Fractional People & Culture Lead
One to three days a week.
Senior people expertise without the full-time cost. I build the foundations, then help your team run them.
Your people got you here. Let’s make sure they grow with you.
I help UK founders and senior leadership teams in start-ups, scale-ups and purpose-led businesses build the people, culture and communication foundations to grow without losing what made them special.
Fractional people and culture leadership. Chief of Staff support. Founder coaching.
Nearly 30 years in people, culture and change. LinkedIn Top Voice. Published in People Management and the Financial Times.
Ten people felt like family. Thirty feels like strangers.
- You hired fast and the culture didn’t keep up.
- Every decision still runs through you.
- Good people are leaving and you’re not quite sure why.
- Everyone’s busy, but not always pulling in the same direction.
- You need senior people expertise, but not a full-time HR Director. Not yet.
None of this means you’re failing. It means you’re growing. Growth just needs the right foundations.
The foundations to grow together.
I build the foundations that help you attract, develop and keep great people. So the business and the team grow together, and the success is shared.
People and culture foundations
Values people actually live, ways of working that fit your size, and policies that help rather than hinder.
Attract, develop, retain
Hiring, onboarding and progression that hold up as you grow. Using engagement and exit data to find the real problems.
Change and growth
New leaders, restructures, mergers and acquisitions. Sequenced properly and landed with the people it affects.
Internal communications and engagement
So your team knows where you’re going, why it matters and what it means for them.
Organisational effectiveness
The structure, roles and rhythms that let you move fast without breaking what works.
If you want culture on a poster, I’m not your person. If you want it lived, I am.
Senior support, shaped around where you are.
Fractional Chief of Staff
Your right hand.
I turn plans into progress, keep the leadership team aligned and free you up to lead.
Founder and leadership coaching
One to one.
For founders and senior leaders carrying a lot. Honest, practical and confidential.
Need someone embedded for the longer term? Let’s talk about that too.
Let’s talkI’ve grown with businesses. From five people to a global group.
60 to 1,000Built a people function from scratch as the business grew to around 1,000 people across 60 branches.
5 to 20Grew with a start-up, working side by side with the founder.
Chief of StaffRight hand to a Managing Director through a management buyout.
Global M&ALed people, culture and internal communications through a global acquisition and integration.
500+ culture ambassadorsBuilt a global volunteer network with no budget and no headcount.
£250k in six monthsSaved by bringing recruitment in-house.
I’ve sat where you’re sitting. I know what it costs when the people side goes wrong, and what’s possible when it goes right.
Change done with people, not to them.
Most change is designed in a boardroom and announced to everyone else. Mine starts with the people who will live with it.
People in from day one
Your team helps shape the change rather than hearing about it afterwards.
Learn as you go
A plan that adapts to what we find, not a script we stick to regardless.
Never one and done
We build the habits and skills that keep it working after I’ve gone.
How a piece of work runs
Conversation
What’s changing, what’s getting in the way and what good looks like.
Listen
Time with your people at every level, so we start from how things really are.
Build together
A plan shaped with you and your team, not handed to you.
Embed and review
Put it into practice, check what’s working and adjust.
Built on my Change Together™ approach, alongside 360° You™ and Human Energy Exchange™.
What people say.
“It’s been an absolute pleasure to work with Tara.”
“Tara is an empathetic, generous, thoughtful and thought provoking leader.”
“Tara was such a positive force within our organization.”
“She has a unique ability to connect with people that touches your heart.”
“Her passion for engagement and improving company culture is unmatched.”
“Tara’s ability to foster a sense of value and inclusion, even in the midst of complexity…”
I didn’t learn people from a textbook.
I’m Tara. I learned HR standing in the middle of a fast-growing business, with no one else to ask. I built it from scratch, came through two management buyouts, and later led global culture and engagement work through a major acquisition. Nearly 30 years on, I still believe the same thing.
People are not a resource to be managed. They are the energy that decides whether everything else works.
Now I work with founders and senior leaders who care about their people and want to grow the right way. I’m trained in coaching, counselling and psychology, so I bring both the strategy and the human side.
LinkedIn Top Voice. Published in People Management and the Financial Times. Based in Buckinghamshire, working across the UK.
The Human Gap. A weekly note for founders and leaders.
The people side of growing a business, said plainly. The uncomfortable conversations, the honest mistakes (plenty of mine), and what to actually do about them. Free, every week.
Subscribe on SubstackCommon questions
Who do you work with?
UK founders and senior leadership teams in start-ups, scale-ups and purpose-led small businesses. Usually as they grow past their first ten or twenty people and the culture starts to wobble.
Do you work on-site or remotely?
Both. In person where it matters, remote the rest of the time. [Confirm travel area]
How is fractional work priced?
A monthly retainer for an agreed number of days, so you know the cost upfront. Coaching is priced per programme.
Are you an HR consultant?
I bring senior people and culture leadership, not tick-box HR admin. I’ll help you set up what you need and point you to specialists where it makes sense.
Growing fast? Let’s make sure your people grow with you.
Book a 30-minute conversation. No pitch. Just an honest chat about where you are and what you need.
- Phone
- 07720 206919
- linkedin.com/in/thetarabirch