Talent Toolbox
Fractional Talent Executive

Talent leadership, without the full-time hire

Twenty-five years of running enterprise Talent functions, available at the rhythm your organization actually needs. Embedded in the business, not presenting to it.

Does this sound like you?

A fractional engagement usually starts from one of these. If more than one is true, that is the usual reason people call.

  • A restructure or an operating model change is coming
  • You cannot say which skills your teams will need in three years
  • You cannot name a successor for a role that matters
  • The board has asked what the AI plan is for the workforce
  • Your HR team is one person, and they are drowning
  • Growth has outrun the way you hire and develop people

What you actually get

A fractional Talent Executive is a senior Talent leader who works inside your organization for part of a week rather than all of it. You get the judgement and the track record of someone who has run the function at scale, without carrying a full executive salary or waiting six months to hire one.

The difference from a consultant is that I do the work, and the capability stays with your team when the engagement ends.

The Talent Toolbox Framework

The three areas most organizations need at once but rarely have in one person, each measured on the same maturity ladder so you can see where you stand.

Future skills

Knowing which skills the work will need next, and building them before the gap shows up as a vacancy.

  • Talent strategy
  • Workforce planning
  • Talent development
  • Recruiting
  • Talent analytics
  • Learning teams and communities of practice
Go to future skills

Workforce transformation

Change that survives contact with the people who have to do the work differently.

  • Enterprise transformation
  • Organizational design
  • Operating models
  • Organizational effectiveness
  • AI adoption and change management
Go to workforce transformation

Leadership effectiveness

Leaders who are ready before the role opens, and who learn from the work rather than blame it.

  • Leadership development
  • Succession and high-potential management
  • HOP implementation
  • Safety culture transformation
  • Critical risk identification and control
Go to leadership effectiveness

Three ways to work together

The difference is not how much you get. It is how close I sit to the work, and who carries it when the engagement ends. Scope follows the problem, so every engagement starts with a call and a written quote rather than a package.

Embedded

Inside the business, on the org chart in all but name.

One to two days a week
See when it fits and what you get

Choose this when

  • The work is live and moving, and decisions cannot wait for the next meeting
  • It spans functions, so it needs someone leaders treat as a peer
  • You are mid-restructure, mid-transformation or mid-integration

What you get

  • A standing place in your leadership meetings
  • Direct work with your managers, not a report about them
  • Decisions made in the room, then carried out

Why this shapeContinuity. The context does not have to be rebuilt every time, which is the hidden cost of buying advice by the hour.

Advisory

An executive to think with, before the decision rather than after it.

A day or two a month
See when it fits and what you get

Choose this when

  • Your HR team is one person carrying more than one person should
  • You are a founder with no people leader and no plans to hire one yet
  • You know roughly what to do and want it pressure-tested first

What you get

  • A standing session, in the diary rather than arranged each time
  • Somewhere to take the decision that cannot wait for it
  • A second read on the things you would otherwise sign off alone

Why this shapeSenior judgement without a senior salary. Usually the cheapest way to avoid an expensive people decision.

Project

A defined thing, built with your team and handed over.

Fixed scope, fixed price
See when it fits and what you get

Choose this when

  • You already know the deliverable and need it built properly
  • There is a board date or a system go-live to work back from
  • You want the capability left behind rather than a dependency created

What you get

  • A named deliverable with a date attached
  • The people who will run it involved in building it
  • A handover written on the assumption you own it afterwards

Why this shapeA fixed number you can take into a budget conversation, and an end date that does not move.

Which one fits you?

Live and moving? Embedded. The cost of re-explaining the situation every week is higher than the day rate.

Need a second read? Advisory. You are not short of capability, you are short of someone to test it against.

Know what needs building? Project. Fixed price, fixed end, and your team owns it afterwards.

Still unsure? That is what the discovery call is for. Plenty of them end with a smaller engagement than the one asked about.

Who this is not for

I work on capability, leadership and the systems around them. This probably is not the right fit if you need…

  • Day-to-day HR administration
  • Payroll processing
  • Employment law or legal advice
  • A strategy document instead of the actual work

The value here is in building the thing and leaving the capability behind.

Results from the work

Every figure comes from a specific enterprise engagement.

1,150 hours

Productivity gain from a cross-functional AI pilot and community of practice.

20 to 200

Leaders covered by succession plans, with 90% of critical roles supported.

25% faster

Time-to-hire, alongside driver onboarding streamlined by 35%.

And more from the same engagements

$800K

Topline revenue added through onboarding efficiencies.

591 risks

High-risk operational tasks identified, with 21 critical risks controlled or eliminated.

95% adoption

Goal setting after an enterprise performance process rollout, with a 65% lift in review completions.

These are results from roles held at Trimac Transportation, ENMAX, Pembina Pipeline and Shaw Communications. They are employment history, not clients of this practice.

What happens after you get in touch

  1. A free 30 minute call

    Virtual, no material to prepare. We work out what you are trying to accomplish and by when.

  2. A written quote in two business days

    Scoped to those goals, so you have something you can take to a budget conversation.

  3. A follow up, after you have read it

    No pressure in between. If the answer is that you do not need me, that is a useful outcome too.

Book a consultationStart with an assessment