French Duncan reacts to growing demand by expanding HR team

Rose Kelly

The firm said the move is part of a substantial planned increase in staffing over the next five years offering more services to clients in addition to traditional accountancy work.

French Duncan said it has identified its HR services department, which is headed by HR services director Louise McCosh, as a growth area after noting clients are increasingly taking up its offering.

It has therefore moved to appoint Rose Kelly as an HR Consultant, increasing the headcount in the department to five, while Lois McMurtie was recently promoted to HR manager.

French Duncan said it provides outsourced HR advice specifically tailored to a clients’ needs and delivered in a way suitable for them whether this is in-house, on the phone, or online. Services cover a wide range of complex HR issues including disciplinary; grievance; performance management; sickness absence; redundancy; and TUPE.

The firm also has experience in a wide range of specialist HR projects including employment documentation such as contracts, policies and procedures; line manager training in HR; HR health checks; HR specific GDPR compliance; HR software implementation; and employment mediation.

Louise McCosh

Louise McCosh, HR services director with French Duncan LLP, said: “Our focus is on tailoring our HR support to our client’s needs – for some clients, we work on site a day per week as their internal HR support and for others, we are in contact on the phone or by email.  We provide bespoke, proactive and commercial HR support to our clients and we have found that outsourcing HR is an increasingly popular service.”

“We work closely with clients to really understand their needs and offer this service on a suitable retained arrangement or we work on an ad hoc basis.  Our approach to all aspects of what we do is holistic, covering the full employment life cycle.”

Ms McCosh added: “It is clear that traditional working practices are changing, and the needs of our clients are changing, and we need to respond to these changes. At French Duncan the firm believes that there are substantial growth opportunities in offering wider business services, such as HR, to our clients. As part of that the firm is continuing to invest heavily in people and technology to ensure that we have the best staff, the best systems and the best service for our clients. Rose’s appointment is the latest stage in our growth, and we believe that HR and the service we provide will continue to expand in the coming years.”