What we fix

The people problems that stall growing companies.

Eight situations we see again and again in startups and SMEs. Below, each one in depth: what it looks like from the inside, what it quietly costs you, and how we fix it.

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01Problem 1 of 8

Founder Overwhelm

Employee drama and paperwork eating up your growth time. Every hour spent settling disputes or chasing forms is an hour not spent on your product.

Symptoms

Your calendar is full of 1:1s about conflicts, not about the product.
Contracts, policies and onboarding checklists live in your head or in scattered documents.
Every HR question, from vacation days to a raise request, lands on your desk.

What it costs you

Founder hours are the most expensive hours in the company. Every afternoon spent refereeing or chasing paperwork is an afternoon the product, the customers and the next funding round do not get.

How we fix it

A senior partner who takes the people admin off your plate.

You get an on-call HR partner without a full-time salary. We set up the structures once, then run the day-to-day with you, in your Slack channel, in your language.

A people operations baseline: contracts, policies, onboarding and offboarding, set up once and kept current.
One channel for every people question, answered within 24 hours on business days.
The difficult conversations prepared with you, or held together, so they stop being postponed.

Your on-call partner for exactly this:

Fractional HR Partnership

02Problem 2 of 8

Untrained Managers

Top tech experts promoted to leads with zero management skills. They freeze during feedback conversations and avoid the hard calls entirely.

Symptoms

Your best engineer became a team lead and now spends the day avoiding people.
Feedback is either not given at all or arrives months late in a performance review.
Small tensions grow into resignations because nobody addressed them early.

What it costs you

People rarely quit a company. They quit a manager who was never taught how to lead.

How we fix it

Practical coaching that turns experts into leaders.

We coach your leads on the situations they actually face this month: the feedback they are avoiding, the conflict in their team, the delegation they are not doing.

One-to-one coaching built around real cases from their team, not generic leadership slides.
Simple frameworks for feedback, 1:1s, delegation and difficult conversations they can use the next day.
A coach in their corner for the first hard conversations, until they run them confidently alone.

The programme built for this:

Manager Coaching

03Problem 3 of 8

Guesswork Pay

Random salary and benefit offers without clear structures. Inconsistent offers erode trust and turn every negotiation into a coin flip.

Symptoms

Two people in the same role earn very different salaries, and nobody can explain why.
Every offer is negotiated from scratch, and the most persistent candidate wins.
Raises get decided when someone threatens to leave.

What it costs you

Unexplainable pay erodes trust faster than low pay. The moment salaries are compared, and they always are, inconsistent offers turn into resentment, counter-offers and exits.

How we fix it

Simple salary bands and benefit rules everyone can explain.

We build a compensation structure that fits a company of your size: clear levels, salary ranges per role, benefit rules and a process for raises.

Role levels and salary bands based on your budget and your market, documented in one place.
A raise and promotion process with fixed moments in the year, so pay stops being a reaction to threats.
An honest review of where you stand against the EU Pay Transparency Directive, prepared with your legal counsel where needed.

Structured within:

Fractional HR Partnership

04Problem 4 of 8

Bad Hiring

Hiring by gut feeling, leading to people quitting within 3 months. Every mis-hire costs months of ramp-up and a painful restart.

Symptoms

Roles stay open for months while the team covers the gap.
Interviews are unstructured, and every interviewer looks for something different.
New hires leave, or are let go, within the first three months.

What it costs you

A mis-hire is paid for three times: the months of searching, the months of ramp-up, and the months of doing it all again. Meanwhile the team that covered the gap is tired, and the manager has lost trust in the process.

How we fix it

Structured, fast hiring, then a bridge across the first 90 days.

We run hiring the way the best tech companies do: a clear role scorecard, a tight process, structured interviews and a decision within days, not weeks.

A role scorecard and interview plan agreed before the first CV is opened.
A fast, respectful candidate process that keeps strong people from dropping out.
Check-ins at day 30 and 60 with both the new hire and the manager, and a mid-probation review on day 90.

Our hiring engine, with the bridge built in:

High-Velocity Hiring Also part of the fix: 90-Day Success Bridge

05Problem 5 of 8

Audit Anxiety

Outdated legal paperwork and fear of a surprise Labor Inspection. One overlooked contract clause can turn into a costly fine overnight.

Symptoms

Employment contracts were copied from a template years ago and never updated.
Policies exist as verbal agreements, if at all.
Personnel files are incomplete, and you would not know where to look.

What it costs you

Audit anxiety costs you twice: in fines and back-payments when an inspection finds a gap, and in the hours your team loses reconstructing paperwork that should have been ready.

How we fix it

A compliance baseline you can stop worrying about.

We review your contracts, policies and files, close the gaps and set up a simple rhythm to keep everything current. Where legal advice is required, we work alongside your lawyer; we do not replace them.

A structured review of contracts, policies, files and mandatory documents against current requirements.
A prioritised gap list with fixes, so the urgent items are handled first.
A yearly check and a place for everything, so the next inspection is a routine, not a crisis.

Covered within:

Fractional HR Partnership

06Problem 6 of 8

Chaotic Growth

Adding headcount fast without a clear structural plan or roadmap. Growth without structure means more people making the same mistakes.

Symptoms

Headcount doubled, but the org chart is still in someone’s head.
New people do not know who decides what, so everything goes to the founders.
Hiring happens in the order requests arrive, not in the order the business needs.

What it costs you

Growth without structure multiplies mistakes. Each new person copies the confusion of the last one, decisions slow down as more people wait on the founders, and the culture you were proud of becomes something nobody can describe anymore.

How we fix it

A people roadmap for the next twelve months.

We turn your business plan into a people plan: which roles, in which order, reporting to whom, and which rituals keep a bigger team aligned.

An org design for the next stage: roles, levels, reporting lines and decision rights.
A hiring sequence tied to your goals and budget, so you hire what the business needs next.
Team rituals that scale: planning, 1:1s, feedback cycles and all-hands that actually inform.

Planned and run within:

Fractional HR Partnership

07Problem 7 of 8

Risky Terminations

Stuck with bad employees because you’re afraid of lawsuits. Every day you wait, the cost and the risk keep climbing.

Symptoms

Everyone knows a certain person is not working out, including that person.
Performance issues were mentioned in passing but never documented.
You are afraid one wrong step will end in a lawsuit.

What it costs you

Every week of waiting costs salary, team morale and your credibility as a leader. The strongest people notice first when underperformance has no consequences.

How we fix it

A fair, documented process and a calm exit plan.

We set up a clear performance process: expectations in writing, honest conversations, a defined improvement period and documented outcomes. If an exit is the right decision, we prepare it with your legal counsel and help you handle it with dignity.

A performance improvement process with clear expectations, timelines and documentation.
Preparation and coaching for the conversations, so they are direct, fair and not personal.
An exit plan prepared with your lawyer: timing, communication to the team and a respectful handover.

Handled within:

Fractional HR Partnership

08Problem 8 of 8

Unaligned Leadership

Founders and executives not working toward the same goals. Mixed signals from the top trickle down into a confused, misaligned team.

Symptoms

Two founders give the team two different priorities in the same week.
Leadership meetings end without decisions, or with decisions that get reopened.
The team hears about strategy changes through the grapevine.

What it costs you

Misalignment at the top is invisible in the boardroom and very visible in the team. People stop taking initiative when the message keeps changing, your best managers start managing upward instead of leading, and hiring, pay and promotions become political.

How we fix it

One message from the top, and clear rules for how decisions are made.

We facilitate leadership alignment sessions where founders and executives agree on priorities, roles and decision rules, and put them in writing.

Facilitated alignment sessions on goals, roles and what “done” means for the leadership team.
Simple decision rules for the recurring people topics: who decides, who is consulted, who is informed.
A communication rhythm so the team hears decisions once, clearly, from the top.

Facilitated within:

Fractional HR Partnership

Let’s talk

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