You Don’t Have to Hire an HR Director to Get HR Director-Level Thinking

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Alasdair Risk

Head of HR Division

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For some businesses, the biggest barrier to improving their HR capability isn’t recognising the need. It’s the perceived commitment.

“We can’t justify another senior salary.”

“We’re only 100 people.”

“We don’t need someone full-time.”

“Let’s see if we can manage it internally.”

All perfectly reasonable thoughts.

But they are based on an assumption that accessing senior HR capability means making a permanent appointment.

It doesn’t.

In the previous articles in this series, we’ve looked at when businesses start to outgrow their existing HR capability, the moments that can expose those gaps, and how to work out what level of HR leadership the business actually needs.

Sometimes the answer is a permanent HR Director.

Sometimes it isn’t.

For a growing business going through a specific period of change, an experienced interim or fractional HR leader can provide the senior thinking, leadership and experience needed without creating a permanent commitment before the business is ready to make one.

Fractional HR leadership

A fractional HR leader might work with a business one or two days a week, providing senior input while remaining proportionate to the organisation’s needs.

They can work alongside an existing HR team, supporting the MD and leadership team without replacing the day-to-day HR infrastructure.

This can be particularly useful where the business has capable HR resource in place but needs additional seniority around a particular stage of growth, leadership challenge or strategic people issue.

The need might not justify another full-time senior salary.

But that doesn’t mean the business doesn’t need senior HR thinking.

Interim HR leadership

Interim HR leadership is often most useful when there is a defined period of change, an immediate gap or a specific challenge that needs experienced leadership.

A Head of HR leaves unexpectedly.

A major restructure begins.

An acquisition creates new people and cultural challenges.

The business is growing quickly and management capability hasn’t kept pace.

A significant people project needs someone to lead it.

Or a permanent appointment is going to take time, but the business cannot afford to leave the gap unmanaged.

In those situations, an interim HR leader can provide continuity and momentum while the business works out what it needs longer term.

And sometimes, that period of interim support provides the answer to that question too.

The situations where this can make a real difference

The most compelling examples are usually the businesses that know something needs to change, but aren’t yet ready for, or don’t necessarily require, a permanent HR Director.

I’ve seen businesses experiencing rapid growth where recruitment was keeping pace, but management capability wasn’t.

Initially, the assumption was that a permanent HR Director was needed. But bringing in senior HR leadership on a fractional basis meant the business could focus first on developing its managers, improving its structure and putting a more effective people plan in place.

Twelve months later, the business was operating more effectively, its internal capability was stronger, and a full-time HR Director was no longer necessarily the right answer.

I’ve also worked with businesses preparing for acquisitions where the leadership team understood that integrating two organisations would create significant people and cultural challenges.

An interim HR leader can provide the focus needed to support the integration, retain key talent, align leadership teams and help the business navigate the people side of the transaction.

Once the integration is complete, the requirement can change significantly.

The same principle applies when a business already has a capable HR team but lacks strategic HR leadership.

The HR function might be doing a good job operationally, but the MD and leadership team need someone who can step back, challenge the thinking, shape the people strategy and connect it to the wider business plan.

A fractional HR Director can provide that level of experience while working alongside and developing the existing team.

And sometimes the trigger is much more immediate.

A Head of HR resigns. The business needs continuity, but doesn’t want to rush into recruiting a permanent replacement simply because there is now a vacancy.

An experienced interim HR leader can step in, maintain momentum and support the leadership team while giving the business time to understand what the future HR leadership role should actually look like.

That can lead to a permanent appointment.

But it doesn’t have to.

Sometimes the problem isn’t the one you thought you had

Another reason experienced interim and fractional HR leadership can be valuable is that it can challenge the initial diagnosis.

I’ve seen businesses believe they have a recruitment or retention problem when the deeper issue is management capability or employee experience.

They can see the symptoms quite clearly.

People are leaving.

Vacancies are difficult to fill.

Managers are struggling.

Employee engagement is falling.

But the solution isn’t necessarily to recruit more people or introduce another initiative.

A senior HR leader can look at the wider picture and ask what’s actually driving those outcomes.

Sometimes the answer is clearer accountability.

Sometimes it is management development.

Sometimes the organisation has outgrown its structure.

Sometimes leadership behaviours need to change.

And sometimes the business simply hasn’t yet created the people infrastructure needed for its next stage of growth.

That’s where senior HR experience can be particularly valuable.

Not simply in providing answers, but in asking better questions.

It doesn’t have to be a permanent decision

This might be the most important point.

An interim or fractional appointment doesn’t necessarily answer the question:

“Who should our permanent HR Director be?”

Sometimes it answers:

“What does our business actually need?”

A business that has just lost its Head of HR may not immediately know whether it should replace the role.

A business going through rapid growth may not yet know what its future HR structure needs to look like.

A business with an existing HR team may need strategic leadership for a particular period, rather than another permanent layer.

Bringing in an experienced HR leader temporarily can give the leadership team the space and expertise to work that out.

The outcome might be a permanent HR Director.

It might be a different HR structure.

It might be ongoing fractional support.

It might be an interim assignment followed by a permanent appointment.

Or it might be that the business discovers it needs less senior HR resource than it originally thought.

There is no single right answer.

The objective is to get the right HR capability in place for the business’s current stage and circumstances.

The best interim assignments leave something behind

There is also an important distinction between bringing someone in to fill a gap and bringing someone in to strengthen the business.

The best interim and fractional HR leaders shouldn’t create dependency.

They should leave capability behind.

That might mean:

stronger managers
clearer processes
a more effective HR structure
a defined people strategy
better leadership capability
improved succession planning
greater confidence within the existing HR team
or simply a much clearer understanding of what the business needs next

That is why the measure of success shouldn’t simply be how quickly an interim HR leader can get up to speed.

It should be what is different when they leave.

So, do you actually need an HR Director?

After all four articles, that’s probably the wrong question to start with.

The better questions are:

What has changed in the business?

What are we struggling to manage?

What level of HR capability do we need right now?

And do we need that capability permanently?

For some businesses, the answer will be yes.

For others, a period of experienced interim or fractional HR leadership may be the more proportionate answer.

And for some, bringing in that expertise for six or nine months may actually give them the clarity they need to make a much better permanent decision later.

One of the most common conversations I have with business leaders starts with:

“We think we need an HR Director.”

Often, what they really mean is:

“We know the way we’re managing people isn’t quite working anymore, but we’re not sure what the answer is.”

That’s where the conversation should start.

Because the objective isn’t to sell a particular model.

It’s to help the business arrive at the right answer.

That might mean recruiting a permanent HR Director. It might mean appointing an interim. It might mean engaging a fractional HR leader. Or it might mean strengthening the existing HR team and accessing senior expertise when it is needed.

The right answer is the one that gives the business the capability it needs for the stage it is actually at.

Continue the conversation

If you’ve reached the point where your business needs more senior HR thinking, but you’re not sure whether a permanent HR Director is the right answer, we’d be happy to talk it through.

Talk to Alasdair about Senior HR Interim →