HR strategy
For teams that have outgrown the structure they started with, and now have to decide what the next one looks like.
What got you here will not run what comes next
HR strategy and organizational development is deciding what your organization needs to look like next, and then getting it there. Roles, reporting lines, decision rights, and the managers who will have to run all of it.
- Who decides what, written down
- Managers developed before the promotion, not after
- Change that lands as a plan rather than a rumor
You are probably looking at this because
Not every organization needs this work, and the ones that do usually recognize themselves in one of these before they can name what is wrong.
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Roles were defined by who was available
Titles and reporting lines grew out of who happened to be there at the time. Nobody has revisited them since, and now two people believe they own the same decision.
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Every decision still routes through one person
The organization has more people than it has decision-makers. Growth is capped by how much one calendar can absorb in a week.
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You promoted people and stopped there
Strong individual contributors were given teams and titles. Nobody gave them the skills the new job actually needs, and it tends to show up first in retention.
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A change is coming and nobody has planned the landing
A restructure, a new system, an acquisition, a reduction. The decision is made. How people find out, and what happens in the week after, is not.
What our HR strategy covers
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Organizational structure planning
We map what you have against what the business is trying to do over the next two to three years, then design the roles, reporting lines, and decision rights to match.
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Leadership development
Practical development for the people running teams: giving feedback, setting expectations, holding a standard, and handling the reaction when they do.
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Culture-building initiatives
The values on the wall matter far less than what actually gets rewarded, tolerated, and promoted. We work on the second one.
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Change management
Sequencing, communication, and manager readiness, so a change lands as a plan rather than as a rumor.
What working on HR strategy looks like
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01
We start with what is actually happening
A conversation with you, and usually with several of your managers. We are looking for where decisions get stuck, not for an org chart to critique.
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02
We show you the shape of the problem
Plainly, in writing, including the parts that are uncomfortable. You will know what we think before you decide whether to act on it.
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03
We build the plan with you
A structure you can actually staff and afford, a sequence for getting there, and the manager development that has to happen alongside it.
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04
We stay through the rollout
The plan is the easy part. We are there for the announcements, the manager conversations, and the questions nobody anticipated.
Frequently Asked Questions
Got a question about our HR strategy approach? Here’s a list of common questions we get asked.
How is this different from hiring an HR manager?
An HR manager runs the function day to day. This work decides what the function and the wider organization should look like in the first place. Plenty of clients do both: we help design the structure, then help them hire the person who will run it.
We are around forty people. Are we too small for organizational development?
No. Somewhere between twenty and a hundred people is where most organizations feel this most sharply, because the informal structure that carried them stops working and nothing has replaced it yet.
Do you write job descriptions and org charts?
Yes, when that is what the work needs. But a chart is the output rather than the point. We would rather fix who decides what than redraw boxes.
How long does an engagement like this take?
A structure review can be a few weeks. A restructure with manager development and a rollout usually runs a few months. We will tell you which one you are looking at after the first conversation.
Can you help with a restructure or a reduction in force?
Yes. We help plan the process, check it against California requirements, prepare the managers who have to deliver the news, and sit in on those conversations where that helps.
Will you tell us if we do not need this?
Yes. If the real problem is narrower, such as one manager or one policy, we will say so and scope it down rather than sell you a larger piece of work.
Not seeing an answer to your question? Our expanded FAQs page covers how we work more broadly, or start a conversation and we would be happy to answer it directly.
Our other services
Most situations touch more than one of these, and you do not have to work out which before you write.
Whatever it is, it is probably not the first time we have seen it.
Tell us what is going on and we will tell you honestly whether we are the right people for it.