When there were only two or three of you, getting HR help as and when something came up probably worked fine. Now the team's grown to somewhere around 5 to 15 people, you're not really a start-up any more, but you're not scaling up with your own HR department either... and a full-time HR person still feels like far too much.
The point I usually see it click for founders is when they realise they've become the HR department by default. Nobody decided it, it just happened as the team grew.
So there are really three ways a growing team can get HR help: ad hoc support when something comes up, regular monthly support, or hiring someone full time. Each one suits a different stage, and it's worth knowing which one fits yours.
In this post, we'll look at
the three ways a growing team can get HR help: ad hoc when something comes up, regular monthly support, or hiring someone full time
how they compare on the four things that matter most at this size
how to tell which one fits you right now
1. Catching things early
Ad hoc help only starts once there's already a problem. Most people leave it too late, they wait and hope a situation will get better on its own, and by the time they call me it needs to be dealt with formally.
Monthly support means there's a regular time in the diary to raise the small things while they're still small, before any of them need dealing with formally.
A full-time HR hire would catch things early too, but most teams this size just don't have enough HR work to fill the role.
2. Advice that fits your business
With ad hoc help, whoever you ask is starting from scratch each time, so you spend the first part of every conversation explaining your business, your team and what's happened so far.
Monthly support with the same person means they get to know your business and your people over time, without sitting inside it day to day. That bit of distance matters, because it means they can stay impartial when it comes to making the tough decisions.
A full-time hire will know the business best of all, but they sit inside it, so it's harder for them to stay impartial.
3. What it costs against what you need
I'm not going to put numbers on this one, because every business is different, but leaving things too late does cost you. There's the cost of your time away from the business as the founder, the time spent dealing with a more serious issue once it's escalated, and potentially the cost of more lengthy HR advice or even solicitors' fees.
Regular support sits somewhere in the middle. Harriet from Fleet Fitness put it really well when she said a small business doesn't have the budget for an in-house HR team, or the skillset to organise all the documents, so having me in her corner was amazing and a huge weight off her shoulders.
A full-time hire is the biggest commitment of the three, and it makes sense once there's enough HR work to justify it.
4. Having the basics written down
I always say write the rule down once. Getting it written down somewhere, even a line in the handbook, makes it an established rule rather than something you're deciding fresh each time it comes up, and once it's written, that bit takes care of itself.
At 5 to 15 people your handbook, contracts and policies 📃 start doing real work, and keeping them up to date is so much easier with someone checking them regularly than with a scramble when something's already gone wrong.
Rachel from StriveX and Accountant She told me they grew rapidly and were scared as new employers, and now they call on me for everything they and their staff need to know.
If you're not sure which of these fits your team right now, book your free 30-minute discovery call and we can talk it through.
Final thoughts: which is right for you?
Ad hoc support is fine for a one-off. If you've got fewer than 5 employees, issues tend to come up a bit more ad hoc anyway, and a Power Hour can usually help you sort through them.
Monthly support fits the growing team stage. With The HR Hub you get an hour a month with me, me on email for the quick questions in between, and access to the Hub's template letters and guidance notes, which are properly UK legal and checked by a professional.
A full-time HR hire is for later, when there's enough HR work to fill a role.
If your team's grown and you've realised you're the HR department by default, book your free 30-minute discovery call to talk through where your team is and what level of support fits. And if you've got a question about any of this, please feel free to get in touch, I'd love to hear what's going on in your business!
