About Tim Withnall and One Point Four West
I’m Tim Withnall, an independent HR consultant based in Sunderland. I help leaders and SMEs across the North East and UK solve real people problems, reduce people risk and improve performance with practical HR consultancy services.
About Tim
I help business leaders cut through noise in HR and people work to fix the issues that slow growth, waste leadership time or expose the organisation to legal, regulatory and operational risk. If you need practical HR support that lands quickly and sticks, I can help.
I’ve spent more than twenty-five years in HR, leading people operations, HR services and business partnering teams in environments where the challenges are rarely neat. Much of my work sits where strategy, operations and risk meet: organisational change, TUPE and M&A, contact centres, site closures and running teams in regulated settings.
Results include leading the people work on a £500m acquisition, cutting frontline attrition from 40% to 12% in large contact centres, stabilising People Operations functions, closing long-standing audit gaps and delivering improvements leaders can actually feel. I set up One Point Four West to offer clear, practical HR consultancy services that work in the organisations you already have.
I’m a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD, a Fellow of the REC and the Chartered Management Institute, based in Sunderland and working across the UK.
“Authentic, empowering and driven by integrity. Simplifies complex processes, removes blockers and designs people strategy that delivers business results and great employee experience.”
Professional snapshot
- Over twenty-five years in HR across insurance, telecoms, BPO, property, manufacturing and financial services.
- Specialist in people operations, HR shared services, TUPE, M&A, integrations and HR operating model redesign.
- Experienced at leading organisational change in large contact centres, shared services and national retail networks.
- Chartered FCIPD, FREC, FCMI and BA (Hons) in Business Studies with Human Resource Management.
If you want the full career history, you can find it on LinkedIn.
Why “One Point Four West”?
It’s the longitude line on the Wear – a simple reminder of where the work is grounded. Clear views shaped by Sunderland, the North East, the coast and the communities here. The work travels further, but the centre of gravity stays the same.
Most client work happens remotely with focused in-person sessions when it matters – whether that’s Sunderland, Newcastle, Leeds, London or somewhere else entirely.
Why I set this up
I set up One Point Four West because leaders don’t need more jargon or theatrics. They need clarity, honesty and practical support from someone who has actually worked inside real organisations rather than around them.
I live in the North East with my wife and daughter. They provide the usual mix of grounding, perspective and reminders about what really matters.