Tracey Hudson joined The HR Dept in 2005 as a franchisee and has since built up a team of 15 employees and owns 5 territories across The HR Dept Network. We caught up with Tracey to find out more about her journey and to find out about the new podcast which she is now hosting on behalf of The HR Dept franchise.
What were your motivations for joining The HR Dept
Before joining The HR Dept, I’d had a short corporate career at the age of 25 but quickly realised corporate life wasn’t for me, coming from a family of business owners. In 2005, I saw an advert for The HR Dept in the CIPD People Management magazine and ended up going to Bristol to meet the team.
I loved that joining The HR Dept meant I could run my own HR business, but I didn’t have to think about putting a website together, creating marketing materials or make decisions on branding. It was all there ready for me to use.
How has your business developed?
When I first joined The HR Dept, I had one territory for a couple of years before starting a family. It was then that I recruited staff and was able to pull-on other licensees for support. Since then, I’ve taken on another four territories and have a really good, stable team of 15 employees including a Managing Director.
The first few years were incredibly hard. But it’s all about remembering the reason why The HR Dept was franchised in the first place. If you just follow the model, it works. And that’s been proven over and over again.
Where I’m at now is great because I have a lot of flexibility. I’ve got a great team of advisors so I’m not really client facing anymore which is the position I always wanted to get to eventually. I enjoy coaching the team from the side-lines whilst the MD leads the business.
What’s the best thing about being an HR Dept franchisee?
For me, it’s the relationships and really strong friendships I’ve built with other franchisees. The power of the network is phenomenal and it’s so supportive. There is so much knowledge between everyone and we’re all committed to helping each other build their businesses.
The HR Dept have also just launched their brand new podcast ‘Preventing People Problems’ which is hosted by Tracey. In this monthly podcast Tracey is joined by various guests, including other HR Dept franchisees, to talk all things human resources and employment law.
You can find Preventing People Problems podcast here:
🎧 Spotify: https://lnkd.in/e_92NXP6
🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/eakjy7ys
📹 YouTube: https://lnkd.in/eYA2RthG
🖥 Or you can visit: https://www.hrdept.co.uk/podcast/
