You Don’t Need an HR Department – Until You Do

A common HR myth in small business is “we’ll hire HR once we hit 100 people”. This is like hiring an accountant after your audit. It’s true your company may not need a full HR team early on.  But it is important that someone is thinking 3 steps ahead about people strategy and systems, especially for a growing business - even if it doesn’t feel like you need it now.

For most companies, growing pains become more noticeable between 50-75 employees which may show up in the form of inconsistent hiring, performance issues, compliance gaps and cultural drift. It’s usually at this point when business leaders realize they need strategic HR leadership, not just tactical support.

If you wait too long, you end up fixing fires.
If you hire too early, you risk over-investing before the need is real.

Smart business leaders often bring in a fractional HR leader early – to set the strategy and build foundational systems and then transition to full-time once the scale demands it.

When did your business bring in HR? Too soon? Too late?