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’t 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 £25,000 investment being brought in to support its development plans.
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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: “Having 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.
“We’ve not grown in precisely the way I’d originally expected, but we’ve 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.
“The 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’re already helping a number of businesses that have been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak.
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“Managing the redundancy process can be both complex and emotionally draining for business owners, especially within small business settings with tight-knit teams, and we’re working to take the weight off the shoulders of those who’re being forced to make decisions they don’t want to make.”
The North East Small Loan Fund is part of the wider £120m North East Fund. It is aimed predominantly at smaller SMEs and typically offers loans of between £10,000 and £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 £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: “Jayne and her team take a proactive approach to helping their clients manage their HR responsibilities and it’s very pleasing to see the positive impact of our investment on her business.”