From 5 to 15 people - HR strategies for growing companies
- Jenny Hartley
- Feb 15
- 4 min read
The realities of managing people as you scale - a Fractional HR Director’s Perspective
When I start working with growing businesses, there’s a moment I see again and again.
A founder pauses, slightly frustrated, and says something like:
“Nothing’s really wrong… it just feels harder than it used to.”
With five people, most companies run on trust, instinct, and good intent. Everyone knows what’s happening. Decisions are quick. People issues are handled with a conversation, a bit of flexibility, and the assumption that everyone’s on the same page.
And for a while — that works. But somewhere between 5 and 15 people, the business quietly changes shape. Not because anyone has done anything wrong, but because growth changes how people experience work.
What shifts as teams grow?
The biggest change isn’t headcount. It's the impact of inconsistency.
With five people, inconsistency is survivable. At fifteen, it’s felt. Suddenly:
Not everyone hears things at the same time.
Expectations are assumed rather than clearly set.
Decisions made quickly land very differently depending on whom they affect.
Someone feels overlooked, frustrated, or unsure — and leadership didn’t see it coming
This is often the point where founders start asking themselves whether they need “HR”. What they’re really sensing is this: The business has outgrown informal people management.
HR Challenges in Growth: What I see most often as Anchored In's Fractional HR Director
As a Fractional HR Director stepping into businesses at this stage, I rarely see bad leadership or uncaring founders – in fact, quite the opposite.
What I usually see includes common HR challenges for growing companies:
People are trying to be fair, but doing it inconsistently
Leaders and managers are unsure how formal they are allowed to be
Founders carrying every people-decision in their own heads
No clear line between being human and being legally safe
This can be an uncomfortable stage — particularly for founders who care deeply about their teams and don’t want to “over-professionalise” too early.
The good news is that you don’t need to become corporate to fix this. You just need to be more intentional. Below, I lay out the right HR strategies for growing companies.
Three things that suddenly matter much more
To navigate these changes effectively, people management needs to evolve. Here are three key areas to focus on:
1. Clarity beats closeness
Being friendly isn’t the same as being clear.
As teams grow, people need:
Clear roles (even if they still overlap)
Clear expectations
Clear ownership of decisions
Without this, performance issues often manifest in confusing ways: frustration, disengagement, or quiet resentment rather than anything obviously “wrong”.
From a legal perspective, clarity is protective. From a human perspective, it’s calming. Many performance problems I see don’t start with poor effort. They start with unclear expectations that were never properly set or revisited as the business grew.
Fairness has to be visible
Founders are often fair, but fairness needs to be seen to be fair.
That means:
Applying decisions and rules consistently
Explaining the reasoning behind decisions
Being careful with exceptions that feel ‘reasonable in the moment’
In small businesses, inconsistency is one of the biggest people risks. Not because your employees are looking for legal disputes — but because perceived unfairness erodes trust quickly. Two people doing similar roles who are treated differently will notice. And once trust dips, everything else feels heavier.
3. Conversations need a light paper trail
You do not need bureaucracy, but you do need memory.
At this stage, it is important to lightly document:
Performance conversations
Adjustments or support agreed upon
Concerns raised and followed up on.
This is not about catching people out or creating fear. It’s about protecting relationships when recollections differ later, which they often do. A short follow-up email or note is usually enough.
What “good” HR strategies look like for growing companies
The healthiest scale-ups I work with don’t suddenly drown in process. They usually have:
Employment contracts that reflect how people actually work
A small, relevant set of people policies (not a generic 40-page handbook)
Managers who are supported to manage and not left to guess
A founder who no longer has to carry every people-decision alone
This is where Fractional HR can add real value — not by “installing HR”, but by quietly putting structure around what already matters to the business: enough to reduce risk and create consistency, without damaging culture.
A final thought on scaling businesses
Most people problems in growing businesses aren’t caused by poor intent. They’re caused by growth outpacing structure.
If your team has grown and things feel heavier than they used to, that’s not a failure — it’s a signal that the business is evolving. And if you’re unsure what needs tightening up (and what can stay flexible), that is exactly the kind of conversation I have with founders and leadership teams every week. Sometimes a calm, external perspective is all it takes to make things feel manageable again.
Want to talk it through?
I work with scaling businesses as Anchored In's Fractional HR Director, supporting founders and leadership teams to put the right people foundations in place — proportionate, practical, and human.
If this article resonates and you’re navigating growth, change, or people management challenges, I’m always happy to have an informal conversation.
Contact me via jenny.hartley@anchoredin.uk to book your free initial consultation
Disclaimer
The information in this article is intended as general guidance only and does not constitute legal advice. Employment law and best practice can vary depending on circumstances, and businesses should seek specific advice before taking action.
