West Yorkshire employment law firm invests £50k in launching new HR and investigations team

Howarths, the West Yorkshire employment law specialist, has invested over £50k in the launch of a specialist team designed to support SMEs with HR issues and people management.

Howarths’ HR and investigations department will focus 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 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.

Gavin Howarth, Howarths managing director, 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.”