The Evolution of HR: Why Fractional HR Is the Era We Should Have Seen Coming
If you know me at all, you already know I’m a full-blown history geek. My Historic Royal Palaces membership? A prized possession. I treat Hampton Court the way some people treat the gym - I show up regularly, take notes, and quietly judge the architecture.
And the thing about loving history is this: you start spotting patterns everywhere. Empires rise, empires fall, and somewhere in the middle there’s always a leader who ignored the warning signs.
Corporate history is no different.
So if we’re going to talk about the future of HR (and we absolutely should), we need to look back first. And yes, my own career spans at least two of these eras, so consider this part analysis, part lived experience.
Let’s take a brisk walk through the timeline of how humans became “resources”… and why the next evolution was inevitable.
The Different Eras of Humans as Resources
The Personnel Era
This wasn’t HR. This was admin with a nicer title. Clipboards, payroll, attendance, factory rules, compliance.
The goal was order, not culture. Stability, not strategy.
It kept the wheels turning … but nobody was pretending it was about people.
The HR Era
Offices replaced factory floors, polyester suits replaced overalls, and suddenly HR was a “department.”
We got policies, onboarding, annual reviews, holidays logged in triplicate (carbon copy paper anyone?!?).
Important? Yes.
Strategic? Please.
HR was still the place you went after something had gone wrong.
The People Strategy Era
Then the tech boom happened and suddenly talent mattered. Companies realised people weren’t just “resources” … they were the differentiator.
Google, Netflix and the rest showed what happened when HR actually stepped into the business. Data, culture, performance, leadership… all the good stuff.
And yet?
In many SMEs, HR was still the last call on the list. “Let’s get HR involved” usually meant “we’ve already set something on fire.”
Modern Day – Fractional HR (a.k.a. The Era We Needed 10 Years Ago)
The uncomfortable truth is most scaling businesses don’t need more HR - they need better HR — sooner, sharper, and strategically.
Fractional HR exists because founders finally admitted what they really want:
Senior People leadership
Without a full-time salary
Without headcount risk
Without waiting six months for someone to “settle in”
It’s grown-up People strategy that plugs directly into the business without the fluff.
Fast in.
Fast clarity.
Fast course-correction before chaos becomes culture.
Fractional HR is what happens when companies stop treating People Ops like a fire extinguisher and start treating it like infrastructure.
Fractional HR is not part-time HR
If anything, calling it that is like calling a Michelin-star chef a “part-time cook” because they don’t work in your kitchen every day. This isn’t admin support on reduced hours — it’s senior People leadership delivered with precision.
You’re not buying time; you’re buying judgement, pattern-recognition, strategy, and the ability to walk into a messy situation and immediately know which lever to pull.
Part-time HR keeps things ticking. Fractional HR moves things forward.
This model wasn’t invented to be trendy. It was invented because businesses kept making the same avoidable mistakes, and someone finally said, “Right. Enough.”
My Story — And Why This Work Exists
I started Emmeline Consultancy because I kept seeing brilliant founders with brilliant products… and shockingly fragile people foundations.
They weren’t avoiding HR.
They just didn’t know the right kind of HR existed.
They didn’t need another policy pack.
They didn’t need a junior generalist who’d be overwhelmed by month three.
They didn’t need someone taking notes — they needed someone making decisions.
They needed someone who’d seen teams scale and teams break.
Someone who could spot the early warning signs.
Someone who knows exactly which People levers to pull to get a business growing cleanly instead of chaotically.
That’s where my work lives.
Depending on the stage you’re at, that might look like:
People Essentials
Solid, practical foundations — the “let’s get your house in order” level.Scaling Systems
Processes, structure and leadership habits built for growth, not survival mode.Strategic Partner Support
High-level People leadership for founders who want the impact of a People Director without the full-time headcount.
It’s not HR-as-you-know-it.
It’s HR that actually moves the needle.
Because history tells us one thing very clearly:
the organisations that thrive are the ones that invest in their people before they have something to apologise for.
And this next chapter of HR?
It’s long overdue.
I’m here for it — and honestly, I’m ready to lead it.
