Husband and wife duo set up recruitment firm after heart attack leads to an 'epiphany'

Jane and Den Barry, from Southsea, set up Liberty HR Recruitment after Den had a heart attack while at work in April 2018 and clinically died for 18 minutes, before being resuscitated by paramedics and colleagues.

Jane then quit her job in February 2019 after having an ‘epiphany’ and realising she didn’t want to waste time doing something she wasn’t enjoying.

She said: ‘I realised what is important and I thought I had to change because I wasn’t happy where I am.

‘I decided to give up my job after 13 years and be brave and I’m so glad I did.’

The Havant-based firm is a recruitment agency, which places HR professionals in the right jobs.

Jane has worked in HR for 20 years and in HR recruitment for seven and her previous job was a director at a recruitment agency.

They now have a team of four recruitment partner Lucy Valantine and HR recruitment resourcer Beth Foster.

Den said: ‘We are trying to buck the trend in recruitment and work from an ethical, values-led and person-focused angle rather than working with a strict focus on volume-sales as is typical in our sector. Recruitment sometimes has a poor reputation and we are trying to change this, one job vacancy at a time.’

The business has been successful since its launch in September 2019 and the team recently held a conference at the Village Hotel in Portsmouth, raising £365 for domestic abuse charity Aurora New Dawn.

The money from the ticket sales and a raffle raised the total, with Lucy Kay from the charity giving guests a talk about the work they do and David Winter from Hampshire Police giving a talk about how people in HR can deal with domestic abuse situations with their staff.

Other speakers included Simon Rhodes and Perry Timms and graphic recorder Emma Paxton visually recorded the event.

Their upcoming events include a HR forum in March, a suicide awareness workshop in April and a talk from the head of HR for adidas in June.