Fractional HR
Senior HR leadership inside your business a set number of days per month, engineering your organisation to deliver your strategy: the right structure, roles, people and leadership.
What it is, and is not
A Fractional HR Director is an experienced senior leader in a genuine leadership role, working part time: a set number of days each month. Fractional CFOs, CTOs and Marketing Directors are increasingly common, and a Fractional HR Director follows the same model.
THIS IS ME
Fractional HR Director
Embedded in the business. Makes decisions and owns outcomes, only for as long as it adds most value.
COMPARED WITH
Permanent HR Director
Full time and ongoing. In a smaller business, the reality can turn out to be an HR operations manager at director-level cost.
COMPARED WITH
Consultant
Advises from the outside, with no operational accountability.
COMPARED WITH
Interim HR Director
Works full time to bridge a gap until a permanent hire is found.
When it fits
Best suited to start-ups, SMEs and business units at a point of change: organisations that need senior strategic thinking for a defined period, without the cost or commitment of a permanent, full-time director.
The end goal: a CEO or MD who owns the people strategy with confidence.
- The structure that got you here is starting to creak
- You want to professionalise the business while protecting what makes it special
- A founder has reached the tipping point, and the business needs more structure than one person can hold
- You are facing a merger, restructure or significant change
- People decisions keep landing on the CEO’s desk, with no one senior to share them
How it works
It starts with a diagnostic
An evidence-based view of what is working, what needs to change and where senior HR leadership would add most value. From there, we agree priorities, days per month and what success looks like.
Set direction
Agree strategy and priorities, aligned with the CEO or MD’s vision and based on real data.
Design the transformation
The target operating model, structure, processes and approach to HR.
Lead change at every level
From the CEO and senior team to managers and staff, galvanising people across the organisation.
Time-limited by design. The aim is a people system that runs well without full-time director-level involvement, with day-to-day operations in the hands of the right permanent HR roles. Once the core work is complete, an ongoing advisory arrangement can provide continuity and senior counsel when it matters.
Organisation and job design
A structure that worked at 20 people rarely works at 60. Growth exposes unclear roles, overlapping responsibilities and decisions that all land on the CEO’s desk.
Operating model and structure
How the business needs to be organised to deliver the strategy.
Roles and accountabilities
Who owns what, and where decisions sit.
Reporting lines
So no manager is overloaded and nothing falls through the gaps.
Job design
Every role defined by purpose, accountabilities and success measures, not a list of tasks, and landed with the person who holds it, so people know what good looks like and own it.
Competency frameworks
A shared basis for hiring, development and performance conversations.
Roles are designed around what the business needs, then matched to the right people. For senior hires, Hogan role profiles show who is likely to thrive. More on Hogan
Making it work in practice
Change
Taking people with you, not just redrawing the chart. Clear communication, engaged managers and change that sticks.
Performance
Clear expectations, fair and consistent conversations, and managers equipped to hold people accountable.
Risk
Contracts, policies and processes that protect the business as it grows, and reduce legal exposure.
I don’t just design the change, I help bed it in.
I run the workshops, coach managers through new ways of working and facilitate senior team sessions myself, so the work lands where it matters: in how people behave day to day.
What I bring
Business psychology, underpinning everything
Uncovering the real drivers of individual, team and organisational behaviour, and turning that insight into structure, hiring decisions and leadership development that deliver lasting change.
CEO advisory and coaching
A candid thought partner on people, structure and leadership.
Talent acquisition
Structured, end-to-end, behaviourally based hiring.
Leadership assessment
Hogan-based, uncovering patterns and blind spots.
Talent management
Identifying and developing high-potential people.
Culture and transformation
Changing how people behave, not just the structure they sit in.
Team Engineering
Turning strong individuals into a team that aligns, decides and delivers.
Case study
THE BRIEF
A North American family business, with around 50 permanent staff plus a large seasonal and contract workforce. An ambitious, visionary CEO wanted to professionalise the business while protecting what made it distinctive: a friendly, open culture and a real commitment to work-life balance. Decision making was cautious and slow, and reporting lines were blurred, because roles and accountabilities were unclear.
It began with an organisational diagnostic: a survey open to every employee, alongside interviews and workshops.
THE RESULT
9 months
as Fractional HR Director, 6 to 10 days a month
New
Target Operating Model, with the business restructured around it
25
roles redesigned or created, each defined by outcomes, not tasks
14
people hired and onboarded, or well advanced, across 12 roles
Underpinning everything was a single cultural shift: from task and supervision to personal accountability and outcomes. With the right permanent HR team in place, the business had no need for a full-time HR Director.
Start with a conversation
Book a free 30-minute call to talk through where your organisation is now, and whether Fractional HR is the right fit.
