Most scaling businesses need a People Director long before they can justify hiring one full time.
What Is A Fractional People Director?
A Fractional People Director is a senior people leader who works inside your business on a part time, contracted basis. Unlike a consultant who advises from the outside, a Fractional People Director attends your leadership meetings, manages your people agenda, makes decisions and leads your people function as a fully embedded member of your leadership team.
Spencer & Trent’s Fractional People Director service gives you direct access to Abi, a senior talent strategist with over ten years of experience and a legal background that means every people decision is made with the commercial, legal and financial consequences firmly in mind.
Abi Demi, Managing Director
When Should A Business Hire A Fractional People Director?
A Fractional People Director is suitable for:
- Founders and CEOs who are currently making all people decisions themselves and need to free up that capacity
- Businesses covering a period of change, growth or maternity leave that need an experienced people leader to maintain momentum
- Scaling businesses between 20 and 150 employees that need senior people leadership but are not yet ready for a full time hire
- Businesses preparing for investment, a funding round or significant growth where having a People Director in place adds credibility
- Organisations that have experienced the legal and financial cost of managing people without senior expertise and want to make sure it never happens again
When Does A Business Need A Fractional People Director?
A business typically needs a Fractional People Director when it is scaling beyond 20 to 30 employees and people decisions are becoming too complex, too frequent or too legally risky for a founder or CEO to manage alone. Other triggers include preparing for investment, managing a period of significant organisational change or covering a gap in senior people leadership.
What Does A Fractional People Director Cost?
A Fractional People Director is typically engaged on a day rate basis, working across an agreed number of days per week or month. Costs vary depending on the level of experience, expertise and the scope of the engagement. For context, a full time People Director in the UK can cost upwards of £120,000 per year in salary alone before employer NI, pension and benefits are added. Spencer & Trent’s Fractional People Director service is priced to reflect the level of expertise and legal understanding you are getting, at a fraction of the cost of a full time senior hire.
Every engagement is tailored to the specific needs and stage of your business. Day rate available upon request.
How Long Does A Fractional People Director Engagement Typically Last?
Fractional People Director engagements typically last between six and twelve months, though many businesses choose to extend the arrangement as the value of having senior people leadership embedded in the business becomes clear. Some engagements evolve into longer term strategic partnerships as the business continues to scale. Spencer & Trent structures every engagement around the specific needs and growth stage of your business, ensuring the arrangement evolves as your business does.
How Do I Hire A Fractional People Director
Engaging a Fractional People Director is not a hiring decision, it is a commercial one. There are no employment contracts, no employer NI contributions and no long term commitment. You are appointing an experienced senior people leader on a business to business basis, with the flexibility to scale the engagement up or down as your business needs change.
How Quickly Can A Fractional People Director Start?
Unlike a full time hire which can take months to recruit and onboard, a Fractional People Director can typically begin within days of an agreement being reached. Spencer & Trent’s Fractional People Director service is designed to deliver value from day one. No extended onboarding period, no lengthy handover process.
Who You Are Working With
When you engage Spencer & Trent’s Fractional People Director service you work directly with Abi Demi, a people expert with over ten years of experience working across FTSE 100 companies, startups and SMEs. Abi Demi brings legal understanding, commercial thinking and a perspective that has been missing from most boardroom conversations about talent and organisational structure.
Can I List My Fractional People Director On My Website And Leadership Team?
Yes. As your Fractional People Director, Abi can be listed as part of your leadership team. For scaling businesses this carries significant commercial weight. Investors want to see a people function being led at a senior level. Senior candidates want to know there is a people leader in place before they join. Clients and partners see it as a sign of organisational maturity. It gives your business the credibility of senior people leadership without the full time cost.
Why Spencer & Trent
Most people brought in to lead a people function have only HR experience. Abi brings talent strategy expertise, legal knowledge and a commercial understanding of the consequences when people decisions go wrong. Her legal background means she does not just lead your people agenda, she protects your business from the legal and financial exposure that fast growth environments consistently create. For a fraction of the cost you get senior talent expertise, embedded in your business, from day one.
What Does A Fractional People Director Do?
No two executive advisory relationships look the same.
The Fractional People Director duties include:
Attending and contributing to leadership meetings, ensuring people decisions are commercially sound and legally protected
Leading and overseeing the people strategy to ensure it aligns with the commercial priorities of the business
Identifying and managing employment law risk across the business before it creates legal or financial exposure
Ensuring people governance and compliance frameworks are in place and fit for the stage of the business
Overseeing hiring, onboarding, retention and exits at a strategic level
Acting as the senior point of contact for all people matters across the business
Please Note
Specialist projects including leadership and manager development programmes, recruitment delivery, workforce planning, DEI strategy and AI Adoption risk strategy are scoped and priced separately under the relevant Spencer & Trent service.
Three Steps To Get Started
Step 1 — Confidential Consultation
We begin with a confidential conversation to understand your business, your current people challenges and what you need from a Fractional People Director. No commitment required at this stage.
Step 2 — Tailored Proposal
We agree the scope, number of days and format of the engagement based entirely on the needs and priorities of your business.
Step 3 — Embedded From Day One
Abi joins your leadership team on the agreed days, immediately contributing to your people agenda, managing risk and building the people infrastructure your business needs to grow with confidence.
Spencer & Trent’s Fractional People Director service gives you senior people leadership at a fraction of the cost of a full time hire.
If you are ready to have a senior People Director embedded in your business, the conversation starts here.
Can A Fractional People Director Work Remotely?
Yes. A Fractional People Director can work remotely, on site or a combination of both depending on the needs of the business. Spencer & Trent structures every engagement around what works best for your business and your team.
What should I Look For In A Fractional People Director?
Look for someone with senior people leadership experience, commercial acumen and the ability to integrate quickly into a leadership team. Spencer & Trent goes further, you get senior people leadership with the legal understanding and tribunal experience that protects your business from the legal and financial consequences of every people decision made on the inside.
What Is The Difference Between A Fractional People Director And Executive Advisory?
Executive Advisory is a strategic sounding board relationship. You come to Abi when you need to think through a people decision. Fractional People Director is an operational leadership role. Abi comes to you, embedded in your business on agreed days, leading your people function and managing your people agenda. One is advisory, the other is leadership. Learn more about Executive Advisory.
What Is The Difference Between A Fractional People Director And An HR Manager?
An HR Manager typically handles the day to day operational side of HR, contracts, policies, employee relations and compliance. A Fractional People Director operates at a senior strategic level, sitting within your leadership team, shaping the people agenda and making the decisions that protect and grow your business. One manages people processes, the other leads people strategy.
Can A Fractional People Director Replace A Full Time HR Director?
Yes. For many scaling SMEs a Fractional People Director delivers the same strategic people leadership as a full time HR or People Director at a fraction of the cost. The key difference is availability. A Fractional People Director works across an agreed number of days rather than full time, making it the most commercially efficient way to access senior people expertise without the overhead of a permanent hire.
Is A Fractional People Director The Same As An Interim HR Director?
Not exactly. An interim HR Director is typically brought in to cover a specific gap or transition period and is often expected to work full time. A Fractional People Director is a longer term, part time arrangement where the business benefits from ongoing senior people leadership without the cost or commitment of a full time or interim hire.
How Do I know If My Business Is Ready For A Fractional People Director?
Your business is ready for a Fractional People Director when people decisions are becoming too complex, too frequent or too legally risky for a founder or CEO to manage alongside running the business. Common signs include rising employee turnover, an increase in people related disputes, a leadership team that is not performing as it should or a business that is scaling faster than its people infrastructure can support. If any of these sound familiar, Spencer & Trent can help you assess whether a Fractional People Director is the right next step.
Getting people decisions wrong at leadership level is costly. The right person on the inside protects your business.
