Who We Work With
Esther is an impressive leader who combines exceptional interpersonal abilities with high integrity and authenticity. I have worked with Esther on the development of our strategic programmes and she never fails to deliver. If you need strategic D&I expertise to engage with and support your executive team to bring meaningful organisational change, I would recommend partnering with Esther and her team.
Dr. S
Global HR Executive
Global Asset Management
Esther Crew is a great asset to our firm, Tenzing PE, in supporting us with diversity and inclusion and in leading our People and Culture agenda. Her deep expertise is instrumental in the development and embedding of our diversity and inclusion strategy that will help us to build a world-class talent team that is diverse, agile, innovative, and consistent as we continue to grow and Esther’s contribution to our B-Corp agenda has been invaluable. As you would expect from a leading CHRO, Esther demonstrates exceptional personal values in the way she works and we are grateful for Esther’s contributions. We highly recommend her and her team at Performance and Engagement to any Private Equity firm, or indeed, any other organisation looking to innovate and transform their people, culture and D&I practices.
Guy Gillon
Founder and CEO
Tenzing PE
In Arcadis across the UK and Ireland, we had already been working on equality, diversity and inclusion (ED&I) for several years when we asked Esther to help us to benchmark our progress and identify what may be holding us back from achieving our ED&I ambitions. My executive leadership team and I worked in partnership with Esther between 2019 and 2022 to develop a high impact ED&I strategy that was a game changer for our creating an inclusive culture. Working with our 250 most senior LLP partners and leaders Esther designed and developed practical tools and development solutions that helped us to instil inclusive leadership behaviours in how we engage and bring to life ED&I in our teams. Esther brought positive challenge, energy, curiosity and genuine know-how to helping us on our ED&I journey. She helped our leaders build their confidence and capability in how they lead ED&I and she equipped us to make things happen. I would have no hesitation in working with Esther again, and thoroughly recommend her to anyone driving transformation and ED&I cultural change with people at its heart.
Mark Cowlard
Global President
Places at Arcadis
Esther Crew at Performance and Engagement joined us at Domino’s Pizza Group for a few months during an exciting period of change and business growth.
Esther delivered a remit looking at our International HR model and providing initial insight and proposals of what foundations we needed to put in place in these newly acquired businesses. Her remit included developing HR strategy, organisational design and TUPE.
Esther is a unique individual who comes with a confident personable style combined with a pragmatic approach to HR, what is needed in a commercial, fast paced, agile and energetic business where you need to hit the ground running.
I would fully recommend Esther if you are undertaking significant business changes and require external HR support as she will deliver on commitments.
Nadine Wyncoll
People Director
Domino’s
Esther worked with us to deeply understand our current I&D environment by conducting a number of workshops across all levels of our organisation and a number of key one to one interviews.
This process was extremely valuable to us as we were in a bit of an unknown place with regard to I&D in our own organisation. We thought we knew, but we really didn’t.
When you are interacting with everyone from the manufacturing shop floor to PhDs in the Innovation function, and to the Exec, you need someone who is calm, approachable, creates a trusted environment, understands the subject well, and can gently but firmly challenge both conscious and unconscious thinking in a way that has people walking away contemplating rather than just reacting.
Esther was exactly that person for us. We are left with a company that feels positively about the opportunities that a more inclusive environment can bring, and that is definitely partly due to Esther’s influence.
Victoria Matthews
Executive Director, HR & Communications
Element Six
Esther carried out a diversity & inclusion review for the company that I was working at to establish a D&I baseline and to identify areas for improvement. She also undertook a half day’s unconscious bias training with the Executive Committee, which was well received. Esther communicated well and was not afraid to tackle difficult subjects at the highest level within the company.
Suzanne Wise
Senior Vice President Corporate Development
JTI
Esther and her team provided a full range of HR services. From day to day operational support, to industrial relations expertise, to HR strategy and executive development programmes.
Esther brings a genuine, authentic quality to everything she delivers. She has great insight and intuition coupled with a involving and engaging style supported by solid experience and refreshing pragmatism. Esther is able to deliver change in a large and complex organisation, and importantly bring others with her in the process. Esther has the employee experience at her heart and makes sure that engagement is never lost in the organisation.
Neal Austin
Group Logistics and Supply Chain Director
Morrisons PLC
Esther at Performance and Engagement is a highly knowledgeable and commercially savvy HR consultant. She recognises the importance of evidence-based practice, yet combines this the drive and pace that’s required in a commercial environment. She has a broad experience across a range of sectors and areas of HR. She provides a refreshing ‘no-nonsense’ approach, whilst also being a pleasure to work with!
Dr Zara Whysall
Associate Professor
Nottingham Business School
Esther Crew at Performance and Engagement supported a key piece of work in establishing succession plans for the leadership teams across NWF Group. She worked effectively and sensitively with a key issue for all senior leaders in the Group and pulled together a clear and easy to communicate plan which has been very well received and is a template for future work in this area.
Richard Whiting
Chief Executive
NWF Group plc
I have worked with Esther at Performance and Engagement for a number of years and would not hesitate to recommend them to my clients. Most recently we worked together to support a large public sector organisation to prepare for major cultural and strategic change whilst navigating its deep-rooted and conflict-ridden trade union issues.
If you are in need of strategic HR and industrial relations consulting, I would highly recommend Esther and her team to help you to transform your business.
Paul Stokey
Head of Employment
Shoosmiths LLP
Following the publication of our first Gender Pay Report, we wanted to undertake a bespoke piece of research that would help us understand some of the perceived barriers to female progression and the potential solutions.
The focus groups that Esther ran provided us with a deep insight into some of the prevailing issues and a clear set of recommendations to address these.
She also then helped guide the internal project team that we established to ensure that our solutions were appropriate and were tailored to the root causes identified. As a result we have been able to demonstrate a robust response to our gender pay gap which will in turn pave the way for a better distribution of females in senior management roles in the business.
Tim Painter
HR Director
Stonegate Pub Company
As a senior finance professional, I was daunted at the prospect of being executive sponsor at the outset of our Group-wide ED&I initiative and had no idea where to start! Engaging Esther was the best first step I could have taken. She has extensive hands-on experience that she is able to communicate and share with all levels in the organisation, lots of practical advice, a real passion and drive, and a genuine desire to be part of the ED&I journey with her clients. Highly recommend.
Heather Green
Chief Financial Officer
Telent
