The first company to receive funding from a key North East jobs has completed its investment agreement.
The HR Dept Newcastle works with expanding companies which don鈥檛 yet have in-house personnel resources to ensure they meet their regulatory and compliance responsibilities.
It was set up by HR professional Jayne Hart and secured the first ever investment from the North East Small Loan Fund in May 2018, with a 拢25,000 investment being brought in to support its development plans.
Since then, the firm has opened up a new office in North Tyneside, strengthened its team of advisors and grown its year-on-year turnover by around 60%.
It is now expecting to see interest in its services increase due to the new demands on small business management being brought about by the coronavirus pandemic.
Ms Hart said: 鈥淗aving the Small Loan Fund investment has given me the latitude to explore different opportunities, allocate resources where I thought they would have the greatest impact and develop the services that we provide for our clients.
鈥淲e鈥檝e not grown in precisely the way I鈥檇 originally expected, but we鈥檝e made good progress over the last couple of years and now have an extremely strong team in place that combines highly experienced HR advisers and very talented graduate recruits.
鈥淭he team has adapted well to working remotely during the pandemic, with video calling becoming the default for keeping in touch with both colleagues and clients, and we鈥檙e already helping a number of businesses that have been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak.
鈥淢anaging the redundancy process can be both complex and emotionally draining for business owners, especially within small business settings with tight-knit teams, and we鈥檙e working to take the weight off the shoulders of those who鈥檙e being forced to make decisions they don鈥檛 want to make.鈥
The North East Small Loan Fund is part of the wider 拢120m North East Fund. It is aimed predominantly at smaller SMEs and typically offers loans of between 拢10,000 and 拢100,000 to businesses in Tyne and Wear, Durham and Northumberland.
The fund, which is suported by the European Regional Development Fund, is managed by NEL Fund Managers. Its upper investment limit was recently doubled by NEL from 拢50,000 in response to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the resulting increased growth capital needs of many SMEs.
Mark Wharton, portfolio executive at NEL Fund Managers, said: 鈥淛ayne and her team take a proactive approach to helping their clients manage their HR responsibilities and it鈥檚 very pleasing to see the positive impact of our investment on her business.鈥
