Meet the Yorkshire boss who encourages his team to take time off during the working week to boost their mental health

Every other week, the team - Ledgard objects to the word staff - are encouraged to take up to three hours out of their work time to do something for themselves.

The take-up is about 70 per cent out of his team of 12, although Ledgard admits he doesn’t usually practise what he preaches.

“But what I do now, which I didn’t do before, is work less in the evenings. I should definitely do that more,” he says.

Ledgard also retained a psychotherapist so the team could have access to extra help. “I struggled a little bit over lockdown so it was one of those things that made me think if it’s affected me, how’s it affecting everyone else?

“It’s not totally altruistic. If I can keep the team engaged and happy then the productivity is going to be better but that is by far the secondary element,” he says. “It’s about looking after the team because that’s what I’m about. The rest will look after itself.”

A member of the senior management team made sure Ledgard saw the psychotherapist too.

“People were using her but I hadn’t had a session so one of the management team booked me in and said ‘you’re going’ and that was great. They were bothered about me because they knew I was bothered about them,” he says.

In a further boost to team morale, last March, Ledgard also promised to pay them an extra £84 a month to help with their energy bills during the cost of living crisis. In November he doubled it and guaranteed it for 12 months.

“I didn’t want people worrying about turning the heating on during the winter,” he says.

The moves are typical of Ledgard, according to those who know him, as someone who puts the rest of the team’s needs before his own.

During our meeting in a private room in Huddersfield Golf Club’s home at Fixby Hall, he is described as ‘naturally compassionate’ but ‘incredibly self critical’ by his PR.

"Being in this role, I’m passionate about helping as many people as I can,” he says.

Ledgard, 56, who lives in Huddersfield with his wife and their eight-year-old rescue springer spaniel, Dexter, joined Walker Sutcliffe in 1997. He became a partner three years later.

The chartered accountancy practice was established in 1975 and Ledgard, 56, has committed to a strong growth strategy for the next three years.

Plans include opening three new offices, primarily through acquisitions and growing turnover from £650,000 to over £2.5m.

First on the radar is Wakefield. “We’ve already got some clients there so we could do it organically but I’m looking to purchase a firm in the next 12 months” he says. “There are a lot of businesses in the area and not that many accountants so there are a lot of opportunities for growth in that area.”

Other offices could be in South Yorkshire and Greater Manchester but there are no concrete plans at the moment.

“I want it to be almost linear so we can fill a wider area from there,” says Ledgard.

He is also embarking on a £25,000 investment drive into new software to develop better hybrid working after recently investing £25,000 in new hardware.

“It’s not about trying to make more money,” he says. “It’s trying to make the jobs easier for people and allowing them to get more satisfaction out of them.”

During the lockdowns, he made sure there were two team meetings a day - the first one at 9am to make sure everyone was ok and to plan the day. The second was at 4.55pm.

“I’m really proud of that one,” Ledgard says. “It was to say, work has now finished, your home is now your home, and everyone thanked me for that because it’s so easy for work to drift on and on.”

When it comes to the firm’s clients, which range from solo entrepreneurs to £25m turnover businesses, Ledgard says the fear of the unknown is the main cause for concern at the moment. “Our clients are more worried about the future rather than in crisis at the moment. It means that planning and guidance is more important than anything right now,” he says.

“Figures are only the starting point. Let’s face it, accounts are boring. It just so happens that I seem to be quite good at debiting and crediting. Maybe that’s why I find it boring.”

He adds: “But taking that information and helping people to achieve their goals and seeing them succeed, my god, that’s good. That’s the driver.”

Looking ahead, Ledgard’s goal is to become the ‘family accountant’ but that doesn’t mean returning to a bygone era.

“I want to look after the whole family of that business, not just the business owner,” he says. “It’s the trusted bit of being a trusted adviser. I don’t want to say we’re going backwards, because we’re not, but it’s being that person that people know they can turn to.”

The firm is targeting 20 new clients by the end of the year along with the first new office. It has also started a new practice of ringing every client once a quarter. “We’re making sure we systemise it, we’ve got better notes and that they’re linked together,” Ledgard says.

"If people have got worries we can pick up on it and be more proactive. We’re not waiting for them to say they’ve got an issue and ask for a meeting.

“Our job is asking the right questions. It’s a given that our team is good at accounting. The biggest thing that can differentiate us from anybody else is making sure we ask the right questions to get the information we need. That’s a skill.”