HR systems for companies too big for chaos and too small for bureaucracy
We design practical people systems across hiring, compensation, career architecture, culture, compliance, and HR leadership. Engage us on one focused problem, or bring us in as a fractional HR partner across several.
Our Services
Pick the one that sounds most like the problem you’re sitting with right now, or book a call and we’ll help you decide where to start.
Fractional CHRO
Senior HR leadership without a full-time hire.
People strategy, org design, pay governance, performance systems, and an HR operating rhythm.
Best fit: 50–300 person founder-led companies, or a junior HR team needing senior direction.
Hiring Systems
Hire the right people at the right time and cost.
Role clarity, interview scorecards, hiring-manager training, offer governance, and onboarding plans.
Best fit: slow hiring, founders pulled into every interview, candidates lost at offer stage.
Compensation Design
Pay that doesn’t depend on who negotiates hardest.
Salary bands, job evaluation, benchmarking, bonus design, and promotion-linked pay rules.
Best fit: pay inconsistencies, multi-location teams, case-by-case salary fatigue.
Job Levelling & Career Paths
Give good people a visible future in the company.
Levels, role expectations, growth tracks, promotion criteria, and career conversation guides.
Best fit: unclear titles, employees asking “what’s next,” promotions no one can explain.
Culture & Manager Systems
Culture is what employees experience from managers.
Culture diagnostics, manager routines, feedback practices, stay interviews, and engagement plans.
Best fit: rising attrition, uneven manager quality, founders sensing something is off.
HR Policies, Compliance & POSH
Protection without treating employees like suspects.
Employee handbooks, POSH readiness, labour-law alignment, disciplinary process, and exit documentation.
Best fit: building HR from scratch, compliance gaps, multi-location expansion.
What this looks like in practice
A few examples of what we’ve built with founders at various stages.
Full HR setup from scratch
A 60-person luxury travel company needed hiring, onboarding, performance, and compliance built in under three months. We delivered a system their team now runs independently, and helped them hire the right HR leader.
Time-to-hire cut by over 50%
An e-commerce company was losing candidates at the offer stage and taking 75+ days to fill senior roles. We rebuilt the hiring system and reduced first-year attrition alongside it.
Disengagement reduced in 6 months
A tech startup had survey data showing disengagement but no plan. We identified the three root causes, built targeted fixes, and retention measurably improved.
The honest comparison
Life without us, with the usual options, and with HR+
Most founders aren’t choosing between us and nothing. They’re choosing between muddling through, hiring a big firm, and something built for their stage. Each option has real strengths. Here’s the honest picture.
+ a real strength · ~ works, with a catch · ✕ where it hurts
| Doing it yourself Status quo · informal HR | Typical consultants Enterprise firms & HR outsourcing | With HR+ Fractional, embedded, built for 50–500 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where it genuinely shines | + Under ~30 people, proximity beats process. Fast, cheap, personal, and often the right call at that size. | + Deep benches, specialist expertise, and brand credibility. Right for enterprise-scale transformations. | ✓ Founder-led companies at 50–500 that need working systems built and embedded, not another report. |
| Where people problems land | ~ Decisions stay fast and close to the ground, but they all route back to the founder’s desk. | ~ Diagnosed expertly, in a report. Implementing it is still your problem. | ✓ With a senior operator inside your business who makes the calls with you. |
| What you actually get | ✕ Firefighting. Every pay rise and exit is a special case. | ~ Rigorous frameworks and polished decks, built for enterprises and heavy for your stage. | ✓ Working systems your team runs: hiring, pay bands, career paths. |
| Who does the work | ~ People who know your company inside out, but without senior HR experience to draw on. | ✕ A senior partner sells; junior staff usually deliver. | ✓ The senior person you met is the person in the room, every month. |
| Time to see change | ✕ Issues fester quietly until they’re expensive. | ~ Thorough, but months of discovery before anything moves. | ✓ A People Risk Audit in week one; movement on the top issues within weeks. |
| What it costs | ~ Nothing out of pocket, but paid for later in attrition, bad hires, and founder hours. | ✕ Big-firm fees, or a full-time CHRO salary you don’t need yet. | ✓ A fixed monthly retainer, sized to the days of senior time you actually need. |
| What’s left when it ends | ✕ Nothing changes, because nothing was built. | ~ Often a genuinely good playbook, if your team has the bandwidth to run it alone. | ✓ Systems your team runs without us. Designed to hand over from day one. |
Not sure where to start?
Request a People Risk Audit. We’ll help you identify whether the real issue is hiring, pay, culture, compliance, manager capability, or founder dependency.