not get from other peers or family or friends. A good conversation for me was all about business relationships with accountants and what I should be getting from them...and not the other way around...very beneficial, and financially too!

In particular, the relationship has been really effective because Bev is someone that I aspire to become, and more so each time we meet. A successful and independent business women with a great set of values and ambitions.

I would encourage everyone to have a mentor, but make sure you chose one that you respect and can learn from!

Simon Gray, Chief Executive, East Anglian Air Ambulance

The air ambulance worked with Bev via an initiative that she is involved with called nelsonspirit. Bev assisted the charity in an exhaustive search and selection process for a new Director of Fundraising and Marketing. This high profile position will be charged with taking the charity from its current £3.5m turnover to the £5.0m required to meet the charities ambitious plans for the future. Bev ran the entire process from selecting a partner recruitment agency to the intensive first and second interview process based upon a competency based approach. Candidates had to demonstrate excellent public speaking and presentation skills, leadership, team working, influencing, communications, creativity and the ability to be able to manage change (amongst other key skills). The charity will be featuring the entire process in a case study which is likely to be featured in the region's media in the near future.

We would highly recommend Bev as an HR professional and would like to take this opportunity to thank her for her invaluable help to the charity.

Ian Phillips (Director), Ian Phillips Electrical Services

Bev has added real value to my group of companies. She introduced a performance management/appraisal system. This included a new bonus scheme to ensure we rewarded people competitively and retained our top people. She also helped me implement a cultural change programme, which required people taking more ownership and to focus more on the customer to ensure we improved service levels. She coached managers through the process and helped with staff engagement. I was very impressed with Bev`s energy, positive, "can do" attitude and her ability to bring people on board with the changes. She has a very strong work ethic, is extremely honest in her approach and overcame obstacles with confidence and passion - she certainly went the extra mile for us! Since these changes have been introduced I have continued to use the services of Beverly Cushion HR Consultancy for all my HR needs and would not hesitate to recommend them to anyone needing HR services.

Director, EEW & Co

We used the services of Beverly Cushion HR Consultancy to undertake a "Healthcheck" on our company, which we have used as a springboard for introducing changes to the way we go about our business. The review highlighted several things we needed to address immediately - the need to clarify people`s roles and responsibilities more clearly, to undertake a more robust and regular review of salaries, to provide more training for all staff and to improve communications within the company, part of which was to introduce regular team meetings. To have Bev undertake this independent review and for her to feed back to us in her honest and professional manner, ensured the process was completely objective. This enabled us to quickly identify the immediate challenges within the company and Bev helped us agree an action plan to address them. Since the initial piece of work, we have retained Bev`s services and she is working alongside the management team to continue to introduce change into our business.

HR Business Partner, Aviva (In response to our new client feedback questionnaire)