Growing HR specialist sees green shoots

Jul 28 2009 by Karen Dent, The Journal

It would be looking at other major cities, such as Edinburgh, Glasgow and Manchester.

EHR employs six people, who take turns staffing the Leeds office.

The head count has doubled in the past year, as the company has managed to counter many of the problems other recruiters have faced because of the downturn.

Mr Ions said: “The recession has been tough for all businesses and the recruitment part, like every recruiter we’ve been affected. But we are specialists – as all we do is HR, organisations come to us for HR people. We’ve continued to keep our clients because of that speciality.

“It’s been tough, but we are starting to see those green shoots. A lot of the big players find that more difficult because of their client base and because they’re not specialists. The niche is really important.”

The company has also been able to grow on the back of calls for specialist help from people who have been hit by the recession.

“The increase in demand for services such as post-redundancy support, training and coaching gave us the ideal opportunity to remain true to our fundamental business, and at the same time react to market opportunities by growing the company organically,” said Mr Ions.

“The first two years of trading saw us double staff numbers and turnover year on year, and our aim is to repeat that pattern next year.

“Expansion into several other major UK cities should see us push through the £1m turnover barrier within the next three years and create further new jobs. We are very excited about the future.”