New face at Shropshire HR firm

Vicky Dickson, 29, lives in Shrewsbury, has three years’ experience in the HR industry and is looking forward to her new role helping The HR Dept Shropshire expand its client base.

The HR Dept Shropshire was launched by Niamh Kelly in May 2018 to provide human resources and employment law support to small and medium sized businesses. She set up sister company The HR Dept Wrexham and Chester last year and recently joined forces with Lee Monroe of The HR Dept Abergavenny, Brecon, Blaenau Gwent & Cwmbran in a move to provide extensive HR support to businesses across Mid Wales.

Vicky, who is originally from Dolgellau in Mid Wales and is excited to be able to offer advice in Welsh to clients in the new territory, said: “I am excited to be a part of The HR Dept Shropshire team and look forward to helping get across all the things we offer as a successful HR company and what support we can provide.

“We have so many resources behind us, so much support and information to draw on in finding the best way to help the client.

“The last 12 to 14 months have been a big challenge for many companies, their employees and the HR industry. There were a lot of companies initially with furlough queries, so the early days of the pandemic were focused on getting our heads around what furlough was and advising on that.

“We then saw a spike in the number of businesses considering redundancies and more recently it has been all about getting employees back to work – so it’s been a busy time and extremely difficult for so many people.

“On the positive side I believe it has made employers think more about mental health and employee engagement, especially with people working from home and trying to keep them included in the team and not to feel too isolated and lonely.

“More managers are trying to touch base with staff to find out how they are doing and how they could support them a bit more.

“It’s still difficult trying to change some people’s opinions about how HR works but new things like furlough that employers have not had to consider before, have brought HR more to the forefront of employers’ minds.

“There is more talk about mental health and wellbeing and trying to keep employees happy. There are many things we have to deal with, and people definitely have a greater awareness of HR and are discovering more value in it.”

Vicky said her move to The HR Dept Shropshire was a great opportunity to keep developing her skills and experience and she hopes to become a chartered member of CIPD.

“We have a team of friendly, helpful professionals offering pragmatic advice on employment law best practice,” she added. “One of main things we are dealing with at the moment is absence from work and that’s probably going to be an issue as we try to get people back into the workplace.

“The pandemic has had a major effect on mental health and we are seeing a lot of depression and anxiety with people going off for long periods of time – so it’s all about managing their return to work and how we can best support them.”

Ms Kelly said: “We are delighted to welcome Vicky to the HR Dept Shropshire team, part of an ongoing expansion and our commitment to providing the highest standards of HR support to businesses across the region.”