Someone senior,in this week.
Your People lead has resigned, gone on leave, or the role has been empty four months and things are slipping. Interim cover holds the function together while you take your time on the permanent hire.
Book a call →The gap costs more than the cover
A senior People role sits empty for an average of three months, and that’s if you move quickly. In the meantime the work doesn’t stop. A grievance lands. Someone goes off sick and nobody knows what the policy says. The pay review slips a quarter. Two people resign and nobody runs the exit interviews, so you never find out why.
Why spreading it across the team fails →
It works for about four weeks. After that you’re making decisions with legal consequences on instinct, and hiring in a hurry because the pain has become unbearable, which is how you end up with the wrong person.
What does an interim HR Director do?
An interim HR Director provides near full-time cover for a vacant senior People role, typically for three to nine months. They pick up live employee relations, keep performance, pay and hiring cycles running, close whatever gaps they find, and usually help recruit the permanent replacement before handing over.
In quickly, steady, then out cleanly
Interim isn’t a caretaker role. Things that were already broken get fixed while I’m there, so your permanent hire inherits something better than what was left behind.
01Week one
Pick up whatever is live. Open cases, absence, anything with a deadline attached. Nothing gets dropped in the handover gap.
02Assess
What’s actually running, what’s held together with goodwill, and what’s a risk sitting quietly in a drawer.
03Keep the cycles turning
Performance, pay review, hiring, onboarding. The things that quietly stop when nobody owns them.
04Fix what’s worth fixing
Cover is the minimum. Where there’s time, the gaps get closed rather than documented for someone else.
05Support the hire
Scope the role honestly, screen, sit on the panel. I’ve seen what the job actually needs from the inside.
06Hand over
Documented, in person, with a period of overlap where possible. Not a shared drive and good luck.
A monthly retainer, agreed up front
Interim sits at the higher end of the market range for fractional People leadership, because it’s near full-time and usually urgent. Priced as a monthly retainer against agreed days, with a defined end date rather than an open commitment.
Contracted through Kerbache HR Ltd on a business-to-business basis, VAT registered, with whatever detail your finance team needs on IR35 status before we start.
The whole role, not a subset
- Full-time or near full-time cover, typically three to nine months
- Live employee relations picked up on day one
- Performance, pay review and hiring cycles kept running
- Risk review of contracts, policies and anything overdue
- Leadership team support and board reporting
- Scoping and recruiting your permanent replacement
- Documented handover with overlap where the timing allows
What founders ask
How quickly can you start?
Usually within a week or two, sometimes faster if the situation warrants it. Tell me the date you’re worried about and I’ll tell you straight whether I can cover it.
How long does interim cover normally run?
Three to nine months. Long enough to cover a maternity leave or a full recruitment process, short enough that it stays a bridge rather than becoming the arrangement.
Is it full-time?
Usually four to five days a week, but it flexes. Some businesses need full cover, some need three days and a phone that gets answered.
Will you help us hire the permanent person?
Yes, and it’s one of the more useful parts. Having done the job in your business, I know what the role actually requires rather than what the old job description said.
We’ve got a live tribunal claim. Can you pick that up?
Yes. I’ll run the process and work alongside your employment solicitors, who keep the legal advice.
What if we decide we don’t need a permanent hire after all?
It happens, and it’s a fair outcome. We’d talk about moving to a fractional arrangement instead.