Our mission:
Empowering SMEs to achieve greater success through their people.
We are not a faceless corporate entity. We’re a family run business with the capability to look after large-scale employment law and HR projects. We are utterly focussed on helping SMEs and we live and breathe our values, because they underpin how we work and deal with our customers.
This is what you can expect from us:
Principled.
We do the right thing, not the easy thing.
Courageous.
We push boundaries because courage leads to growth.
Accountable.
We take responsibility, working with diligence and conscientiousness.
Authentic.
We are genuine because legitimacy builds trust.
Supportive.
We approach everything with a constructive, helpful attitude.
Human.
We strive to make a positive impact, no matter how small.
After celebrating 15 years in business this year, we are proud to have won two awards at The National Family Business Awards 2018 and to be shortlisted for ‘Outstanding Employer’ in the Yorkshire Post Excellence in Business Awards.
Howarths only employ people who are specialists in their field. In respect of our HR service, that means employing people with years of people management experience or either with, or working towards, CIPD qualifications. On Employment Law, that means people who have previously qualified as a Solicitor and who have since specialised in Employment Law and working with employers. On Health & Safety, it means those who have at least Grad IOSH Membership and years of experience working in Health & Safety. As a result of that depth of expertise, our clients can be sure that they are taking advice from people genuinely qualified to do so, and who can add real and tangible value to their business.
In addition to the above, at Howarths, we encourage and develop personality and individuality. We drink tea, go on holidays with our loved ones, like sport and keep pets. We channel this into creating a standout experience for our clients. Whenever a client comes into contact with Howarths, whether it is visiting the office, on the telephone or over email, we set ourselves very high standards to ensure warmth, friendliness and understanding. We judge ourselves on how well we all contribute to this experience for the client, in addition of course to our capabilities as advisors. This has contributed to our client retention rate remaining very high over the last 15 years as we continue to work hard to maintain such high levels of service. We don’t always get it right, but we work hard to make these occasions as few as possible.
Howarths is a family-run business founded by Andy and Helen, and now run by their son Gavin. As a family we place significance on traits such as trust, respect, honesty and integrity. These core principles run right through our business and, as a result, in all our dealings with clients and wider stakeholders. We are old fashioned and expect good timekeeping, smart dress and polite manners. As a Howarths client, you’ll benefit from these traits as standard, and as it should be.
We try and give a little more. There will be companies charging a little less than ourselves, as there will those charging more. What we strive for is offering real value for money; for example, as standard in our ‘one fixed fee, unlimited service’, all our clients receive ILM accredited training resulting in a nationally recognised certificate. We include HR software to help our clients with HR administration. We offer more Health & Safety visits and midterm reviews to ensure clients are still getting a great service, and unlimited face-to-face meetings at our premises. Our service is not ‘on the clock’; our sole focus is achieving an outcome which adds value to your business.
We are a Living Wage employer and over the last 15 years have supported many local charities. More recently, we have set up The Howarth Foundation in the hope that we can make a difference to the homeless by supporting them in gaining meaningful employment.
We aim to provide an employment framework which promotes wellbeing, career and personal development, genuine communication and consultation and a fair reward for our staff and Directors.
Internally we run a Head of Department meeting every month which is focused upon opening up a channel for communication for all staff within Howarths. We very much operate an open door policy and encourage staff to share their thoughts and ideas for taking the company forward. We are a family and it is a team effort.
We are also an accredited Living Wage Employer. A Living Wage employer ensures that all employees aged 18 and over, including certain classes of contracted staff, are paid at least the living wage. We will also endeavour to ensure that our suppliers comply with the Living Wage accreditation by promotion of our values and beliefs in this area. For more information visit www.livingwage.org.uk.
Our aim is to minimise both the impact on the environment from our activities and those of our suppliers, by continually reviewing and improving our energy efficiency, recycling and waste management initiatives. This is a firm-wide initiative committing Howarths to sustainability monitored on a yearly basis as we make our efforts to become more green.
Address: Newbury Court, St Johns Place, Brooke Street, Cleckheaton, BD19 3RR
Email: hello@howarths-uk.com
Call a member of the team:
01274 864 999
