Katie and Olivia Join Forces to Bring The HR Dept to Glasgow
Our latest licensee has joined forces with a long-standing licensee and brought The HR Dept franchise to Glasgow.
Katie Bell and Olivia Flattery have simultaneously launched The HR Dept South Glasgow and The HR Dept Glasgow City NW, offering practical and pragmatic support to SMEs within their community.
Katie and Olivia launching together made perfect sense. They complement each other nicely in that Olivia has been running her own HR business for the last eight years and Katie brings the local knowledge from living in and around Glasgow for the last 20 years.
They feel that joining forces allows them to better serve their community and they’re very pleased to be working alongside each other.
After growing up in Lanark, Katie’s studies and HR career have seen her primarily based in Glasgow, minus a short stint in London following the financial crisis.
The move to self-employment for Katie, was to give back to the local community and support SMEs in Scotland and Glasgow in particular. What’s really important to her is being able to see the impact our support has on SMEs which is not always easy in corporate HR roles.
Having joined The HR Dept eight years ago and establishing two territories in West London, Olivia fell in love with Glasgow, moving to the city two years ago as the world moved online during Covid.
Olivia’s HR career has seen her travel from place to place but she can finally say she’s found somewhere she wants to call home and she is so looking forward to meeting more people in her local community.
Between them, Katie and Olivia have over four decades of generalist HR experience, advising on and managing people issues across a range of sectors, including financial services, entrepreneurial startups, and retail.
As part of the pre-decision process when exploring the franchise opportunity, Katie was introduced to Olivia to discuss her experience of being an HR Dept licensee.
“We met before I signed anything, which was key in making my decision to become an HR Dept licensee,” Katie said. “We had very open conversations about how we can work together and decided to simultaneously launch our businesses. It’s been a great help for us both.”
We are delighted that Katie and Olivia have joined forces to bring their expertise together for the benefit of SMEs in Glasgow. It’s a potent mix of experience and local knowledge for the city’s community of smaller businesses.
