Who we are

Karen is the owner of The HR Dept Basingstoke and Hart and opened the office in March 2010 having previously held senior HR positions for Global Manufacturing and Engineering companies.

Karen is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

There aren’t many employment situations that Karen hasn’t seen in her career having worked with such diverse workforces. She has an incredibly high level of employment law knowledge and advises managers and businesses owners in very clear, concise English.

Karen’s passion is supporting businesses to achieve their goals and objectives and therefore is very commercially focussed when providing advice to clients and believes there is a solution to everything.

Leigh is our HR & Operations Director and is responsible for our HR function, our HR clients, leading the team that service them, supporting our client base and managing the accounts with a close eye.

Leigh has a wide and varied experience of management roles within Global Supply Chain companies with strong client relationship and project management skills prior to her 10 years strong in HR, working at HR Dept.  Leigh is CIPD qualified with an exceptional knowledge of current employment law legislation. This, combined with an extensive background in leading and advising on all aspects of the employee life cycle and a strong commercial awareness, allows Leigh to contribute to a company at both strategic and operational level when supporting, creating and delivering HR strategies.

Leigh is extremely customer focussed “I am really passionate about ensuring every client has the best possible customer experience with every interaction they have our team here at The HR Dept.

Sarah has been with us since 2017 and is responsible for maintaining the day to day smooth running of the office. She has a strong background in business administration, having previously worked in an accounting practice, and is the primary client contact for invoicing and billing queries.

Rochelle started her journey with us as a Summer Intern for an initial 6 week period in 2019. Having recently graduated with a Law Degree prior to joining the Company, she was unsure which direction to go in next. Fortunately for us, she discovered a passion for all things HR and decided to stay on as a full-time member of our Advice Line team. She has since become CIPD qualified and enjoys interacting day-to-day with our array of clients, ensuring they operate legally through identifying fair and practical people solutions to employee relations issues.

Dan has an exceptional eye for detail and brings a really positive energy to the office and our clients. Coming from a quality control background he understands the importance of accuracy in all things HR and strives to make sure he services our clients to the highest standard.

Chelsea joined the team in 2021, she heads up the Advice Line team & makes sure our clients are getting the best support possible. Chelsea’s focus is to make sure the team offer a highly responsive service to our clients helping them with HR & employments related issues.

She has a strong operational and HR background, having previously worked in large retail stores managing in excess of 350 people.

Over time she has developed a passion for Employment Law, and Employee Relations, and completed her HR Diploma becoming a Certified CIPD Associate.

Chelsea also loves time away with her family and the sun!!!

Natasha heads up our recruitment division. She joined us in Jan 2022 having previously held senior Recruitment & Operations positions in other recruitment businesses.

Natasha is a member of REC and has over 16 years generalist recruitment & executive search experience, including managing Resourcing & Operations Teams.

Both her previous employers were management consultancies that offered recruitment services across a wide variety of industries including major infrastructure projects.

Key Areas of expertise are: Specialist Head Hunting, Exec Search & Resourcing for UK and International clients

Natasha is extremely dedicated to providing the highest level of customer service “I am really passionate about ensuring every client & candidate has the best possible recruitment experience with me & my team.”

Tracy is a pragmatic, business savvy, confident and highly organised HR, Training and recruitment professional with extensive experience in the Insurance, Financial and Recruitment industries.

She brings us her comprehensive experience of training and mentoring across the full employee life cycle from induction training to 1-2-1 coaching for career progression. She is also experienced in supporting large-scale regulatory and cultural change through planning and delivering training to broad populations across varied geographical locations.

Tracy has worked in HR for over 10 years and is our resident expert in Right to Work and immigration law. She is also a marvelous baker, which the whole team regularly get to appreciate!

Ellie has a generalist recruitment and HR background resourcing for large supermarkets and thoroughly enjoyed the positive impact recruiting brought to people’s lives. Being a real ‘People Person’ Ellie loves to meet new people and see how she can support them progress in the career journey.

Spending time with the family is important to Ellie and also her pet dog ‘Mr Darcey’ the Chihuahua.