HR Consultants in London to Watch for in 2025

London HR Experts to Know in 2025

London’s skyline isn’t the only thing constantly evolving—the workforce is, too.

As one of the world’s most cosmopolitan business hubs, London thrives on its diversity, innovation, and global outlook. From tech startups in Shoreditch to legal firms in Holborn, nonprofits in Brixton to finance giants in Canary Wharf, companies in the capital face an ever-changing set of HR challenges. Navigating hybrid work? Building inclusive, equitable workplaces? Attracting and retaining talent across competitive sectors? All of that, and more, falls on the shoulders of forward-thinking HR leaders.

That’s where this city’s top HR consultants step in.

In 2025, London’s HR consultants aren’t just managing compliance or updating handbooks. They’re strategic partners guiding businesses through transformation—aligning people strategies with business goals, amplifying DEI efforts, streamlining operational processes, and shaping cultures where employees thrive.

At Digital Reference, we’ve spent months researching the best HR minds in the London area. We didn’t just stop at credentials. We went deeper—analyzing leadership style, client testimonials, ecosystem influence, and impact on today’s most pressing HR priorities.

Our methodology includes:

• Assessment of strategic contributions to client organizations
  
  
• Public feedback from clients, collaborators, and peers
  
  
• Visibility and influence across industries such as tech, healthcare, education, and the nonprofit sector
  
  
• Alignment with future-oriented HR practices like AI in HR, DEI initiatives, employee engagement, and hybrid workforce strategy
  

To learn more about how HR and talent experts shape business outcomes, check out our insight:
👉 HR Consultants & Talent Experts: What Do They Do?
👉 Human Resources Professionals: What Are They and What Do They Do?

Now, let’s meet some of the standout HR professionals shaping the capital’s workforce in 2025.

Sarah Smith

Founder, SSHR Consultancy
🔗 LinkedIn | 🌐 sshr.co.uk

In a city as education-rich as London, with its mosaic of schools, academies, and institutions navigating ever-evolving safeguarding standards and workforce complexities, Sarah Smith is the trusted name in HR consulting for the education sector.

As the founder of SSHR Consultancy, Sarah combines more than a decade of in-the-field HR expertise with a deep understanding of what makes schools and learning organizations tick—from HR compliance to conflict resolution and safer recruitment. With her Chartered CIPD membership and Level 7 HR qualifications, Sarah has worked closely with leadership teams across the UK to resolve disputes, deliver targeted training, and improve people processes—especially within education environments where compliance, care, and communication are critical.

🧠 What Sets Sarah Apart:

• 🏫 Specialist expertise in the education sector, including academies, schools, colleges, and universities
  
  
• 🧑‍🏫 Accredited Safer Recruitment trainer, certified by the Lucy Faithfull Foundation
  
  
• 🕊️ TCM-certified workplace mediator who knows how to de-escalate issues before they become legal risks
  
  
• 🛠️ Hands-on experience designing and delivering training workshops for senior leaders and middle managers
  
  

Sarah has long understood that the education world requires a nuanced HR approach—not just because of safeguarding protocols and regulatory expectations, but because student outcomes are so tightly interwoven with staff wellbeing and stability. That’s why SSHR provides bespoke HR packages: no cookie-cutter policies, just smart, legally compliant support tailored to the exact needs of each client.

🎯 Core Offerings Include:

• 👩‍⚖️ Disciplinary investigations and grievance procedures
  
  
• 📋 HR policy reviews and development
  
  
• 👥 Performance management training
  
  
• 📈 Recruitment and selection support
  
  
• 🧾 TUPE guidance, redundancy, and reorganizations
  
  
• 🤝 Workplace mediation for resolving internal conflict
  
  
• 🏫 Safer Recruitment training in line with Keeping Children Safe in Education (KCSIE) standards
  
  

Sarah’s reputation is rooted in her ability to build trusted relationships with school leaders, walking the line between HR advisor, trainer, and conflict-resolution specialist. She’s been praised for her calm, objective approach to complex employee relations matters, particularly in high-stakes education settings where emotional dynamics can be heightened and the risk of procedural missteps is high.

💬 “We support employers—whether you're looking for a retained HR service or just need specific advice to resolve a particular issue—with tailored packages that suit your organization type and budget,” Sarah says.

⚖️ A Safer Space Starts with Smarter HR
Through SSHR, Sarah has trained countless school leaders in Safer Recruitment practices, helping institutions embed safer hiring into their culture—not just as policy, but as practice. And as a certified mediator, she’s adept at de-escalating internal tensions that could otherwise lead to long-term morale issues or even legal claims.

Whether she’s reviewing employment contracts or facilitating healing conversations between staff, Sarah’s approach is always clear: focus on solutions, act with integrity, and empower leadership teams to manage people more effectively and compassionately.

🌟 In a sector that demands HR leaders be both compliant and compassionate, Sarah Smith is leading the way in 2025—proving that great people strategy is fundamental to creating safe, successful, and supportive learning environments.

David Mellard

Founder & Director, Bedrock HR
🔗 LinkedIn | 🌐 bedrockhr.co.uk

When it comes to blending deep sector experience with a uniquely grounded approach to people strategy, David Mellard of Bedrock HR stands out as a cornerstone of HR consulting in London—no pun intended.

A seasoned HR strategist with nearly three decades of experience across higher education, NGOs, private business, and the charity sector, David is the kind of leader who makes HR feel both human and high impact. Since founding Bedrock HR in 2014, David has built a consultancy that does more than just offer best practices—it tailors smart, scalable solutions that actually work for SMEs, universities, charities, and tech startups alike.

Why “Bedrock”?
David named the business to reflect a foundational belief: that people are the bedrock of any great organization. And his team takes that seriously—from the first job description to navigating complex restructuring.

👔 What Makes David Different?
David doesn’t just advise—he embeds. Clients describe Bedrock HR’s approach as hands-on, empathetic, and built to develop long-term internal capability. His leadership style? Picture an experienced sailor with a light hand on the tiller—collaborative, strategic, and always ready for rough waters with a steady smile.

💡 Bedrock HR’s Unique Strengths:

• 🧩 HR Strategy & Structure Design: David has designed HR infrastructures for a variety of SMEs, including pay and grading systems for housing organizations and structural realignment for startups.
  
  
• ⚖️ Employee Relations & Mediation: A qualified mediator, David specializes in conflict resolution that emphasizes trust, clarity, and professional respect.
  
  
• 💸 Reward & Recognition Programs: He brings a thoughtful lens to pay and engagement systems that foster loyalty while staying realistic for lean budgets.
  
  
• 🏛️ Sector-Specific Expertise: David's background in higher education and NGOs gives him rare perspective into mission-driven environments with complex stakeholder maps.
  
  

🏥 Recent Projects Include:

• Supporting a leading UK university with HR strategy implementation
  
  
• Helping young tech startups formalize performance management and compliance frameworks
  
  
• Developing new people structures for property, lifestyle, and film sector SMEs
  
  
• Advising schools and charities on workplace conflict and staff engagement during the COVID-19 crisis
  

🛠️ End-to-End HR Lifecycle Support
From job design and recruitment to performance management and redundancy planning, Bedrock HR supports the entire employee experience—always with legal compliance and organizational culture in mind.

🔍 Workplace Health & Safety Advisory
Understanding that HR and Health & Safety go hand-in-hand, David and his team also offer H&S assessments, systems design, and policy development for employers navigating today's duty-of-care landscape.

✨ What Clients Say
Bedrock HR is often described as the go-to partner for leaders who want practical HR that’s legally sound, emotionally intelligent, and organizationally transformative. They don’t just parachute in solutions—they help clients build better habits for long-term success.

With David Mellard, you’re not just getting advice. You’re getting a partner who believes that every organization—regardless of size or sector—deserves to be a great place to work.

Yvonne Foster

Founder & Director, Lotus HR
🔗 LinkedIn | 🌐 lotushr.co.uk

With more than 25 years of experience and an unmatched reputation for tackling complex employment law and organisational transformation, Yvonne Foster is one of London’s most trusted HR leaders—and a powerhouse behind the acclaimed Lotus HR consultancy.

Yvonne brings a rare mix of legal precision, business strategy, and hands-on empathy to the HR consulting world. Her career spans public, private, and voluntary sectors, where she’s been the person called in to lead when the stakes are highest: large-scale redundancies, TUPE transitions, executive-level disputes, organisational restructures, and HR strategy reboots. Clients don’t just lean on her for advice—they often build entire people functions with her guidance.

🌸 The Philosophy Behind Lotus HR
True to its name, Lotus HR is all about transformation—from chaos to clarity, from risk to resilience. Yvonne founded the firm with a vision to give both SMEs and large organisations bespoke, one-on-one HR support that reduces liability, boosts productivity, and ensures compliance without bureaucracy. That personal approach, paired with deep strategic insight, is why the firm boasts a 95% client retention rate.

💼 Yvonne’s Areas of Expertise:

• ⚖️ Employment Law & Employee Relations: From grievance cases to TUPE and tribunal representation, Yvonne is a go-to expert for employment law compliance and conflict resolution.
  
  
• 🧠 Organisational Change & Restructuring: Her calm authority and big-picture thinking shine during strategic reorganisations, talent audits, and performance alignment.
  
  
• 📊 Strategic HR Leadership: Whether it’s designing HR strategies for a charity or transforming a borough-wide recruitment process, Yvonne leads with data, foresight, and a collaborative style.
  

🌟 Standout Projects:

• TUPE & Contract Variation: For a growing SME, Yvonne managed the intricate consultation process for employees protected under TUPE, including re-engagement cases—ensuring compliance and protecting business continuity.
  
  
• Charity Strategy Overhaul: She facilitated HR strategy and talent planning for a large nonprofit by working directly with board members to close skill and leadership gaps.
  
  
• Grievance & Disciplinary Mastery: Leveraging data to navigate high-stakes cases with care, she’s helped countless HR teams win outcomes that balance people and policy.
  
  
• Redundancy for 35+ Employees: Yvonne didn’t just manage logistics—she supported emotional needs and challenged the executive board where needed to mitigate risk and preserve culture.
  
  
• Benefits & Values Research: Using executive interviews and focus groups, she shaped two organisations’ benefits and cultural frameworks to better attract and retain talent.
  
  
• Brent Council Recruitment Revamp: Perhaps one of her most significant public sector engagements, she led an 18-month transformation of the London Borough of Brent’s recruitment function. This included restructuring the department to be more stakeholder-focused, launching new assessment centres, and reducing headcount by 30% while improving efficiency.
  

🎯 What Makes Yvonne Different?

• 🧩 She sees HR as a puzzle to solve, not a problem to fear.
  
  
• 💬 Her direct yet diplomatic communication style helps guide even the most reluctant boards through sensitive transitions.
  
  
• 🤝 Her hands-on approach means clients feel supported at every turn—she doesn’t just write policies, she coaches leaders through them.
  
  

📦 Flexible Offerings for Every Business Size
From one-off advisory to ongoing partnerships, Lotus HR is known for tailoring its service to client needs—whether it’s a full-scale HR overhaul or advice on a single disciplinary issue.

🛠️ Services Include:

• Employment contracts, handbooks, policies & procedures
  
  
• TUPE, grievance & disciplinary representation
  
  
• Training modules for staff and managers
  
  
• Strategic HR planning & performance frameworks
  
  
• Redundancy, re-engagement, and restructuring
  
  
• Tribunal preparation and representation
  
  

✨ A People-First Approach with Results to Match
Clients often call Yvonne when the pressure is on—and she delivers. Lotus HR’s solutions are never cookie-cutter. Instead, they reflect the nuance and empathy required to handle today’s most complex HR challenges with precision, compliance, and human understanding.

Tracey Robb

Founder & HR Director, Trivium London Consulting
🔗 LinkedIn | 🌐 triviumlondonconsulting.co.uk

When London’s elite financial services firms need discreet, razor-sharp HR guidance, many of them turn to Tracey Robb—a seasoned executive who understands how to balance high-stakes people strategy with stringent regulatory demands. As the founder of Trivium London Consulting, Tracey leads one of Mayfair’s most respected boutique HR firms, serving hedge funds, private equity firms, family offices, and FCA-regulated investment managers.

With more than 20 years of experience across both management consulting and HR advisory roles, Tracey isn’t just knowledgeable—she’s pragmatic, respected, and hands-on. Her clients don’t just get advice; they get insight from someone who has seen every kind of people problem and knows how to cut through the noise with solutions that actually work.

💼 What Sets Tracey Apart:

• 🎯 She’s spent the last seven years advising hundreds of firms—many of them top-tier asset managers—with tailored solutions that reflect the realities of regulated industries.
  
  
• 🧠 As a CIPD Level 7 practitioner with a BA (Hons) in HR, Tracey combines academic excellence with operational savvy.
  
  
• 🛡️ She offers rare expertise at the intersection of employee relations, FCA compliance, and business growth—a trifecta critical to the financial sector.
  
  

🏦 Trivium London Consulting: Where Finance Meets People Strategy
Founded in 2019, Trivium has become a go-to consultancy for firms that want best-in-class HR without hiring a full internal team. The firm's focus is sharp: delivering outsourced HR services to financial services firms in Central London, with an emphasis on real-time responsiveness, rigorous compliance, and culturally tailored solutions.

🧩 Client Profile:

• Hedge Funds
  
  
• Private Equity & Venture Capital Firms
  
  
• Real Estate Funds
  
  
• Family Offices
  
  
• FinTech & UCITS Platforms
  
  
• SEC- and FCA-regulated investment managers
  
  

📍 Why Location Matters
Trivium’s Mayfair base isn’t just for prestige—it allows Tracey and her team to be on-site fast when sensitive issues arise, from disciplinary meetings to organisational restructures. Clients value this real-world proximity and know they’re not just getting a consultant—they’re getting a partner who shows up when it matters most.

🧰 Services at a Glance:

• 🗂️ Full Employee Lifecycle Administration
  
  
• 💻 HR Cloud Software Implementation
  
  
• ⚖️ Employee Relations Guidance
  
  
• 📚 Training & Onboarding Solutions
  
  
• 🧾 Criminal Record Checks (DBS)
  
  
• 🛠️ Health & Safety Assessments
  
  

💬 Known For:

• 🧨 Crisis-to-clarity employee relations handling
  
  
• 📊 Transparent pricing and minimal annual fee increases
  
  
• 🤝 Long-term partnerships built on trust, culture fit, and strategic alignment
  
  

🌟 Tracey’s Leadership Style
What clients love about Tracey is her direct, clear-eyed approach. She doesn’t hide behind jargon or lengthy policies. Instead, she meets firms where they are—whether it’s helping an emerging hedge fund formalise their first HR strategy or guiding a billion-pound firm through complex grievances. Her advice is always grounded in reality, aligned with the firm’s risk profile, and calibrated for cultural nuance.

🔑 Why She’s on Our 2025 Watch List
Tracey Robb is a standout because she’s building something few others are: a financial services-focused HR consultancy that pairs elite subject-matter expertise with flexible, deeply human service. She doesn’t try to apply generic HR fixes to nuanced firms—instead, she brings smart, scalable, and compliance-ready strategies to the table, tailored to the intense demands of high-performing businesses.

Lianne Lambert

Founder, LighterHR
🔗 LinkedIn | 🌐 lighterhr.co.uk

Lianne Lambert isn’t just an HR consultant—she’s a bold, empathetic entrepreneur who launched LighterHR at the height of the 2010 recession, driven by equal parts grit and vision. What began with late-night doubts and big risks has grown into one of London’s most sought-after HR consultancies for small and medium-sized businesses.

Today, Lianne leads a highly regarded team that specializes in making HR make sense. Her firm’s philosophy? HR doesn’t have to be complicated—but it does have to be effective, strategic, and people-centered. This mindset has earned her a loyal client base of over 300 companies and counting.

🧠 What Makes Lianne a Standout:

• 💪 Founded LighterHR during the recession, and built it into a top-tier HR consultancy serving hundreds of UK-based businesses.
  
  
• 🧩 Offers flexible, modular HR services—everything from executive coaching to handling sensitive employee relations.
  
  
• 💼 Has firsthand experience as both an HR practitioner and a business owner—making her advice uniquely pragmatic and deeply relatable to her clients.
  
  

Lianne isn’t afraid to be transparent about the ups and downs of business ownership. In fact, she believes it’s that lived experience that enables her to connect with clients on a different level: “I may be an HR professional but we’re certainly not immune to the difficulties that come from having employees!” That empathy permeates her work and fuels the approachable, non-judgmental culture she’s fostered at LighterHR.

💡 LighterHR: Practical, Expert-Led, and Built for SMBs
What sets LighterHR apart is its highly personalized service model. Clients don’t just get a random consultant—they get assigned experts who stay with them throughout the relationship. Every LighterHR consultant holds at least a CIPD Level 5 qualification and brings 10+ years of experience, ensuring advice is both strategic and legally sound.

✨ Client Benefits:

• 📋 Custom employee handbooks and HR policies
  
  
• 👥 Support navigating poor performance, grievances, and even workplace theft
  
  
• 🏗️ Creation of performance frameworks and behavioral appraisal systems
  
  
• 🧭 Coaching for managers and executives on how to lead with confidence and empathy
  
  
• 🛡️ All advice is 100% compliant with UK Employment Law and ACAS codes
  
  

📦 Flexible by Design
LighterHR was created specifically for small and mid-sized businesses that don’t need full-time HR teams but do need full-scope HR expertise on demand. From startups building out their HR for the first time to seasoned companies navigating restructuring or redundancy, LighterHR provides just the right support at just the right time.

And with just one month’s notice required for any retained services, clients stay because they want to—not because they're locked in.

🧠 Not Just Risk Management—Business Growth Enablement
Whether it’s helping a company bounce back from a tough employee situation or laying the groundwork for their next stage of growth, Lianne and her team see HR as a business enabler. They help clients identify real risks vs. perceived ones, so decisions are made with confidence, not fear.

🌟 Why Lianne Lambert is One to Watch in 2025
Lianne’s not just leading a successful HR consultancy—she’s changing the way London’s SMEs think about HR. Her firm combines deep compliance knowledge with modern flexibility, proving that HR can be human, scalable, and strategic. With her at the helm, LighterHR continues to be a lifeline for companies navigating the challenges of growth, compliance, and culture.

Elizabeth Babafemi

Founder, EMDS HR Consulting
🔗 LinkedIn | 🌐 emds-hrconsulting.com

Elizabeth Babafemi brings a rare and powerful mix of real-world business leadership, academic research, and strategic HR expertise to the clients she serves. As the founder of EMDS HR Consulting, a senior lecturer in Human Resource Management at the University of Hertfordshire, and a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD, Elizabeth is one of the most multidimensional HR consultants operating in the London and Hertfordshire area today.

But her HR journey didn’t begin in the classroom—it began on the front lines of engineering and entrepreneurship. After starting her career as an electrical engineer at Ove Arup in London, Elizabeth pivoted to build and co-run two businesses in retail and web management. It was there, while managing operations, staff, and growth, that she discovered a deep and lasting passion for people management and organizational development. That spark led her to earn a Cranfield MBA, complete her CIPD qualifications, and later pursue a PhD on the underrepresentation of women finance directors in the UK.

🧠 What Makes Elizabeth a Standout:

• 🛠️ Started her career in engineering, then transitioned into HR through firsthand experience running multiple businesses.
  
  
• 🎓 Brings academic depth to her practice as a PhD researcher and university lecturer, specializing in gender equity and organizational leadership.
  
  
• 🧩 Combines HR consulting with real-world business ownership, giving her rare perspective on the challenges her clients face.
  
  

At EMDS HR, Elizabeth provides flexible HR solutions to small and medium-sized businesses, whether through project-based work, interim roles, or retained support. She’s not afraid to roll up her sleeves—she’s supported a wide range of companies across sectors like IT, engineering, retail, construction, catering, and beauty, including brands like Charles Worthington Salons, I3Q Systems, and Abbey Pynford.

💼 Signature Areas of Expertise Include:

• ⚖️ Employment law, disciplinaries, grievances, and performance management
  
  
• 💡 Change management and restructuring support
  
  
• 🧭 Strategic HR planning and line manager coaching
  
  
• 🌍 Diversity and inclusion initiatives, informed by deep academic research
  
  
• 🚀 Interim HR leadership for scaling or transitioning organizations
  
  

Elizabeth is especially skilled at coming into organizations that don’t yet have HR infrastructure and building it from the ground up—streamlining policies, aligning talent strategy to business goals, and guiding executive teams through periods of transformation. She also thrives in short-term placements where experienced hands are needed quickly, delivering high-impact outcomes with speed and professionalism.

💬 A Trusted Voice in the Field
Clients come to Elizabeth not just for compliance—but for clarity. Her advice is practical, business-minded, and deeply rooted in research. And with her background as both a practitioner and an academic, she has a unique ability to translate complex concepts into concrete actions that move the needle.

🌟 Why Elizabeth Babafemi is One to Watch in 2025
Elizabeth’s story is one of constant reinvention—engineer turned entrepreneur turned HR leader and scholar. Her approach is agile, intersectional, and evidence-based, helping businesses navigate everything from workplace conflict to strategic growth with wisdom and precision. Whether she’s in a boardroom, a university lecture hall, or a bustling salon, Elizabeth is a catalyst for organizational clarity and people-first leadership. In a city as dynamic as London, she’s exactly the kind of multifaceted HR advisor leaders are turning to in 2025.

Bruce Ramshaw

Founder, Ramshaw HR
🔗 LinkedIn | 🌐 ramshawhr.com

Bruce Ramshaw is the definition of HR done right for small and medium-sized businesses. With a sharp eye for operational efficiency, a strong grasp of employment law, and more than 20 years of experience in the commercial world, Bruce leads Ramshaw HR with one clear mission: to make people strategy a profit driver, not a cost center.

📍 Based in Surrey and serving clients across London and the South East, Bruce’s approach is refreshingly practical. He gets straight to the core of your workforce challenges and crafts strategic, compliant, and cost-effective solutions that don’t just check boxes—they drive results.

💬 “I help business owners to grow their profit by empowering them to adopt HR practices that increase productivity, save management time, and protect their business from expensive disputes or claims.” – Bruce Ramshaw

🧠 What Makes Bruce Stand Out:

• 📊 20+ years of HR and business experience across leading private sector firms
  
  
• ⚖️ Deep employment law expertise, with an eye on preventing disputes before they start
  
  
• 💼 Founder of a consultancy that’s tailored, personable, and laser-focused on outcomes
  
  
• 🧰 Offers both retained and project-based support, making him accessible for businesses at any stage of growth
  
  

Bruce’s consultancy, Ramshaw HR, was designed to relieve the HR burden for SMEs—to help them tackle people issues head-on without bogging down day-to-day operations. Whether you're struggling with employee performance, uncertain about contracts, or preparing for an organizational restructure, Bruce knows how to balance business goals with legal obligations and employee morale.

💼 His Core Specialties Include:

• 🛠️ Employment contracts, handbooks, and legally sound HR policies
  
  
• 📈 Performance management frameworks that tie directly to productivity and profit
  
  
• 🔄 Managing change, restructures, and redundancy processes
  
  
• 🧑‍⚖️ Disciplinary, grievance, and conflict resolution
  
  
• 🧲 Recruitment, onboarding, and retention strategies to build high-performing teams
  
  
• 💬 Absence management and engagement schemes to boost team morale
  
  
• 💡 Reward and recognition programs that keep top performers motivated
  
  

Bruce’s “HR Health Check” service is a favorite among clients—offering a clear-eyed audit of existing HR processes with actionable recommendations for improvement. This no-nonsense, results-driven mindset is part of what sets him apart. He’s not just advising; he’s helping business leaders understand how HR can become a lever for sustainable growth.

🛠️ Why Bruce Ramshaw is One to Watch in 2025
What makes Bruce particularly valuable is his ability to blend legal rigor with business pragmatism. In a city like London, where startups and SMEs move fast and often without full-time HR teams, Bruce brings stability, compliance, and long-term vision. His consultancy offers both a steady hand and a flexible structure—supporting everything from ad-hoc projects to embedded, retained partnerships.

In 2025, as companies double down on people strategy as a growth lever, Bruce’s services are more essential than ever. Whether your business is scaling up, stabilizing after a tough year, or just starting out, Ramshaw HR ensures your people strategy is just as strong as your product or service strategy.

🌟 Straight-talking, legally sound, and focused on delivering ROI—Bruce Ramshaw is a true champion for SME success in London’s evolving HR landscape.

Alex Abbott

Founder, Abbott and Co. HR
🌐 Website

As the founder of Abbott and Co. HR, Alex Abbott has become a go-to advisor for small and mid-sized businesses looking to get serious about their HR practices—without taking on the cost of an internal team. With over 20 years of HR leadership experience across multiple sectors and industries, Alex brings big-picture strategy and hands-on pragmatism to the table, helping SMEs across Surrey, Sussex, and London streamline operations, boost engagement, and stay fully compliant.

A Chartered Member of the CIPD, Alex launched Abbott and Co. HR to solve a growing problem: many SMEs lack the internal HR capacity to handle the wide range of people challenges that come with growth. From employment law compliance to talent strategy, Alex and his team have positioned themselves as long-term partners who understand the specific needs of each client—and build customised, cost-effective solutions to meet them.

🧠 What Sets Alex Apart:

• 🎯 A strategic mindset shaped by two decades of HR practice across industries
  
  
• 🤝 Deep commitment to personalised support for SMEs, avoiding one-size-fits-all answers
  
  
• 🛠️ Ability to provide hands-on execution as well as high-level consulting
  
  
• 🏆 Voted joint Best HR Consultancy in Surrey, with a growing client base in Greater London
  
  

Alex’s expertise covers the entire HR spectrum: recruitment and onboarding, absence and performance management, employee engagement, workforce planning, and more. But what truly makes Abbott and Co. stand out is their emphasis on relationship-driven service—taking the time to understand each client’s workplace culture, goals, and team dynamics before offering solutions.

💼 Services Offered Include:

• 📄 HR compliance audits and policy development
  
  
• 🧑‍💼 Workforce planning and strategy
  
  
• 🧠 Talent management and recruitment support
  
  
• 📋 Performance and absence management
  
  
• 📢 Employee engagement strategies
  
  
• ⚖️ Employment law guidance and dispute resolution
  
  

“Our mission,” Alex says, “is to empower SMEs to foster a productive, compliant, and engaged workforce—because strong people practices aren’t just a ‘nice to have,’ they’re a business necessity.”

This philosophy has earned Abbott and Co. a loyal client base and a reputation for integrity, excellence, and flexibility. Their services are available on both an ad-hoc and retained basis, making it easy for businesses to scale their HR support as they grow.

🔍 Why Businesses Trust Abbott and Co. HR:

• 📞 Highly responsive team offering face-to-face, phone, and email support
  
  
• 💬 Transparent pricing with clear service options tailored to budget
  
  
• 🌐 Sector-spanning knowledge from engineering and retail to hospitality and technology
  
  

Whether it’s a start-up hiring its first employees or a well-established business refining its HR structure, Alex Abbott is the trusted partner helping London-area companies navigate complexity with confidence.

🌟 With a human-centered yet commercially minded approach to HR, Alex continues to prove in 2025 why Abbott and Co. HR is one of London’s most trusted SME-focused consultancies—bringing a rare mix of deep expertise, strategic vision, and hands-on delivery that truly moves the needle.

Leonie Goodman

Founder, Leonie Goodman Consulting
🔗 LinkedIn | 🌐 Website

Leonie Goodman brings more than two decades of senior HR leadership to the table—and a heartfelt commitment to helping businesses create workplaces where people thrive. Through her consultancy, Leonie Goodman Consulting, she partners with ambitious business owners and managers across London to cultivate highly engaged, motivated teams that fuel company growth through exceptional service and performance.

What makes Leonie stand out? Her rare combination of deep HR expertise and genuine emotional intelligence. She works closely with leadership to shape an organisational culture that aligns with strategic goals—while also connecting with employees as individuals, uncovering what truly motivates them and how they can grow within the company.

👥 Signature Strengths:

• Building engagement and retention strategies tailored to business and individual needs
  
  
• Designing people-first practices that boost productivity and morale
  
  
• Leading with positivity, empathy, and clarity—even through complex challenges
  
  
• Bringing multi-site HR experience into the SME space
  
  

Before launching her consultancy, Leonie held senior HR positions in a large, multi-site organisation. Her experience spans the full employee lifecycle—recruitment, retention, performance management, and restructuring—all executed with a clear eye on operational outcomes and employee well-being.

💼 Key Services Include:

• ✅ HR department set-up and system design
  
  
• 📋 Policy development and compliance
  
  
• 👩‍💼 Recruitment and selection
  
  
• 💬 Employee engagement and retention
  
  
• 🚨 Disciplinary and grievance handling
  
  
• 📉 Absence and performance management
  
  
• 🧩 Succession planning and audits
  
  
• 🧭 On-site, high-touch support
  
  

Leonie often begins her engagements with a hands-on HR audit, working directly with management to evaluate current practices, map gaps, and define the company’s ideal culture. From there, she develops a personalised roadmap that helps businesses reduce turnover, cut absence rates, and build stronger, more cohesive teams.

🔍 What Clients Appreciate:

• Thoughtful listening and tailored solutions—not cookie-cutter advice
  
  
• Practical, legally compliant guidance that protects both people and business
  
  
• Support across every stage of team development, from quick-start toolkits to full policy overhauls
  
  
• A clear sense of partnership—someone who works with you, not just for you
  
  

Leonie’s passion for people is what drives her impact. “I genuinely love helping people,” she says—and that authenticity resonates in every interaction. Whether she’s helping a business restructure, resolve a workplace conflict, or build engagement initiatives from scratch, Leonie empowers her clients to focus on growth with confidence—knowing their people practices are sound, strategic, and human-centered.

🌟 In 2025, Leonie Goodman continues to be one of London’s most trusted HR consultants for small and growing businesses. Her work exemplifies how HR done right can be both a safeguard and a springboard for long-term success.

Susan Wakelin

Founder, Swan HR Consultancy
🔗 LinkedIn | 🌐 Website

With over two decades of hands-on HR experience across sectors like hospitality, healthcare, gaming, retail, property, and recruitment, Susan Wakelin brings both people-first values and business-first thinking to every client engagement. Through her consultancy, Swan HR, Susan helps small to medium-sized businesses across London build healthy workplaces where employees thrive and businesses stay compliant, confident, and competitive.

Whether your business needs a full HR function built from the ground up or support navigating a challenging employee issue, Susan brings clarity, compassion, and deep expertise. Her mission? To make HR feel like a strategic support system—not a stressor.

💡 What Sets Susan Apart:

• A practical, no-jargon approach rooted in relationship-building and business alignment
  
  
• Experience managing teams of 700+ across multi-site organisations
  
  
• A philosophy that HR should be proactive, not reactive—empowering managers with confidence
  
  
• Deep understanding of legal compliance without overwhelming her clients with red tape
  
  

Susan’s consultancy bridges the gap between hiring a full-time in-house HR professional and turning to a large, impersonal firm. Her clients receive dedicated, personal service that’s tailored to their specific challenges—whether that’s coaching managers through difficult conversations, improving policies, managing restructuring, or preventing tribunal claims through smart, preventative HR.

📌 Key Services Offered by Swan HR:

• 🔍 HR audits to evaluate risk, policy gaps, and compliance
  
  
• 📃 Contract and policy development
  
  
• 🧑‍🏫 Manager coaching and leadership development
  
  
• 🚧 Support during organisational change and restructuring
  
  
• 🚦 Disciplinary, grievance, and employee relations guidance
  
  
• 📞 On-demand HR advice—flexible for ad-hoc or ongoing support
  
  

Many of Susan’s clients are early-stage companies or growth-stage SMEs who know the stakes are high. One wrong hire, one unresolved conflict, or one compliance issue can derail momentum. That’s why Susan takes time to truly understand each business’s goals and internal culture, ensuring her advice not only protects—but empowers.

🌱 Swan HR’s Core Beliefs:

• Every business deserves HR that’s as strategic as it is supportive
  
  
• Great HR builds trust, improves communication, and drives performance
  
  
• Compliance is just the beginning—real impact comes from clarity and consistency
  
  

Whether she’s helping to rewrite an employee handbook, mediate a workplace dispute, or guide a business through growth, Susan offers more than expertise—she brings reassurance, structure, and strategy.

In 2025, Susan Wakelin stands out as a trusted HR consultant for SMEs who want to protect what they’ve built and create workplaces where people stay, grow, and succeed.

Wrapping Up: HR in London—and Why Digital Reference Exists

HR consultants aren’t just back-office support—they’re the architects of workplace culture and catalysts for sustainable growth. In a dynamic city like London, where talent is diverse and business expectations are high, the right HR partner can mean the difference between thriving and merely surviving.

Each consultant on this list brings something exceptional to the table: vision, integrity, practical wisdom, and an unwavering commitment to people. Whether you’re a founder scaling your first team or a CHRO navigating organizational change, the right guide is out there—and often, they’re just one conversation away.

At Digital Reference, we exist to help you find them. Our curated insights, expert profiles, and industry coverage are designed to connect companies with the HR talent they need—no fluff, no gatekeeping.

Explore more of our resources here:
🔍 Find HR Consultants Near You

Or learn more about us:
👋 About Digital Reference

Let’s build better workplaces—together.

✅ Check Out Our Local Directories of HR Consultants by City

• United States – Nationwide
  HR Consultants in the USA to Watch
  From coast to coast, this national roundup highlights HR consultants who are setting the standard across industries—from tech startups to manufacturing and mission-driven nonprofits.

• New York City
  HR Consultants in New York City to Watch
  In the city that never sleeps, HR consultants juggle complex compliance, diversity initiatives, and leadership development in finance, media, fashion, and beyond.

• Los Angeles
  HR Consultants in Los Angeles to Watch
  From entertainment giants to fast-growing creative agencies, LA’s HR scene blends culture-savvy consulting with innovation in employee experience and DEI strategy.

• Chicago
  HR Consultants in Chicago to Watch
  Known for its corporate headquarters and thriving startup ecosystem, Chicago is a hub for HR pros helping companies navigate scaling, restructuring, and workplace culture.

• Washington, DC
  HR Consultants in Washington DC to Watch
  In the heart of the nation’s capital, HR consultants support policy-driven orgs, nonprofits, and government contractors with people-first strategies and compliance expertise.

• San Francisco
  HR Consultants in San Francisco to Watch
  With a tech-heavy client base, SF consultants specialize in startup scaling, remote team management, and designing inclusive, innovative workplaces.

• Dallas
  HR Consultants in Dallas to Watch
  From energy to healthcare to enterprise tech, Dallas-based HR consultants are driving organizational growth across industries in this high-opportunity metro.

• Houston
  HR Consultants in Houston to Watch
  Houston’s HR experts serve major sectors like oil and gas, healthcare, and logistics—helping companies modernize practices while navigating complex labor environments.

• Boston
  HR Consultants in Boston to Watch
  Home to top universities and biotech firms, Boston’s HR consultants often work at the intersection of academic excellence, healthcare innovation, and startup acceleration.

• Toronto
  HR Consultants in Toronto to Watch
  Canada’s business capital boasts a diverse HR consulting scene that blends global perspective with deep local knowledge across tech, finance, and public service.

• Sydney
  HR Consultants in Sydney to Watch
  In one of APAC’s most influential business centers, Sydney-based HR professionals help organizations scale sustainably while championing well-being and workplace equity.

‍

‍