"We have Copilot" became "our HR team genuinely gets value from it", in a single focused session.
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The challenge
Colart had the tools. Like most organisations in 2026, the business had invested in Microsoft Copilot and was rolling it out across teams. The harder question was capability: how to make sure people actually used it well, consistently, and safely.
For the HR function, led by HR Director Harsa Beagley, that gap was real. Copilot was available, but use was cautious and inconsistent, and HR data carries obvious sensitivity. The team wanted a confident, shared way of working with Copilot across a multi-region function, without drifting into risky or ad hoc habits. To make the session count, Harsa shared the cohort and the team's real bottlenecks in advance, so the workshop targeted Colart's actual work rather than generic theory.
The solution
TESS Group delivered a tailored half-day AI Quick Wins for HR workshop on 2 June 2026, facilitated by Kirstie Kavanagh and built specifically to complement Colart's wider Copilot rollout. The brief was practical, not theoretical: real, daily productivity from Copilot, in Colart's own voice, with the guardrails an HR team needs.
How it was delivered
The session moved deliberately from understanding, to application, to governance. At its heart was one skill, prompting, taught through Google's PTCF framework.
On top of that foundation, the team practised four repeatable techniques, each mapped to real HR tasks.
Turn a dense job description into an on-brand advert in minutes, with Colart's tone intact.
Use AI as a ruthless reviewer of existing drafts, then have it refine its own answer.
Separate planning from writing: approve the outline first, then draft section by section.
Move beyond the chat window: string steps together so processes run with less manual handling.
The team also explored Copilot Notebooks and agents, sketching five purpose-built HR agent concepts together, from a strategic briefing engine to a brand-and-culture guardian. Throughout, the thread was responsible use: the real limits of AI, the Human-in-the-Loop principle where a person always makes the final call, and avoiding the trap of unapproved "shadow AI".
The impact
The outcomes here are qualitative rather than a headline number, and that is the honest picture of what a focused half-day delivers: a clear, shared shift in how the team approaches Copilot.
| For Colart's HR team | Before the workshop | After the workshop |
|---|---|---|
| Confidence | Cautious, inconsistent use | A confident, shared way of working |
| Prompting | One-line requests, vague output | Structured PTCF prompts that get usable results |
| HR use cases | Ad hoc | Job ads, policies, candidate work and reporting |
| Safety | Unclear, risk of shadow AI | Clear guardrails and human oversight |
| Ambition | "We have Copilot" | A view of what HR-specific agents could do next |
What the team can now do that it could not before
The clearest measure of a session like this is what changes on Monday morning. After the workshop, the HR team was equipped to:
- Turn a dense internal job description into an on-brand Colart advert in minutes, rather than an afternoon.
- Use AI as a first reviewer on policies and comms, then refine, instead of starting from a blank page.
- Plan a long document from an approved outline before drafting, so it stays on track.
- Spot where a repetitive HR process could become an automated workflow.
- Do all of it safely, with clear guardrails and a person always making the final call.
The principle we worked to with Colart’s HR team: the organisations that win with AI are not the ones with the most tools, but the ones whose people can direct those tools, critique the output, and work within sensible guardrails.
What's next
A workshop builds momentum; lasting capability comes from structured, accredited development. With Colart we mapped two routes to take the work further: the AI Leadership Units for managers and leaders, and the fully levy-funded AI & Automation Practitioner Level 4 apprenticeship, which turns people into confident in-house AI practitioners with up to five accredited qualifications at no extra cost.
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Book a free AI for HR discovery call. We will map the right workshop or levy-funded route to what your team actually needs.
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