Insights: HR Professionals

Outsourced human resources specialist The HR Dept has expanded further in Australia with the launch of four new franchisees in Sydney and Perth. The company, which provides HR advice and support on a personal, local basis to small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) now has nine franchisees operating across Australia.

In Perth, the new franchisees are Amanda Fox in the Inner City and Chris Muir-Smith in the South. In Sydney, Esther Colman has launched in the Eastern Suburbs and is joined by Mhairi Holway in the Northern Beaches area. Each of the experts will provide high quality expertise for the benefit of local SMEs in their territories which are looking to develop their people strategies, backed by many years of experience working with large and smaller businesses.

The HR Dept launched in Australia in the autumn of 2017, based on the success of a British model which started franchising in 2005 and now has 75 franchisees serving more than 6,000 SMEs in over 100 territories in the UK, Ireland and Australia.

“We are delighted to welcome these four new franchisees into The HR Dept family.”

Gemma Tumelty, Managing Director of The HR Dept Australia, said: “It’s challenging setting up a new business but we have enjoyed significant success over the past 18 months and are delighted to welcome these four new franchisees into The HR Dept family.

“We believe our success so far is because there’s nothing else like this in the marketplace. There are off-the-shelf HR options for small businesses but nothing which compares to The HR Dept’s offering of highly expert outsourced advice and support at a price which even a start-up can afford.

“We want to help businesses across Australia grow and thrive through good people practices, in turn helping the communities they are based in to be productive and successful. We are also unique in being Australia’s only HR franchise, so we provide the first opportunity for HR professionals to set up their own franchise business. With these four new franchisees starting up in Perth and Sydney, The HR Dept’s footprint in Australia is growing rapidly and we are looking for new HR professionals to help grow our network.”

Pia Engstrom is the Professional Lead and board director for the HR Dept in Australia and also holds the company’s first franchise, having set up The HR Dept Western Suburbs in Perth back in 2017.

She said: “Part of the strength of The HR Dept’s model is that franchisees, while running their own independent businesses, are part of a support network through which they can tap into each other’s knowledge and experience. So the more franchisees we take on, the greater our ability to tackle any employment-related situation. It’s great news for the many thousands of SME businesses across Australia and I am confident that each franchise will be a great success.”

And she said that changing working cultures make The HR Dept’s offering all the more relevant for modern businesses.

“There are a number of human resources issues impacting modern businesses,” she said. “For example, HR technology is making a huge difference to the way companies manage their people and business.

“Gender equality is a very topical and current issue, which can be difficult for small to medium sized businesses, depending on the industry. Legislation is changing greatly, from treatment of casual labour, to requests for flexible working and unpaid domestic violence leave. These are just a few of the considerations that business owners need to make when thinking about proper management of their employees.

“So in the current economic environment and the society we live in today, having good people processes in place is critical, to ensure employment legislation is adhered to and businesses retain highly skilled employees.”

[As seen in Business Franchise Australia]