SM Sal Mazzarelli HR & Business Advisory
Fractional HR & Business Advisory

Senior HR leadership, without the full-time overhead.

For small business owners, entrepreneurs, and growth-stage operators who've outgrown ad-hoc HR — but aren't ready for a full-time CHRO. I bring 20+ years of People & Culture leadership from Walmart, Apple, Starbucks, Amazon, and LCBO, deployed on a retained, flexible basis.

Free 30-min consultation See how I help
20+ years enterprise HR MBA, CHRL CA · US · UK
Sal Mazzarelli
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Sal Mazzarelli

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Currently Engaged
Dentalook · TOMORROW
Healthcare & global digital retail · 2025–Present
20+ years of People & Culture leadership across
The Opportunity

You've outgrown ad-hoc HR. You're not ready for a full-time CHRO.

Most of the small businesses, founders, and growth-stage operators I work with share three patterns. Sound familiar?

01

You're hitting scale friction

Roles blur. Hiring is reactive. Your leaders are stretched thin and decisions stall because no one owns People with a strategic lens.

02

People risk is rising

Engagement is dipping. Turnover in key roles. An ER complaint that landed on your desk last month. No one is owning the response or building the system to prevent the next one.

03

No senior HR in the room

You have a coordinator, recruiter, or office manager — but no one translating people strategy into business outcomes, sitting at the leadership table.

Sal Mazzarelli
YOUR PHOTO HERE

Hi, I'm Sal

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About

20+ years building HR for household-name operators.

I've led People & Culture at Walmart, Apple, Starbucks, Amazon, LCBO, Loblaws, and several nationwide multi-site operators — the common thread is scale, complexity, and people risk.

I specialize in building HR infrastructure from zero, transforming engagement, mitigating ER & LR risk, and designing the organizational structures that let growing businesses scale without losing control. Now I deploy that capability on a retained, fractional basis for the businesses that need senior judgment — without the full-time overhead.

"I bring the judgment of someone who has done it — at Walmart, Apple, Starbucks, Amazon, and several nationwide operators — and the agility to deliver in your context, at your scale."

Credentials

MBA
Queen's University
BBA & HR Mgmt.
Davenport University
Advanced Diploma, HR Mgmt.
St. Clair College
CHRL
Certified HR Leader
Strategic Workforce Planning
HCI
Workplace Investigations
Bernardi HR Law
Culture Shaping
Senn Delaney
DiSC & LSI
Certified Facilitator
What I Do

Six areas where a fractional HR executive moves the needle.

Senior HR that drives business results — built for the specific pressure points growing companies face.

Organizational Design

Structure, spans, role clarity, decision rights — built to scale the business, not just the org chart.

ER & LR Risk Advisory

Active campaign response, investigations, playbooks. 20+ years without a union vote reaching ballot.

Engagement Strategy

Listening, segmented action plans, leader coaching. Double-digit score improvements, repeatedly.

Compensation Design

Market benchmarking and incentive design that aligns rewards to performance and retention.

HR Infrastructure

Policies, processes, documentation, governance — built from zero to audit-ready, across CA, US & UK.

Talent & Succession

Leadership bench strength, internal mobility, and practical succession planning for key roles.

How I Work

Three ways to engage — sized to your business.

Whether you're a founder figuring out your first hire, a 50-person company without senior HR, or a multi-site operator scaling fast — there's a way to work together that fits.

Tier 01

Starter

For small business owners and entrepreneurs who need senior HR judgment, fast.
Hourly rateFlexible scope, billed by the hour
  • 90-min Strategy Session
  • HR Foundations Audit
  • Handbook & policy starter pack
  • Hiring & onboarding playbook
  • Comp benchmarking (1–5 roles)
  • One-off ER investigation support
  • Contractor vs. employee classification review
Free 30-min consultation
Most Popular
Tier 02

Advisor

Monthly retainer for ongoing senior counsel.
Retainer · 2 days / monthBi-weekly cadence with leadership
  • Bi-weekly leadership touchpoints
  • On-call ER/LR case consultation
  • Org design & compensation input
  • Strategic advice on hiring & performance
  • Policy & governance refresh
  • Quarterly business reviews
Free 30-min consultation
Tier 03

Embedded

Acting Head of HR for growth-stage and mid-market operators.
Retainer · 3–4 days / monthWeekly leadership presence, owns the roadmap
  • Weekly leadership presence
  • Owns HR roadmap & priorities
  • Manages in-house HR team
  • Direct to board / CEO reporting
  • Engagement strategy & transformation
  • Active ER/LR risk management
  • Org design & comp redesign
See if this fits

Plus: Transform Projects

Fixed-scope, fixed-fee project work that any tier can buy: comp review, HRIS implementation (Deel specialist), org redesign, engagement turnaround, handbook overhaul, workplace investigations. Typically 8–16 weeks with executive-ready outputs and a clean handover.

Scope a project
The Value Case

VP-level HR without the full-time load.

You get the judgment of someone who has done it — at scale, in complexity, in industries that don't forgive HR mistakes.

Full-Time VP of People
Fractional HR Advisor
Full salary + bonus + equity load
Retainer-based, scoped to need
6–9 month hiring cycle
Operational in 2 weeks
Single individual, single skill set
20+ years across 6 enterprises
Fixed commitment, hard to exit
Flexible scope, monthly cadence
Ramp-up before value
Senior judgment from day one
The First 90 Days

What the first quarter together looks like.

A proven cadence: listen first, prioritize ruthlessly, deliver measurable early wins.

Days 1–30

Listen & Diagnose

  • Leadership and team interviews
  • Review of structure, roles, and policies
  • ER/LR risk assessment
  • Engagement and retention data review
Days 31–60

Synthesize & Prioritize

  • Themes, gaps, and opportunities
  • Prioritized people roadmap
  • Quick-win execution begins
  • Alignment with CEO and leadership team
Days 61–90

Build & Deliver

  • Org design recommendations
  • Compensation and role clarity outputs
  • HR process and policy foundations
  • Measurable early outcomes in motion
Proven Outcomes

Senior HR that drives business results.

Highlights across 20+ years of leading People & Culture at enterprise scale.

$20M+
Compensation Rollout

Led national comp design at Starbucks Canada — Bell Ringer Award for culture impact.

2×
Sam Walton Award

Highest engagement improvement across Walmart North America — two consecutive years.

27.7M
Packages · Amazon

Led HR through Amazon Logistics Canada hypergrowth: +18.7% YoY, ranked #1 across several critical metrics.

Resources

Practical playbooks, templates & thinking.

Field notes from the work — engagement, comp, ER, org design — written for the founders and leaders building it in real time.

Playbook
Fractional HR · 8 min read

The First 90 Days as a Fractional HR Leader

A field-tested cadence for diagnosing, prioritizing, and delivering early wins — drawn from current and past Fractional HR engagements.

Read the playbook →
Template
Compensation · Download

Compensation Review Checklist for SMBs

The exact framework I use to assess pay competitiveness for businesses without a comp team — band positioning, compa-ratio, outlier flags.

Get the template →
Field Guide
ER & LR · 6 min read

When the ER Complaint Hits Your Desk

The first 24 hours matter most. A pragmatic guide for founders without an in-house HR function on what to do — and what not to.

Read the guide →
See all resources
FAQ

Common questions.

I'm a small business — am I too small for fractional HR?
Probably not. The Starter tier is built for businesses with 5–50 employees who need senior HR judgment on a specific problem — a hire, a handbook, a comp question, a tough employee situation — without committing to an ongoing retainer. We start with a 30-minute call to figure out if you need an hour, a week, or a year of help.
How is this different from hiring a recruiter or HR coordinator?
A recruiter fills open roles. A coordinator runs HR operations. A fractional HR executive sits at the leadership table and translates people decisions into business outcomes — org design, comp strategy, engagement, ER/LR risk, succession. It's the difference between owning the function and executing inside it.
How long do engagements typically last?
Starter packages are scoped from a single session to an 8-week project. Advisor and Embedded retainers typically run 6–12 months, with quarterly checkpoints. Transform Projects are 8–16 weeks with clean handover. Most clients renew; some scope down or transition to a successor — both are fine outcomes.
Do you work outside Ontario or Canada?
Yes. Active engagements span Canada, US, and UK. I've handled cross-border compliance, contractor misclassification, and multi-jurisdictional comp design. Remote-first by default, on-site as the engagement requires.
What industries do you serve?
Multi-site operators (retail, healthcare, logistics), professional services, and growth-stage consulting and digital firms. My background spans Walmart, Apple, Starbucks, Amazon, LCBO, Loblaws, and several nationwide operators — so high-volume, distributed-workforce environments are home turf.
How does pricing work?
Pricing is tailored to scope and cadence and shared in the intro conversation. Starter packages are flat-fee. Advisor and Embedded retainers are monthly. Transform Projects are fixed-fee against a defined scope. No platform markups, no hidden fees — straightforward terms in a 1-page engagement letter.
What does the intro call look like?
A 30-minute conversation. You tell me what's going on. I tell you whether I can help — and if I can't, who I think can. Both outcomes are useful. No pitch deck, no follow-up sequence. Start with the intake form and I'll come prepared.
Let's Talk

30 minutes is usually enough to know if I can help.

If you're a CEO, founder, or owner weighing whether now is the right time for senior HR judgment — the first call is free. It will either clarify what you need, or tell you that you don't need me yet. Both are useful.

Book a 30-min call Or email directly