HR chief goes solo

Shropshire’s Kelly Mansell was once responsible for a 1,000-plus workforce as manager of human resources at major retail chain House of Fraser. Now she’s on her own.

Not that Kelly is daunted. With 12 years experience in human resources working for other people, she is confident that her own consultancy business will be a big success.

She launched ABC Human Resources Consultancy Ltd at the start of the year, based at the rural farm home, near Oswestry, which she shares with husband Jeremy and pre-school sons Tyler and Louie.

Kelly offers expertise on a wide range of issues from disputes, recruitment, discipline, low morale and parental leave to age discrimination legislation, absence management, redundancies, contracts of employment and management/employee handbooks.

She already has two clients, one company in Stoke-on-Trent and the other near Wrexham, and is now aiming to recruit businesses in Shropshire.

“There is certainly a market for HR consultancy work. Small to medium-sized businesses often don’t have the budget to employ a full-time HR manager. But they still have issues to do with employment and employment law that need handling by an expert in that field. That is where I come in,” she explained.

“I am currently updating an employment handbook to make sure it meets regulations, I’ve got a tribunal case and a long-term absentee case, so I’m keeping busy and things are going quite well,” she said.

The 31-year-old graduated from Staffordshire University with a sociology degree before starting work as personal assistant to the manager at House of Fraser in Shrewsbury.

“I quickly realised that human resources was something I would like to do,” she said.

Promotion followed, from HR manager in Shrewsbury to the same role at the flagship store in Birmingham.

“That was quite a steep upward learning curve, to go from being responsible for 48 employees to more than 1,000. But I absolutely thrived on it. It was a great experience.”

Kelly was 14 months in that role before returning to Shropshire.

“I left when I was pregnant with Tyler and the commute was becoming not much fun,” she explained.

She became head of human resources at a research firm in Market Drayton but, after 12 years of working for others, she decided to leave last summer to pursue her dream of running her own consultancy. She set up ABC on January 8.

“I can offer services in all aspects of HR, from assistance with employee issues to bespoke policies tailored to the organisation. I will happily cover employment law advice and can ensure that an organisation is legally compliant with regards to policies and procedures.

“Because I have good childcare I am also pretty flexible.”

And the name of the company? “I wish to show that HR is as easy as ABC,” she said.

l Kelly can be contacted on 01691 839400 or email kelly.mansell@abchr.co.uk. For more details visit www.abchr.co.uk