Shaw Gibbs, a leading accountancy, tax and business advisory group, has strengthened its advisory capabilities with the acquisition of Reality HR, one of the UK’s largest independent people management and learning and development consultancies.
The deal broadens the Shaw Gibbs Group’s (Shaw Gibbs) service offering with a dedicated HR consultancy arm, creating a combined team of 645 professionals across 18 offices in Central and Southern England.
The acquisition, which is the 11th completed by Shaw Gibbs since 2023, will give the group’s client base of around’ 7,000 businesses access to Reality HR’s specialist HR consultancy services and team of CIPD-qualified consultants.
Clients of Shaw Gibbs will also benefit from access to Reality HR’s recruitment services and established Learning and Development team, including an Executive Coach, a Mediator and Insights Discovery practitioners, alongside tailored training solutions and development programmes for business leaders and managers.
The Reality HR team, largely based in and around Basingstoke, will continue to operate independently while expanding the support available to their client base nationwide.
Sally-Ann Hall-Jones, CEO at Reality HR, will continue to lead the business as it joins Shaw Gibbs.
She said:
“I am immensely proud of how much Reality HR has grown since it was founded in 2004, from small boutique consultancy to one of the largest in the UK. We are now at the next stage in our growth journey and Shaw Gibbs can provide support and scale to build on our success.
“Shaw Gibbs is a perfect match for us – the team there share our values and our belief in putting people at the heart of business success.”
Laura Davis, Chair of Reality HR, added:
“Joining Shaw Gibbs brings exciting opportunities for our team, including access to greater resources and more diverse projects and new career pathways.
“We’re also proud to bring our expertise to Shaw Gibbs’ partners and clients, helping even more businesses succeed by getting the best out of their people.”
Peter O’Connell, CEO of the Shaw Gibbs Group said:
“We are thrilled to welcome Reality HR to Shaw Gibbs.
“It’s important to us to find firms with a similar culture and client-base to collaborate with, as well as the drive to provide high quality advisory services. The team at Reality HR share our commitment to excellence, client service, quality and building lasting relationships, making them a perfect fit.
“We can now offer our clients genuine specialist people support backed by a team with proven expertise and a strong reputation in the sector.”
Reality HR is renowned for working in partnership with business owners, leaders and in-house HR teams, offering a range of support including day-to-day HR, rapid response, large projects, employee engagement programmes, management training, and recruitment.
The addition of Reality HR to the Shaw Gibbs Group will result in a practice with 55 Partners and 645 people based in Central and Southern England.
Shaw Gibbs Group was advised by Osborne Clarke. Reality HR was advised by Will Anderson of Clarke & Sons.
For more information see shawgibbs.com and realityhr.co.uk
About Reality HR
Reality HR is a team of CIPD-qualified HR Consultants, supporting businesses to get the best out of their people through day-to-day HR, complex people management projects and urgent HR support. The team specialises in learning and development, employee engagement programmes, tailored management training, employee relations, strategic HR planning, restructuring and redundancy support, and recruitment.
About the Shaw Gibbs Group
Shaw Gibbs is a top 40 accountancy practice who provide expert solutions for entrepreneurial businesses and private individuals in Central and Southern England. Investing in teams of high-quality specialists, they work with the best-in-breed technology to create value for clients which exceeds expectation.