HR expert marks fifth birthday with expansion

AN AWARD-Winning HR consultancy has announced its expansion across South Wales as it celebrates its fifth birthday.

Launched in 2018 by HR expert and Director, Lee Monroe, The HR Dept South-East Wales has become a recognised and established brand offering practical employment advice and HR support for small and medium-sized businesses in South-East Wales. 

Last week (NOV 1) the business expanded further to become The HR Dept South Wales, serving businesses in the Swansea and Neath areas, and taking his team of employees from five to eight.

Within two years of starting his own branch of The HR Dept in Abergavenny, Brecon, Blaenau Gwent and Torfaen from his home in Tredegar, Mr Monroe moved into his first office in Tredegar, taking on two employees to support him in providing HR support to a growing client base of over 40 businesses.

The business has continued to grow, even during the pandemic, where his team were agile enough to navigate their clients through the Furlough schemes, redundancies and changes to employee’s contracts.

In 2021 the HR specialist expanded the area it covered to incorporate Cardiff, Newport and Central Valleys, adding two more to his team and moving into a larger office in Ebbw Vale.

The team work with a wide range of clients, providing a personal service helping businesses that don’t need a full time HR presence but do need support in dealing with HR issues that arise when employing either their first member of staff or their hundredth.

 “We are thrilled to be celebrating five years in business and to announce our expansion across South Wales,” said the former Morrisons Regional People Manager.

“It has been a busy five years but I have thoroughly enjoyed the challenges and couldn’t do this without my team.”

“We go the extra mile for our clients.”

“We are not a call centre. We pride ourselves on offering a personal service, putting the customer at the heart of the business, whilst embracing continuous development.”

“Every client has a direct line to a dedicated HR advisor, avoiding the traditional route of a cold, unwelcoming call centre and time spent completing security checks.”

 “Having three cities within our region is exciting and we look forward to meeting new businesses, particularly in Neath and Swansea, building trusted relationships with our clients and serving the local communities,” added the Cardiff-born, father-of-two.

The team has a string of business awards to its name, including; Business of the Year in 2022 and the Customer Experience Award 2023 at the Zokit Business Awards South Wales, the People Development Award at the 2023 Business Growth Awards, finalist in the Entrepreneur of the Year 2023 and named The HR Dept Community Champion for three consecutive years. 

They are long-standing supporters of The Hospice of The Valleys charity and more recently, SADS UK.

Mr Monroe has recently created the brand-new role of Community Champion that will see his wife Emma Monroe, a fluent Welsh speaker, work with local charities and organisations to see how The HR Dept can provide support.  

The HR Dept South Wales is part of The HR Dept - the UK’s largest network of independent HR experts, providing outsourced HR support to local businesses, with a network of 70 franchises providing services in 120 regions in the UK, Ireland and Australia. 

Licensees provide high-level experience but at an affordable rate for growing businesses, who need the expertise on hand but have neither the need nor the budget for an in-house HR team.

Felicity Kenny, Managing Director of The HR Dept, commented “We are delighted to see Lee and his team expand the business further to cover the South Wales region and wish them every success with the expansion. This will enable them to support more local SMEs with their HR expertise.”

Visit www.hrdept.co.uk/south-wales