Comp Review for Small Business: A Pragmatic Framework
You don't need a comp team or six-figure benchmarking subscription to do this well. Here's the cut-down version of what enterprises do — built for businesses with 10 to 100 employees.
Read post →Twice-monthly field notes, downloadable templates, and pragmatic guides — written for founders, owners, and operators building HR in real time.
Practical tools I've built and refined across 20+ years of HR leadership. Yours — just share an email.
A pragmatic 4-phase cadence — listen, build the strategic framework, align the leadership team, ship the first quick win. Includes an anonymized worked example of the full HR strategic framework and a tear-out 30-day checklist.
Download the playbookThe exact framework I use to assess pay competitiveness for businesses without a comp team — band positioning, compa-ratio, outlier flags. Editable spreadsheet.
Get the templatePlain-language template covering interview notes, witness statements, findings, and outcome documentation. Built to hold up under scrutiny — without legalese.
Get the templateThe end-to-end hiring system: scorecard, interview structure, decision-making, offer mechanics. Built for businesses making their first 10 hires.
Get the playbookSpans, role clarity, decision rights, accountability mapping. The same worksheet I use with CEOs in our first 30 days together.
Get the worksheetThe post-survey playbook: how to read the results, segment by team, build action plans leaders actually own. Includes a 60-day rollout timeline.
Get the checklistShort posts on the work — patterns, frameworks, and the small decisions that compound.
The single biggest mistake fractional HR leaders make in week one isn't strategy — it's sequencing. This playbook lays out the four-phase cadence I use: listen, build the strategic framework, align the leadership team, deliver the first quick win. Includes a full anonymized example of the strategic HR framework template you'd walk away with at day 30.
Download the playbook →You don't need a comp team or six-figure benchmarking subscription to do this well. Here's the cut-down version of what enterprises do — built for businesses with 10 to 100 employees.
Read post →The first 24 hours matter most. A pragmatic guide for founders without an in-house HR function on what to do — and the three reflexes that almost always make it worse.
Read post →The survey isn't the problem. The action-planning is. Three patterns I've seen drive double-digit score lifts across multiple engagements — none of them are the survey vendor.
Read post →Most growth-stage org charts I see have the same three problems: too many direct reports at the top, unclear decision rights in the middle, and one heroic individual holding the operation together. Here's how to spot it.
Read post →Hiring scorecards are a cliché. But the version that actually works is shorter, sharper, and has one column most founders skip. A real example from a recent TOMORROW hire.
Read post →Fractional HR isn't right for every business. Here are the three signals that say "now is the time" — and the two situations where you should hire someone full-time instead.
Read post →