Fractional People Lead or an HR consultant?
The short answer: a fractional People Lead brings the judgement for part of a week; an HR consultant brings something different that is often confused with it. Here is what each one actually owns, what they cost on the same basis, and when to pick the other one.
What an HR consultant actually is
An external adviser brought in for specific pieces of work: policies, a restructure, a tribunal, a handbook.
What each one owns
| A fractional People Lead | An HR consultant |
|---|---|
| How the company hires, pays and promotes, as one system | Employment law compliance, correctly and in writing |
| The culture question, answered with structure rather than posters | A specific matter: a dismissal, a tribunal, a TUPE transfer |
| Pay bands, levelling and what stops people leaving | Policies and handbooks that stand up when challenged |
| Building the people function so it eventually runs without them | Specialist depth on the legal edges of employment |
What neither of them does
Neither is recruitment. Filling roles is its own function, and expecting a people seat to also run hiring at volume is how both jobs get done badly.
How each one fails
The fractional People Lead: Being used as an employment lawyer, which is not the seat and is the one place where getting it wrong is expensive.
An HR consultant: Buying a policy set for a company that has no idea how it wants to pay, promote or manage people, which produces a compliant business that still cannot keep anyone.
What they cost, on the same basis
A fractional People Lead charges £600 to £1,100 a day, and most engagements run one to three days a week. A day rate or a fixed fee per project, cheaper per day than a senior seat and scoped to one piece of work at a time. The monthly and annual arithmetic for the fractional side, against a full-time equivalent, is on the cost page for this seat.
Pick an HR consultant when
- The need is a single legal matter with a deadline attached
- You need documents that will be tested in front of a tribunal
- There is no people system to build yet, only a problem to close
We would rather say that plainly than win an engagement that was the wrong shape. Nobody pays us to list on the bench, so there is nothing in it for us either way.
When you want both
Frequently. The fractional seat builds the system and calls a consultant for the legal edges, which is cheaper than either doing the other's job.
Common questions
Is a fractional People Lead cheaper than an HR consultant?
On a like-for-like basis it usually is, because you buy the days you need rather than all of them. A fractional People Lead runs £600 to £1,100 a day, most often one to three days a week. A day rate or a fixed fee per project, cheaper per day than a senior seat and scoped to one piece of work at a time. But cheaper is the wrong question if the work genuinely needs the other one.
When should I pick an HR consultant instead?
The need is a single legal matter with a deadline attached You need documents that will be tested in front of a tribunal There is no people system to build yet, only a problem to close
Can I have both?
Frequently. The fractional seat builds the system and calls a consultant for the legal edges, which is cheaper than either doing the other's job.