Most companies with fewer than 50 employees have no HR function. That is entirely logical – you should not hire an HR director for 20 people.
But that does not mean you can manage without HR.
I have worked with growth companies for many years. And the pattern is almost always the same. HR issues do not disappear just because no one owns them – they accumulate. Quietly, below the surface, until something explodes.
A bad hire. A conflict that has gone too far. A manager who is not working out, but no one has addressed it. An onboarding that set the wrong expectations from day one.
By then, the cost is many times higher than structured HR support would ever have been.
What you need is not an HR department. What you need is the right support at the right moment.
Sometimes that means helping build a recruitment process that actually holds up. Sometimes an onboarding structure helps. Sometimes it is simply someone to call when you are not quite sure how to handle what has come up.
Senior HR expertise on a consultancy basis is not a cost. It is an investment in avoiding the expensive mistakes.
If you have thoughts, questions, or simply want to talk something through – feel free to get in touch.
Magdalena Hagström Ståhl
By M Consulting AB
Right person. Right place. Everything changes.