Bristol-based employment specialist the HR Dept has celebrated nine years in business by moving to new offices to accommodate its growing team.
The new office, on the Henfield Business Park in Westerleigh, South Gloucestershire, will house the Bristol team, which has grown from seven to 10 people in the past year, as well as providing space for further growth and dedicated training facilities, enabling the company to stage regular courses and seminars to clients.
The company was founded in 2003 by managing director Sue Tumelty, a human resources professional with many years’ experience at senior management level who wanted to provide a practical, pragmatic and affordable advice and support service for small and medium-sized employers.
Its experts offer small firms everything a large business receives from its human resources team but at a fraction of the cost of employing an in-house operation and is the only HR company to insure its clients against tribunal costs if its advice has been followed.
Today it has 45 offices across England and Wales, each run by experienced HR professionals under the HR Dept brand.
New licensees are being added monthly while several long-standing licensees who have run HR Dept offices for the past five years have recently renewed theirs for a further 10 years.
The Bristol office has achieved 30% growth in client work over the past year. It works with employers who are taking on their first employee to larger businesses with up to 250 staff, across a broad range of sectors including manufacturing, property and financial services, distribution and retail, healthcare and not for profit.
Its former office at Down Road, Winterbourne Down, now houses the HR Dept’s three-strong licensee management team headed by general manager Tom Doherty.
Sue said: “Businesses of all sizes are facing tough times. Correctly managing redundancies and restructuring to avoid tribunal situations, putting the right teams in place to lead businesses out of recession and helping employers keep on top of ever-changing legislation has kept our teams especially busy over the last year and encouraged many new clients to turn to us for advice and support.
“Seeing our business expand and having even more experienced and talented HR professionals who share our drive, energy and passion for customer service has been fantastic. Our move to new premises means that we can continue to give the quality of service on which we pride ourselves, bring in more people to serve our growing client base, expand our range of services and meet the needs of customers who want to know more about HR through training and seminars.
“I believe we have a team and a service that is second to none. Going forward we want to continue to grow that team to ensure that more businesses can access the top quality local HR support we provide.”
The firm achieved a score of 9.1 out of 10 for overall performance in its latest annual survey of customers, maintaining its tradition of achieving above 9 each year since the survey was started. Some 9.4% also said that they would recommend the HR Dept to a friend or business contact.
