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scroll down to see more details: 1. EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS ADVICE / EMPLOYMENT INVESTIGATIONS
2. TEMPLATES, TOOLS, RESOURCES / WORKSHOP FACILITATION
3. COACHING
WHO IS BEHIND FREEDOM HR?
Layla Dowthwaite incorporated Freedom HR in October 2017 while based on the West Coast, NZ. Since then she has enjoyed also helping Canterbury, and NZ-wide employers on an ad-hoc basis with any HR support, even after moving to Nelson, NZ in early 2024 for a fixed-term part-time Senior HR Advisor role at Health NZ for 9 months alongside Freedom HR work, which continued after Oct 2024 when she obtained her Licence from NZ Ministry of Justice as a Private Investigator. Since then, her work has been predominantly remotely conducting Independent Employment Investigations throughout NZ, including since moving to Melbourne, Australia in Nov 2025. Since then she has been studying firstly the new Psychological Safety in the Workplace legislation in the state of Victoria introduced Dec 2025, and if necessary may transfer her previous HR experience in NZ and UK advising on local employment law and other HR functions to Australian employment law.
Prior to setting up her Consultancy in 2017, Layla had 12+ years' previous Human Resources experience across numerous industries throughout NZ and at 2 employers in London, England, with qualifications including Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Arts from University of Canterbury majoring in Management and Psychology. She also holds 2 coaching qualifications and enjoys coaching leaders and employees on a one-to-one or group basis as requested. Previous positions held include:
HR Business Partner HR Consultant Senior HR Advisor HR Advisor HR Administrator/Process Advisor Payroll Officer Coach Staff Dispute Resolution Coordinator
Freedom HR has in the past been a member of the Canterbury Employers' Chamber of Commerce and HRNZ
Layla is also a qualified transformational coach, NLP person-centred hypnotherapist, and a yoga teacher.
Prior to setting up her Consultancy in 2017, Layla had 12+ years' previous Human Resources experience across numerous industries throughout NZ and at 2 employers in London, England, with qualifications including Bachelor of Commerce and Bachelor of Arts from University of Canterbury majoring in Management and Psychology. She also holds 2 coaching qualifications and enjoys coaching leaders and employees on a one-to-one or group basis as requested. Previous positions held include:
HR Business Partner HR Consultant Senior HR Advisor HR Advisor HR Administrator/Process Advisor Payroll Officer Coach Staff Dispute Resolution Coordinator
Freedom HR has in the past been a member of the Canterbury Employers' Chamber of Commerce and HRNZ
Layla is also a qualified transformational coach, NLP person-centred hypnotherapist, and a yoga teacher.
1. ADVICE / INVESTIGATIONS
Employer representation and support, tools, resources throughout employment relations procedures, in person in certain circumstances or remotely via Zoom/phone/email.
Independent Employment Investigator licenced by the NZ Ministry of Justice.
Accurate, quality advice and support with:
Accurate, quality advice and support with:
- Recruitment
- Employment documentation
- Best-practice procedures
- Addressing and resolving workplace issues such as misconduct, and excessive absences, restructuring
- Improving employee relations
- Legislative compliance
- Increasing employee engagement
- Coaching
- Leadership
- Resilience and Wellbeing..
2. TEMPLATES, TOOLS, RESOURCES
Coming shortly, a New Zealand employer complete suite of templates, tools and resources for compliance with employment law, as well as best practice Recruitment and HR practices throughout the Employee Life Cycle to improve workplace culture, reduce labour costs and improve business performance.
Also coming shortly, for Victoria, Australia employers, a complete suite of templates, tools and resources for the new Psychological Safety in the workplace regulations Dec 2025, including increased requirements to manage psychosocial factors in the workplace, reducing exposure and risk of harm.
2. continued.. PAST WORKSHOPS
Workshops facilitated with your staff/managers/leaders, custom-made or choose from a wide range.
We offer a number of different workshops, including team leadership, resilience, resolving conflict, giving feedback, managing poor performance or misconduct, as well as how to set and align employee goals with company goals, the importance of reward and recognition, coaching, career development, appreciative inquiry, vision and values, and many more.
Ask us about custom-made workshops for your team/s, depending on your organisation's needs and desired outcomes. ------------------------------------- Public and in-house (customised) workshops facilitated by Freedom HR: PUBLIC: 4 x CO.STARTERS Hokitika and Greymouth 2017 - 2019. CO.STARTERS is a nine-week cohort based program that equips aspiring entrepreneurs with the insights, relationships and tools needed to turn ideas into action and turn a passion into a sustainable and thriving endeavour. Employment legislation - "Don't Be That Employer" - minimum employment standards, minimising risk. Public workshop. Aug 2018. Business Sustainability - "Business Survival in Covid-19 - Managing Labour Costs" - reviewing the impact of the pandemic on individual businesses, future-planning for what might come, options to reduce labour costs, procedures to follow. Oct 2020 IN-HOUSE: Bullying and Harassment training for around 60 staff within a West Coast organisation - essential to changing culture. Nov 2018. Leadership development - facilitating meetings, effective communication, delegation, giving feedback. Provided to the management team within a local business Apr and Sep 2018. Employment law and Leadership soft skills - management team of a local business Jul 2019. Performance appraisals - management team of a local business Oct 2019. Vision and Values - management team of a local business Nov 2019 Improving Workplace Culture, MBTI Personality Types (in a team and as a leader), and Managing Change - management team of a local business Feb 2020 (designed for local business but not facilitated due to Covid) Wellbeing Plans - March 2021
We offer a number of different workshops, including team leadership, resilience, resolving conflict, giving feedback, managing poor performance or misconduct, as well as how to set and align employee goals with company goals, the importance of reward and recognition, coaching, career development, appreciative inquiry, vision and values, and many more.
Ask us about custom-made workshops for your team/s, depending on your organisation's needs and desired outcomes. ------------------------------------- Public and in-house (customised) workshops facilitated by Freedom HR: PUBLIC: 4 x CO.STARTERS Hokitika and Greymouth 2017 - 2019. CO.STARTERS is a nine-week cohort based program that equips aspiring entrepreneurs with the insights, relationships and tools needed to turn ideas into action and turn a passion into a sustainable and thriving endeavour. Employment legislation - "Don't Be That Employer" - minimum employment standards, minimising risk. Public workshop. Aug 2018. Business Sustainability - "Business Survival in Covid-19 - Managing Labour Costs" - reviewing the impact of the pandemic on individual businesses, future-planning for what might come, options to reduce labour costs, procedures to follow. Oct 2020 IN-HOUSE: Bullying and Harassment training for around 60 staff within a West Coast organisation - essential to changing culture. Nov 2018. Leadership development - facilitating meetings, effective communication, delegation, giving feedback. Provided to the management team within a local business Apr and Sep 2018. Employment law and Leadership soft skills - management team of a local business Jul 2019. Performance appraisals - management team of a local business Oct 2019. Vision and Values - management team of a local business Nov 2019 Improving Workplace Culture, MBTI Personality Types (in a team and as a leader), and Managing Change - management team of a local business Feb 2020 (designed for local business but not facilitated due to Covid) Wellbeing Plans - March 2021
3. COACHING
- One-to-One sessions
- Group Coaching
We can coach you and/or your staff to achieve goals, both inside and outside of work, resulting in a more productive, happier workplace overall.
Coaching helps you achieve your goals faster. It is both solutions-focussed and future-focussed, involving numerous strategic tools and techniques combined with asking the right questions to enable the client/coachee to become clear on their goal/s, be accountable for (and committed to) taking the necessary actions towards these goals and overcome any obstacles. Coaching is challenging, reflective, and fulfilling, with outstanding results.
Layla is a qualified transformational life coach and NLP person-centred hypnotherapist, and also a yoga teacher who leads mindfulness and other meditation sessions at the end of her yoga classes.
WELLBEING
We can teach your team stress-relief and motiviational techniques through tools such as yoga, mindfulness, meditation, and creative visualisation, and help managers and/or staff create their own personalised wellbeing plan, increase resilience to stress and transform stress into self-empowerment.
Motivation comes from setting clear and SMART goals, vision, values, and expectations of appropriate Workplace Conduct, supporting each other with praise, reward and recognition, and celebrating milestones along the way to success. Keep up to date on our facebook page: fb.me/freedomhr.nz