Fractional HR Director · HR leadership for SMEs and scale-ups

Hire a Fractional HR Director · Fractional HR Director Jobs

Q: How do I hire a fractional HR director?

Brief the problems, the days and the reporting line. Tell us what the seat has to fix — contracts and policies, employee relations, a restructure, a hiring plan — how many days a week you can fund, and who the HR director reports to. We come back with a shortlist of 3–5, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, vetted through our five-stage process. You interview and choose. Book 15 minutes to start.

Q: Is a virtual HR director the same as a fractional HR director?

Usually the same seat, delivered mostly remotely. A virtual HR director works with managers over video and a shared HR system, and comes on site when the work needs it — consultations, investigations, difficult conversations. If you want one near you, put the on-site days in the brief; each role on our board shows the location its posting gives.

Q: What do fractional HR support and a fractional HR retainer cover?

Fractional HR support can mean anything from an outsourced advice line to a named senior person, so ask which you are buying. A fractional HR retainer is a monthly fee for an agreed number of days from a named HR director or manager; put the scope, the notice period and what happens to unused days in writing. That retainer is between you and the HR leader.

Q: Do we need a fractional head of HR or a fractional HR director?

Ask where the role sits. A fractional head of HR runs the function day to day and usually reports to the CEO, COO or finance lead; a fractional HR director sits on the leadership team and is accountable for HR decisions. Robert Half's 2026 UK medians — £70,000 for a head of HR, £110,250 for an HR director — reflect the difference in scope. More in fractional head of HR.

Q: How do I find fractional HR director jobs?

Fractional HR director jobs are on the board on this page; CHRO and Chief People Officer roles are on fractional CHRO jobs. Lead with what you have built and run. Most fractional HR directors work through their own company, so read the off-payroll working (IR35) rules and our IR35 guide before you price: status depends on how each engagement runs in practice, a medium or large client makes the determination, and HMRC's CEST tool is the usual reference.

Hire a fractional HR director to lead HR in your SME or scale-up for part of the week: contracts and policies, employee relations, hiring, and the managers who carry them.

Tell us the seat and the days, and we come back with a shortlist of 3–5, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.

Looking for work?

Fractional HR director jobs across the UK are on the board below.

See the roles →Hiring? Book 15 minutes

How a brief runswhat we undertake

01Brief30-MINUTE SCOPING CALLDay 0
02Shortlist of 3–5VETTED · RATE BENCHMARK · IR35After the brief
03InterviewsYOU MEET THE SHORTLISTYour diary
04Scoped startFIRST-MONTH OUTCOMES AGREEDYou set the date
05Fractional, interim and permanentIR35 POSITION SET OUTOn every brief

Shortlist3–5

On the board · last 3 months

Fractional HR Director jobs on the board

0 Fractional HR Director · 9 fractional executive

No Fractional HR Director roles on the board in the last three months. Showing fractional executive roles instead.

Browse every role on the board →

£700–£1,200

HR Director, London contract · a day (PAYE)

Robert Walters Salary Survey 2026

£110,250

HR Director, full-time UK · median salary

Robert Half 2026 HR Salary Guide

3–5

Shortlist · each with day rate, availability and IR35 position

Vetting · stages before every shortlist

01/ the board

What the board holds.

A read of the roles on the board above, counted as they stand: the seat, how each is engaged, whether the posting gives the days and the rate, and where the work happens.

On this board, last 90 days · 9 roles · fractional executive

Engagement

Fractional9

Seat

CFO3
Other2
CAIO1
Product manager1
Financial controller1
SDR1

Days a week

Stated in the posting5
Not stated4

Day rate

Verified rate0
Estimated (est)4
Rate not stated5

Work arrangement (as the job feed classifies it)

Remote3
Hybrid2
On-site3
Not classified1

Newest posting on the board: 29 Oct 2026.

Postings per week on this board, last 90 days

9 postings on this board in the last 90 days, counted by the week each was published.

02/ the week

How a week divides.

Part of a week is the point of the model: each client buys days, the rest of the week goes to other clients. Move the days a week and the week redraws.

Days a week for your company2 days

Your companyAnother clientA third client

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Illustration only: one way a fractional executive’s week can divide at 2 days a week for you. Each block is half a day.

03/ overview

Hire a fractional HR director — operational HR leadership for SMEs and scale-ups

The shape of fractional work in this market.

A fractional HR director is the senior person accountable for HR in a business that does not yet need one five days a week.

The seat is operational leadership: employment contracts and the written statement of employment particulars every new starter must receive, the policy handbook, disciplinary and grievance handling in line with the Acas Code of Practice, absence and performance management, and the hiring process.

In many SMEs and scale-ups it is the first time anyone senior has owned HR, rather than a founder, an office manager or the finance lead covering it.

Companies bring in a fractional HR director when the people work has become too consequential to handle case by case — a first redundancy consultation, a grievance that could reach a tribunal, a hiring plan, a handbook to rewrite before the Employment Rights Act 2025 changes land through 2026 and 2027 — but the business is not yet the size to justify a full-time HR Director salary.

Virtual HR director, fractional HR support or a retainer?

The names overlap.

A virtual HR director is usually the same seat delivered mostly remotely: video calls with managers, a shared HR system, days on site when the work needs them.

It suits distributed teams and businesses outside the big cities; if you are searching for a virtual HR director near you, decide how often the role needs someone in the room — consultations and investigations usually do.

Fractional HR support is a wider term, and some of what is sold under it is an outsourced advice line or a document library rather than a named senior person.

A fractional HR retainer is a commercial arrangement: a monthly fee for an agreed number of days, which is how many fractional HR directors price their time.

HR director, CHRO or fractional chief people officer?

Employers use HR Director, CHRO and Chief People Officer titles differently.

Compare responsibility for employee relations, organisation design, reward and board decisions, then agree the authority and operational support the role needs.

A fractional chief people officer is the same board-level seat under the title many scale-ups prefer; Robert Walters' London contract band for a Chief People Officer is in the table below.

For a board-facing people-strategy brief, see hire a fractional CHRO; if you need an interim HR director — someone covering a defined period of change, with hours agreed separately — see interim HR director and CHRO jobs.

A fractional HR director is not an HR consultant either: a consultant delivers a project and leaves, while the HR director holds the seat, and the accountability, for as long as the engagement runs.

How to hire a fractional HR director

Write the brief around the problems rather than the title: what has to be fixed, the days a week you can fund, and who the role reports to.

Ask for evidence from a business of your size and stage — a handbook they wrote, a consultation they ran, a management layer they trained.

Whenever you hire an HR Director, full-time or fractional, the CIPD Profession Map is a useful check on the level of the brief.

Brief us and we come back with a shortlist of 3–5, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, vetted through the five stages on our vetting page; we shortlist for any fractional HR director UK role, whether it is on site, hybrid or remote.

If the real gap is recruiting capacity rather than HR leadership, see fractional talent acquisition.

04/ rates

Fractional HR director published day-rate benchmarks

Published bands only, each with its source. Type your own day rate to see where it sits.

SeatPublished day rateWhat the seat covers

HR Director, London (contract)£700–£1,200, average £1,000 (Robert Walters, 2026)HR operations, employee relations, policy

HR Director, North (contract)£700–£900, average £810 (Robert Walters, 2026)HR operations, employee relations, policy

HR Director, South (contract)£578–£1,050, average £814 (Robert Walters, 2026)HR operations, employee relations, policy

Head of HR, London (contract)£600–£1,100, average £850 (Robert Walters, 2026)Running the function day to day

HR Manager, London (contract)£350–£700, average £565 (Robert Walters, 2026)Casework, onboarding, records

Chief People Officer, London (contract)£900–£1,500, average £1,200 (Robert Walters, 2026)People strategy, organisation design

Fractional HR Director£600–£1,800 (Exec Capital fractional HR director page); £500–£900 (its HR director recruitment page), 2026Part-week HR leadership

Published benchmarks only: contract rates per day (PAYE) from the Robert Walters Salary Survey 2026 HR tables. The fractional HR director band is Exec Capital's, a search firm: £600–£1,800 a day on its fractional HR director page and £500–£900 on its HR director recruitment page. See fractional HR director salary for the bands by brief. For a full-time comparison, Robert Half's 2026 HR Salary Guide puts the UK median HR Director salary at £110,250.

05/ by function

Where a fractional HR director spends the days

What hiring teams and candidates need to know, function by function.

The compliance ground an HR director covers in a smaller business is wide: equality law, set out in the EHRC's Employment Statutory Code of Practice; employee records and monitoring, covered by the ICO's employment guidance; the health and safety policy, where HR holds it (HSE's basics for business); right to work checks before each start; and workplace pension duties, which begin when the first member of staff starts work.

SME foundationsContracts & policieswritten statements, the handbook, absence and performance processes

Employee relationsCasework & changegrievances, disciplinaries and redundancy consultation run to the Acas Code

Scale-up hiringRecruitment processhiring process, onboarding and right to work checks

Compliance & riskEmployment lawequality, employee data under UK GDPR, health and safety duties

When the brief growsOrganisation designboard-level people strategy is a CHRO seat

06/ Head of HR

Fractional head of HR — or a fractional HR director?

A fractional head of HR runs the people function day to day: the casework, the policies, the HR system, the first call for managers with a problem.

In a small business the titles blur, but the difference is usually where the role sits.

A head of HR typically reports to the CEO, COO or finance lead and delivers the function; an HR director sits on the leadership team and is accountable for it.

Robert Half's 2026 HR Salary Guide shows the gap in full-time terms: a UK median of £70,000 for a head of HR against £110,250 for an HR director.

Choose a fractional head of HR when the foundations are the job: written statements issued on day one, a handbook that keeps pace with the Employment Rights Act 2025 changes as they arrive, and disciplinary and grievance procedures built on the Acas Code of Practice.

Choose a fractional HR director when those decisions also need someone senior to own them at leadership level — a restructure, a new management layer, a pay framework.

Either way, brief the work and the days a week rather than the title, and test candidates on what they have built rather than what they have advised on.

We shortlist for both: 3–5 candidates, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, vetted through the five stages on our vetting page.

If the brief is organisation design and board-level people strategy, it has outgrown both titles — see fractional CHRO jobs.

07/ HR manager

Fractional HR manager — London and UK-wide

A fractional HR manager is the hands-on role: absence and return-to-work, onboarding and right to work checks, employee records kept in line with the ICO's employment guidance, payroll inputs, first-stage casework and the HR system.

It is the right role when the policies exist but nobody has the time to run them, or as the operational pair to a fractional HR director or CHRO who is only in the business part of the week.

For a fractional HR manager in London, use London benchmarks.

The Robert Walters Salary Survey 2026 publishes London HR contract rates separately from its regional tables: £350–£700 a day (PAYE) for an HR manager, against £700–£1,200 for an HR director.

Robert Half's UK median for a full-time HR manager is £62,000 (2026).

No source publishes a fractional HR manager rate, so treat these as the nearest benchmarks, not a quote.

To hire a fractional HR manager in the UK, set out the days, whether the role is on site, hybrid or remote, and which decisions the manager can take without escalating.

If they work through their own company, the off-payroll working rules (IR35) may apply: status depends on how the engagement runs in practice, and a medium or large client makes the determination — our IR35 guide explains the tests.

Brief us and we come back with a shortlist of 3–5, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.

08/ questions

Frequently asked

Common questions about fractional work in this market.

Brief the problems, the days and the reporting line. Tell us what the seat has to fix — contracts and policies, employee relations, a restructure, a hiring plan — how many days a week you can fund, and who the HR director reports to. We come back with a shortlist of 3–5, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, vetted through our five-stage process. You interview and choose. Book 15 minutes to start.

The day rate times the days. Exec Capital, a search firm, puts fractional HR director day rates at £600–£1,800 on its fractional HR director page (£600–£900 at an SME or growth-stage business), and £500–£900 on its HR director recruitment page; see fractional HR director salary. For interim comparison: Robert Walters puts contract HR Director rates at £700–£1,200 a day in London (PAYE, 2026), £700–£900 in the North and £578–£1,050 in the South. For a full-time comparison, Robert Half puts the UK median HR Director salary at £110,250 (2026). Many fractional engagements are priced as a monthly retainer for a set number of days.

Owns HR for part of the week: employment contracts and written statements, the handbook, disciplinary and grievance handling to the Acas Code of Practice, absence and performance, the hiring process, and changes such as a redundancy consultation. In a scale-up they also equip the first layer of managers to handle people issues themselves. Board-level organisation design and people strategy sit with a fractional CHRO.

Usually the same seat, delivered mostly remotely. A virtual HR director works with managers over video and a shared HR system, and comes on site when the work needs it — consultations, investigations, difficult conversations. If you want one near you, put the on-site days in the brief; each role on our board shows the location its posting gives.

Fractional HR support can mean anything from an outsourced advice line to a named senior person, so ask which you are buying. A fractional HR retainer is a monthly fee for an agreed number of days from a named HR director or manager; put the scope, the notice period and what happens to unused days in writing. That retainer is between you and the HR leader.

First decide whether you need a named person in the seat or a piece of work delivered. Fractional CHRO services usually means one senior people leader who sits on your leadership team for part of the week and is accountable for people strategy; see fractional CHRO services for how that scope is set. Fractional CHRO consulting firms tend to sell projects or a team, and the person who pitches is not always the person who does the work, so ask who will be named on the engagement. Fractional CHROs are a board-level hire; if the brief is HR operations for an SME, a fractional HR director is usually the better fit. We shortlist individuals, not firms: 3–5 candidates for either seat, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.

Ask where the role sits. A fractional head of HR runs the function day to day and usually reports to the CEO, COO or finance lead; a fractional HR director sits on the leadership team and is accountable for HR decisions. Robert Half's 2026 UK medians — £70,000 for a head of HR, £110,250 for an HR director — reflect the difference in scope. More in fractional head of HR.

Set out the days, the on-site pattern and what the manager can decide without escalating, and use local benchmarks: Robert Walters publishes London HR Manager contract rates of £350–£700 a day (PAYE, 2026). We shortlist 3–5 candidates for London or UK-wide roles, each with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out. More in the HR manager section on this page, and on fractional HR manager support in general.

Fractional HR director jobs are on the board on this page; CHRO and Chief People Officer roles are on fractional CHRO jobs. Lead with what you have built and run. Most fractional HR directors work through their own company, so read the off-payroll working (IR35) rules and our IR35 guide before you price: status depends on how each engagement runs in practice, a medium or large client makes the determination, and HMRC's CEST tool is the usual reference.

Fractional Quest is a fractional recruitment agency: send a brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five vetted candidates.