West Yorkshire employment law specialist Howarths has invested over £50,000 in the launch of a specialist team designed to support SMEs with HR issues and people management.
Howarths’ HR and investigations department will focus specifically on delivering HR-related services including on-site employee investigations, recruitment and selection and employee engagement support.
The investigations service will be led by Bob Cherry, who was appointed to the role in July following a number of senior people management and investigation roles in the public sector. He will work closely with Howarths’ newly formed HR team, led by HR advisor Tracey Hopkins and supported by HR assistant, Ellie-Mae Fisher, and HR administrator, Caitlan Price.
The department is forecast to increase company turnover by 5% in the first year, growing to 10% by August 2019.
Explaining the reasons behind the launch of the new department, Howarths managing director, Gavin Howarth, said:
“We listened carefully to feedback received by our clients and understood that more on-site support was required. For reasons of impartiality and complexity, many businesses we work with were looking for support with their internal HR investigations.
“A properly conducted HR investigation is of crucial importance to the fairness of any process and we are now well positioned to support businesses of all sizes with difficult tasks such taking witness statements and properly and impartially reviewing evidence”.
He continued:
“We have also increased the range of HR services we offer to include more specialist HR work such as recruiting the right people, driving employee engagement and improving workplace culture to impact the bottom line. These services are proactive, profit focused and all designed to help businesses get the best out of their main asset; their staff.”
The new department launch comes following a successful 2016/17 financial year for Howarths, which saw the company increase turnover by more than 10% and secure a further three year contract with national high street footwear retailer, Moda in Pelle.
