PEOPLE are the life-blood of any business and having the right ones doing the right jobs can make the difference between success and failure.It is Uta Werner's job to ensure employees are happy and productive, which is more complicated than you might think.

Ms Werner, of Churchfield Road, West Ealing, is a human resources consultant but admits most people don't really know what that title means. "They confuse it with a recruitment consultant," she said.

Maybe a cause of the confusion is the vast scope of the job, from drawing up legal contracts, to teaching interviewing skills and training managers to deal with harassment in the workplace.

Ms Werner founded her company, Working Visions, with her business partner in 2005, after four years setting up and running the HR department for the prestigious Richard Rogers architecture firm.

The company specialises in architecture businesses but works with many other types as well.

Her previous HR experience largely comes from working as an executive for Volkswagen

in her native Germany before running a consultancy and managing a five-star hotel in Mexico.

Now she is called in by businesses of all sizes, from those starting up to ones in trouble.

She said: "Of course there's the nasty stuff, reducing staff and dealing with redundancies. That's the part of my job I don't like at all.

"But if I can help employers engage with these staff then something constructive can come out of it. I can help mitigate it."

Despite the current economic climate there is still a lot of opportunity for Ms Werner to do the many elements of her job that she enjoys, especially considering the fact that smaller teams require staff with more skills.

Ms Werner said: "It's a bit like parenting, you help people grow. It's about creating a learning environment for the client, you don't do it all for them but take them by the hand and do it with them.

"In the end they don't need a consultant because they can do it themselves.

"If you can help people learn and grow then that's the best job satisfaction."

Email Ms Werner at utawerner@working visions.co.uk to find out more.