Leading employment law, HR, and health & safety consultancy WorkNest has announced its acquisition of Wirehouse Employer Services.

WorkNest is a division of The GRC Group, an Inflexion backed leader in governance, risk and compliance software and tech-enabled services.

Wirehouse provides retained HR, employment law and health & safety consulting and advice services to SMEs will extend WorkNest’s national client base and deepen its team of specialists and qualified consultants.

Founded in 2010 and based in Warrington, Wirehouse offers services closely matched to WorkNest’s HR and health & safety solutions. Its retained HR services for SMEs include advice line access, assistance with HR policy drafting, employee handbooks and contracts, and specialist advice for resolving HR issues. Health & Safety services span customer site audits, handbooks, policies and procedures, risk assessments and training.

Aligned with WorkNest’s model, Wirehouse assists businesses across a wide range of sectors throughout the UK, providing expert advice and support on sector-specific legislation.

The deal marks the third acquisition for The GRC Group this year and the first acquisition in the employment law, HR and health & safety space this year . It follows the groups acquisitions of cyber security businesses Bulletproof Cyber, in May, and Pentest People, last month.

Ifti Ahmed, CEO at WorkNest, said: “We pride ourselves on working closely with employers nationwide to provide high-quality, pragmatic, and professional advice and support. This acquisition enhances WorkNest’s scale in our core SME market and plays to our strength of integrating complementary businesses in our field.

“I’m very pleased to welcome our new colleagues who share the same commitment to delivering fantastic client service. Wirehouse’s long track record of profitable growth is a testament to its leadership over 14 years, which has built a strong and trusted reputation in our sector.”

Sue Malley, Managing Director at Wirehouse, commented: “We’re extremely excited to join up with the WorkNest team. Given the compatibility of the businesses, we can see the opportunity to enhance our offer and deliver significant benefits to our valued clients. With the expanded scale and range of services provided by the wider group, we look forward to an exciting period of strategic development and growth for our business.”

Wirehouse will continue to deliver a high quality and responsive service for its clients, who will continue to have access to the same Wirehouse team.

Sue Malley added: “Our service commitment will remain as strong as ever as we enter this new chapter. We plan to update our clients about new technology and an expanded range of compliance and risk services in the coming year.”

The GRC Group leads the field in providing tech-enabled services and software for compliance and risk management, offering an extensive range of solutions, including compliance eLearning, HR and employment law, ISO certification, health & safety, enterprise risk, regulatory intelligence, cyber security and more.