A Tredegar based HR business has celebrated their second anniversary by adding two more HR professionals to their team and announcing plans to recruit another whilst also potentially expanding the geographical area they cover.

When Lee Monroe left his position as a Regional People Manager for Morrison’s so he could return home to Wales to spend more time with his family, he opened his own branch of The HR Dept from his home in Tredegar to provide outsourced HR support to local businesses across Abergavenny, Brecon, Blaenau Gwent and Cwmbran.

In just two years, Lee has enjoyed considerable success and moved into an office in Tredegar town centre, employed a team to support him to provide HR support to a growing client base of over 40 businesses and is now looking to expand the business to cover the Swansea region next year.

“It’s been a busy and very productive two years,” commented Lee. “Leaving the security of working for a huge company like Morrisons to set up on my own was quite daunting and not an easy one to make. I was away from home for a large part of the working week and after 16 years I wanted a change. Being my own boss has certainly been an eye opener, but I have thoroughly enjoyed the challenges and am very pleased with what we have achieved to date.”

Covid -19 and its consequences for businesses has impacted Lee’s company.

He said,

“We have certainly become even busier since lockdown was announced with more local businesses approaching us for HR support regarding the furlough scheme, redundancies and making changes to employee’s contracts. Our challenge has been to make sure the employers are all working within the current legislation and guidelines which have changed a few times.”

Having previously worked for Morrison’s has certainly been of benefit to Lee and his HR Dept clients.

“Corporate HR and working with local businesses, the majority of whom are small and medium sized companies might seem very different but in reality my experience transfers across and can be effectively applied to ensure all of our clients have what I refer to as the ‘HR basics’ and includes help and advice regarding people management, staff handbooks and contracts to recruitment.”

As well as running The HR Dept, Lee and in particular his voice, is well known to the residents of Blaenau Gwent due to him presenting shows on local community radio station BGfm.