Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

You may have reached the point where HR has become a little more complicated than it used to be.

Perhaps you’re at 30, 40 or 60 people now. There are managers in place for your teams. You’re hiring more senior roles. Performance issues are taking up more of your time. People are asking questions about pay, progression, flexible working or parental leave. You have policies, but you’re not entirely sure whether they are fit for purpose.

Maybe your Office Manager has been handling HR alongside everything else. And, to be fair, they’ve done a great job.

But you’re starting to wonder whether you need something more.

It starts with discovery, not a list of HR projects

One of the first things I would expect from a senior HR consultant is plenty of questions for a founder.

Not just:

“Do you have an employee handbook?”

But:

Where is the business going?

What are you trying to achieve over the next 12–24 months?

What is getting in the way?

How are decisions made?

Where are you, as a founder, still too involved?

What happens when someone isn’t performing?

Does your organisational structure still make sense for the business you are becoming?

The consultant will need information from you, but they should also be looking beyond what you tell them.

There is a difference between the presenting problem and the underlying problem. Often, HR issues are symptoms of wider organisational challenges.

For example, a founder might say, “We need a better performance management process.”

Perhaps you do.

Or perhaps managers aren’t giving people feedback, roles aren’t clearly defined, priorities keep changing, or the founders are still making decisions that should sit with the leadership team.

A good HR consultant will want to understand which it is before recommending a solution.

You should feel challenged, as well as supported

A senior HR consultant isn’t there simply to agree with you.

They should become a trusted adviser who can tell you when they think you’re looking at the wrong problem, when something doesn’t make sense, or when a difficult conversation needs to happen.

That doesn’t mean creating conflict for the sake of it.

It means being willing to say:

“I don’t think this is really an HR issue.”

Or:

“I think you’ve outgrown this structure.”

Or:

“You probably don’t need another process. You need your leadership team to take more accountability.”

Or, occasionally:

“I think this decision needs to be made by you.”

That level of candour is one of the reasons you engage someone senior in the first place.

How do you know the relationship is working?

A good client relationship should become increasingly useful over time.

You should feel that the consultant understands your business rather than simply your HR issues. They should understand your priorities, your culture, your leadership dynamics and the realities of your growth.

And you should start to see things changing.  This could mean:

• Decisions are being made more quickly.
• Managers are taking more responsibility.
• You have finally resolved an organisational issue that has been hanging around for months.
• The founders are no longer the first port of call for every people problem.
• You have clarity about the leadership capability you need next.
• You now have a structure, reward approach or performance process that is appropriate for the size and stage of your organisation.

The important point is that activity isn’t the same as value.

A consultant can produce a lot of documents, hold a lot of meetings and keep themselves very busy.

That doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve made a meaningful difference.

So what is the value of senior HR?

This is one of the first questions I would encourage a founder to ask.

Not:

“What HR work will you do for us?”

But:

“What will be different in our business because you have been here?”

The answer will vary from organisation to organisation.

For one company, the priority might be getting the leadership structure right before the next stage of growth.

For another, it might be addressing a dysfunctional team or strengthening management capability.

For another, it might be designing the organisation, hiring the right senior people and putting a more effective performance framework in place.

And sometimes the value is much simpler: giving founders the confidence that the organisation is developing in the right direction and that important people decisions aren’t being made reactively.

The measures should therefore relate to the business, not simply to HR output. Things to consider in terms of value added:

• Did we reduce founder dependency?
• Are managers more capable and accountable?
• Are we hiring the right people?
• Is the organisation structured appropriately for the next stage?
• Are people clear about their roles and expectations?
• Have we resolved the issues that were holding the business back?

Those are much more meaningful measures than how many policies have been written.

How long does it take?

There isn’t a universal answer.

For a business of 30–70 people, I would be suspicious of anyone who tells you they can completely “sort out your HR” in a few weeks.

Equally, you shouldn’t need an HR consultant indefinitely simply because there is always more HR work that could be done.

The length of an engagement depends on what you are trying to achieve.

A business with good foundations that needs some senior expertise and a clear plan may need a relatively focused intervention.

A company going through significant growth, organisational change or leadership challenges may need several months of support.

Typically, I would expect the work to move through phases:

Understand → Diagnose → Prioritise → Build → Embed → Step back.

The last stage is very important.

The elegant exit

One of the things I think founders should expect from a senior consultant is that they know when to leave.

There is always more HR work that could be done.

There are always another three policies to review, another framework to introduce, another project to start.

A consultant who measures their value by how long they can remain embedded in your business has a very different incentive from one who is focused on making the organisation stronger and more self-sufficient.

For me, the aim is not to make myself busy.

It is to help you get to the point where you don’t need me in the same way.

That might mean helping you recruit a permanent People leader. It might mean transferring ownership to an existing member of your team. Or it might simply mean reducing the frequency of support once the foundations are in place.

And leaving doesn’t have to mean disappearing.

A good relationship can continue on a different footing. You may want a sounding board for an occasional senior appointment, support through a period of change, or an external perspective when something particularly difficult arises.

The important thing is that the ongoing relationship should exist because it adds value, not because we’ve invented another HR project to justify it.

So, what should you expect?

If you’re bringing in a senior HR consultant for the first time, I’d expect them to:

• Understand your business before prescribing solutions
• Look beyond the presenting problem to find the underlying issue
• Connect people decisions to commercial objectives
• Challenge you when necessary
• Bring experience and judgement, not just HR knowledge
• Keep HR proportionate to the size and stage of your business
• Focus on outcomes rather than activity
• Build capability within your organisation rather than creating dependency
• Be clear about what success looks like
• Know when their work is done

And perhaps most importantly, you should expect them to be able to answer a deceptively simple question:

“Why does this matter to our business?”

Because good HR isn’t about having more HR.

It’s about building an organisation that can grow, perform and adapt without everything continuing to depend on the founders.

That’s where senior HR can make a real difference.