The HR Dept was started in 2002 by Founder and Executive Director, Sue Tumelty to provide local and personal, practical and pragmatic expert HR and employment law advice to small and medium sized businesses.
Having come from a corporate background, Sue found that the hardest part of setting up the business wasn’t the HR side of things, but instead the business aspects and the marketing. So when the original Bristol office began to thrive she began to think how she could help other HR professionals set up quickly and easily under The HR Dept brand. That was the beginning of the story and the business soon became a franchise operation helping HR professionals to open offices across the UK, Ireland and Australia.
In November 2021, The HR Dept Group Ltd became an Employee Ownership Trust and introduced Keith Sadler as CEO and chair of the EOT. The EOT has put the people who are passionate about the business at the heart of its future, whilst protecting the unique culture and values that have been the foundation of the business since 2002.
The HR Dept is now the UK’s largest network of HR professionals providing outsourced HR support to local businesses. Not many SMEs can afford the luxury or actually require a full time HR presence. Nevertheless, employers still need to understand and comply with ever-changing employment legislation and with our ability to provide tribunal indemnity insurance covering legal expenses and awards, they get true peace of mind.
Our vision is to have an expanding network of HR Dept local offices across the UK and Ireland providing local and personal, high quality, cost effective services to the SME marketplace.