Hire a HR Director
Hiring the right HR Director is one of the most consequential people decisions a growing UK business can make — yet it is frequently approached too late, too narrowly, or with an insufficiently defined brief. The HR Director sets the tone for how the business attracts, develops, and retains its people. Get that appointment right and it compounds in value year after year. Get it wrong and the consequences — poor culture, high attrition, weak management practices, compliance failures — are expensive and slow to reverse.
Exec Capital places HR Directors for UK businesses on a permanent, interim, and fractional basis. We have an active network of HR Director candidates across sectors and business sizes, including individuals with specific experience of PE-backed growth businesses, listed companies, financial services, and businesses going through significant transformation. Every search is run by our specialist team, with Adrian Lawrence FCA overseeing each mandate.
From Adrian Lawrence: “The HR Directors who generate real value are not the ones who build the largest HR team or produce the most process documentation. They are the ones who understand the commercial context of the business, earn the trust of the CEO and the board, and make the management team measurably better at leading people. That combination — commercial credibility plus genuine people expertise — is less common than it sounds, and identifying it requires going beyond a CV. Our HR Director network is built on direct relationships, not database searches.”
When Should a Business Hire an HR Director?
The most common trigger for an HR Director appointment is headcount growth — most businesses reach a point, typically somewhere between 50 and 150 employees, where the HR function can no longer be managed effectively by a generalist Office Manager, a part-time HR Consultant, or a CEO who has been absorbing people decisions alongside everything else. At that point, a dedicated HR Director is not a luxury — it is a structural necessity.
But headcount is not the only trigger. The situations that most frequently drive businesses to contact Exec Capital about an HR Director appointment include:
- Rapid growth: A business scaling from 50 to 200+ employees in a 12–24 month period needs HR leadership that can build the people infrastructure — hiring processes, onboarding, management development, compensation frameworks — at pace without it becoming a blocker on growth.
- Private equity investment: PE-backed businesses typically need an HR Director who understands the investor-driven environment — who can execute the headcount plan in the value creation plan, manage the organisational changes that PE investment typically requires, and operate in a high-accountability, data-driven reporting culture. See our private equity recruitment capability for broader context on PE-backed executive appointments.
- Cultural transformation: Businesses going through significant change — merger integration, geographic expansion, a shift from founder-led to professionally managed — need HR leadership that can navigate organisational complexity and manage cultural change deliberately rather than reactively.
- Leadership team maturity: Growing businesses often reach a point where the management team’s capability to lead people has not kept pace with the growth of the organisation. An experienced HR Director who can develop managers — building coaching, performance management, and team leadership skills across the organisation — is often the most commercially impactful hire at this stage.
- Departure of a long-serving incumbent: When an established HR Director leaves, there is typically a gap between their institutional knowledge and the capability of the team left behind. An interim or permanent replacement needs to be in place quickly to prevent the HR function from drifting and to ensure continuity of critical people processes.
- Compliance and regulatory pressure: Businesses in regulated sectors — financial services, healthcare, education — face specific HR compliance obligations that a non-specialist HR function cannot adequately manage. An HR Director with relevant regulatory sector experience is often the solution, not an external consultant.
Hiring an HR Director?
Exec Capital places permanent, interim and fractional HR Directors, starting with a clear brief on what the business needs from its people leader.
What Does an HR Director Do?
The scope of an HR Director’s role varies significantly with the size of the business, the maturity of the HR function, and the specific priorities of the board and CEO. At its broadest, the HR Director is responsible for every aspect of the company’s relationship with its people — from the moment a candidate is considered for a role to the day an employee leaves. The specific functional areas typically within an HR Director’s remit include:
Talent Acquisition and Workforce Planning
The HR Director owns the company’s approach to hiring — defining the process, setting the standards, managing key agency relationships, and ensuring the business can attract and convert the calibre of candidates it needs at the pace growth demands. At scale, this includes building an internal talent acquisition function that reduces cost-per-hire and improves candidate experience. The HR Director also leads workforce planning — forecasting headcount requirements, identifying capability gaps, and translating the business strategy into a people plan that the CEO and board can make resourcing decisions against.
Compensation and Benefits
Designing and maintaining a compensation framework that is competitive, internally equitable, and financially sustainable is one of the most technically demanding parts of the HR Director role. This includes benchmarking salaries against the market, structuring bonus and incentive schemes, managing equity and share scheme administration (for businesses with LTIP, EMI, or growth share arrangements), and overseeing pension, benefits, and flexible working frameworks. The UK National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage requirements, holiday entitlement rules under the Working Time Regulations 1998, and the gender pay gap reporting obligations for businesses with 250+ employees under the Equality Act 2010 all fall within the HR Director’s compliance oversight.
Performance Management and Employee Development
The HR Director designs and maintains the performance management framework — goal-setting, appraisal processes, performance improvement plans, and succession planning. They also lead the company’s approach to learning and development, ensuring that the business is building the management and leadership capability it needs to sustain growth. For growing businesses, management development is typically the highest-return investment an HR Director can make — the leverage of developing 20 managers who each lead 10 people is enormous compared to any individual hire.
Employee Relations and Culture
Managing employee relations — handling grievances, disciplinary procedures, redundancy processes, and TUPE transfers — requires a combination of technical employment law knowledge and judgement that comes from experience. The HR Director ensures the business manages these processes correctly and in a way that is fair to employees and defensible to an employment tribunal. More broadly, the HR Director is the principal architect of the company’s culture — designing the practices, communications, and leadership behaviours that determine whether the business retains its best people and attracts more like them.
For employment law compliance specifically, the ACAS Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures is the primary reference for UK HR Directors. Employment tribunals are expected to take the ACAS Code into account when assessing whether an employer has acted reasonably, and an experienced HR Director will have internalised its requirements.
HR Technology and Data
Modern HR Directors are expected to be data-fluent — using people analytics to support workforce planning decisions, monitor attrition and engagement, and demonstrate the commercial impact of HR initiatives to the board. They also own the company’s HR Information System (HRIS) — selecting, implementing, and maintaining the platforms that manage payroll, absence, performance data, and employee records. For growing businesses, the HRIS decision is one of the most consequential technology choices the HR Director makes.
Board and Executive Team Advisory
At the most senior level, the HR Director — or Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) at larger businesses — operates as a strategic adviser to the CEO and board on people and organisational matters. This includes providing input on the organisational design implications of strategic decisions, advising on senior executive succession, managing C-suite compensation and governance, and representing the people dimension of the business in board-level discussions. For businesses with formal board structures, the HR Director will typically attend board meetings as an observer or invitee. See our CHRO recruitment page for senior HR leadership appointments at larger organisations.
HR Director vs CHRO: Understanding the Distinction
The title HR Director and Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) are sometimes used interchangeably, but in most organisations they represent meaningfully different levels of seniority and scope. Understanding the distinction is important when defining the brief for your appointment.
An HR Director typically leads the HR function, reports to the CEO, and is responsible for the operational delivery of HR across the business. They may or may not sit on the executive leadership team. In a business with 100–500 employees, an HR Director is typically the most senior people leader in the organisation.
A CHRO is a C-suite designation — meaning the role sits at the same level as the CFO, COO, and CMO, typically with a seat on the executive board. The CHRO has a broader strategic remit — shaping organisational design, influencing the board’s people governance, and leading the company’s talent and culture strategy at the highest level. In businesses with 500+ employees, or in businesses where people strategy is a primary driver of competitive advantage, a CHRO rather than an HR Director is typically the appropriate appointment.
Exec Capital places both HR Directors and CHROs. The right title and seniority level for your appointment depends on the complexity of the role, the business’s stage of growth, and the reporting relationship expected. We work through these questions as part of every brief.
Permanent, Interim, or Fractional HR Director?
One of the first decisions when hiring an HR Director is whether the appointment should be permanent, interim, or fractional. Each model has distinct advantages depending on the business’s situation.
Permanent HR Director
A permanent appointment is appropriate where the HR function needs sustained, long-term leadership — where the business is at a stage of growth that requires a dedicated people leader who will build the function over time, develop relationships across the organisation, and be accountable for the culture and people strategy over a multi-year horizon. We agree the timetable for a permanent HR Director search with you at briefing, taking account of the market for the role and candidates’ notice periods. Exec Capital manages the full search — brief, candidate identification, assessment, shortlist, and offer — on a retained basis.
Interim HR Director
An interim appointment is appropriate when the business needs experienced HR leadership for a defined period — covering a maternity or paternity leave, bridging between permanent appointments, managing a specific change programme such as a restructure or a TUPE transfer, or providing HR leadership through a transaction such as an acquisition or an IPO. Exec Capital has an active network of experienced interim HR Directors available for immediate deployment. For urgent situations, we prioritise the search and agree the timetable with you at the outset.
Interim HR Directors typically work on a day rate basis. IR35 status depends on the actual working arrangements rather than the contract label, and must be assessed for each engagement; for medium and large clients, the client makes the status determination. Day rates depend on seniority and the complexity of the assignment, and we confirm the current market rate as part of the brief. For other interim C-suite appointments, see our interim executive recruitment service.
Fractional HR Director
A fractional HR Director works with the business on a part-time basis — typically one to three days per week — providing senior HR leadership without the cost of a full-time hire. This model is particularly well suited to businesses in the 20–80 employee range that need genuine HR Director-level capability but do not yet have the scale to justify a full-time appointment. A fractional HR Director can establish the people frameworks, processes, and culture that the business needs to scale, while the cost is proportionate to the current stage of growth.
Fractional HR Directors are also used by larger businesses to supplement an existing HR team — for example, providing senior HR advisory support to a Head of HR who has strong operational capability but limited strategic or board-level experience.
HR Director Salaries: UK Market Rates
HR Director compensation varies significantly with business size, sector, and the scope of the role. As a starting reference point, the Office for National Statistics’ Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings puts the median gross annual pay for full-time human resource managers and directors (SOC 1136) at £61,445 in its provisional 2026 data. That category covers HR managers as well as directors, so board-level HR Director packages sit well above it. How the package is usually structured:
- HR Director — SME (50–200 employees): base salary with a modest discretionary bonus; pay is driven by the breadth of the role, as the HRD is often the only senior HR professional
- HR Director — mid-market (200–500 employees): higher base salary reflecting a team to lead and a seat on the executive team, with a bonus linked to company and people objectives
- HR Director — PE-backed growth business: base salary plus a performance bonus tied to the value creation plan, often with an equity or sweet-equity stake
- CHRO — large corporate (500+ employees): the highest base salaries in the function, with significant bonus and long-term incentive plan (LTIP) participation
- Fractional HR Director: a day rate or a monthly retainer equivalent to one to three days per week
- Interim HR Director: a day rate that reflects seniority, sector, and assignment complexity
For current figures by business size, see our HR Director salary guide. Actual compensation depends on the candidate’s specific background, the complexity of the role, the sector, and London weighting where applicable. Exec Capital provides market rate guidance as part of every brief. For broader executive compensation context, see our CEO salary guide and CFO salary guide.
Key Qualifications for an HR Director
There is no single mandatory qualification for an HR Director in the UK, but the most widely recognised professional qualification is Chartered membership of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). CIPD membership levels include:
- Associate CIPD (Assoc CIPD): Foundation-level qualification, appropriate for HR Managers and HR Business Partners rather than Director-level appointments.
- Chartered Member CIPD (MCIPD): The standard professional designation for senior HR practitioners, demonstrating both theoretical knowledge and practical experience. Most experienced HR Directors are MCIPD qualified.
- Chartered Fellow CIPD (FCIPD): The most senior CIPD designation, typically held by CHRO-level professionals with extensive strategic HR leadership experience. Fellowship requires evidence of sustained senior-level contribution to the profession as well as the business.
Beyond CIPD qualification, the most valuable additional backgrounds for an HR Director include a degree in psychology, organisational behaviour, or business administration; a legal background (particularly useful for complex employee relations and employment law); and — for businesses operating internationally — experience of multi-jurisdiction employment law and global HR operations.
For businesses in FCA-regulated sectors, the HR Director is not normally a Senior Management Function holder under the FCA’s Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMCR), but they will be subject to the Conduct Rules and, depending on the firm and the role, may fall within the Certification Regime. In practice the HR Director also runs the firm’s certification, fitness and propriety, and regulatory reference processes, so the regulatory position should be assessed with specialist advice before the appointment is made.
What to Look for When Hiring an HR Director
Beyond qualifications, the qualities that distinguish an HR Director who transforms a business from one who simply maintains the function are harder to find on a CV — and harder to assess in a standard interview process. At Exec Capital, the characteristics we assess in every HR Director candidate against every brief include:
Commercial credibility: The HR Director must be trusted by the CEO, the CFO, and the board as someone who understands the commercial context of the business. An HR Director who is seen as an internal advocate for employees rather than a commercially grounded business partner will not be given the authority or the budget to do their best work. We assess commercial credibility through how candidates describe their previous roles — the language they use, whether they talk in terms of business outcomes or HR outputs, and whether they can articulate the commercial impact of their work.
Ability to operate without full infrastructure: Most businesses hiring their first HR Director, or replacing one at a growing company, are not offering a fully resourced HR team. The candidate needs to be comfortable building as well as running — establishing processes that do not yet exist, operating with limited support, and prioritising ruthlessly when there is more to do than there are hours to do it. Candidates who have only operated in large, well-resourced HR functions often struggle in this environment.
Relationship with the CEO: The HR Director / CEO relationship is one of the most important in any business, and it needs to work well on both sides. The HR Director must be willing to give the CEO honest feedback on people and cultural issues — including feedback the CEO does not want to hear — while maintaining the trust and collaboration that makes the relationship productive. We discuss the CEO’s leadership style, expectations, and communication preferences as part of every brief, because a technically excellent HR Director who is incompatible with the CEO’s working style will not succeed regardless of their credentials.
Employment law competence: The HR Director does not need to be an employment lawyer — that is what outside counsel is for — but they need sufficient employment law knowledge to identify the situations that require legal advice, manage the day-to-day employee relations landscape without external support, and protect the business from the most common and costly HR compliance failures. Candidates who have never managed a disciplinary process, a redundancy programme, or a TUPE transfer to completion are not ready for an HR Director role, regardless of their seniority in other respects.
Track record of building management capability: The highest-leverage work an HR Director does is making managers better at leading their teams. Candidates who can point to specific, measurable improvements in management capability — lower attrition in teams they have developed, higher engagement scores, more internal promotions — are demonstrating the impact that matters most at a growing business.
HR Director Recruitment for Specific Sectors
Technology and SaaS Businesses
Technology businesses — particularly those in the Series A to Series C funding range — need HR Directors who understand the talent market for engineers, product managers, and data scientists, and who can build hiring processes that compete effectively with larger, better-resourced businesses for the same candidates. Equity management, remote and hybrid work design, and the cultural expectations of technology talent are all specific competencies that a technology-sector HR Director brings. For broader technology leadership appointments, see our CTO recruitment and fractional CTO pages.
Financial Services Businesses
HR Directors in FCA-regulated businesses face specific obligations under SMCR — managing the certification regime, maintaining fitness and propriety assessments, and ensuring the governance of Senior Management Function appointments is conducted in compliance with FCA expectations. They also typically manage more complex compensation structures — deferred bonus schemes, clawback provisions, and remuneration policy governance — than their counterparts in unregulated sectors. Our financial services recruitment capability provides additional context on regulated sector appointments.
PE-Backed Businesses
The HR Director in a PE-backed business operates in a high-accountability, high-pace environment where the value creation plan is the governing priority and the investor is monitoring progress closely. The most effective PE-backed HR Directors are those who can translate the investor’s headcount and organisational expectations into a deliverable people plan, manage the attrition and morale challenges that PE ownership often creates, and build the management team capability that the business needs to hit its growth targets. They also typically manage the HR workstream in an M&A process — from HR due diligence through to post-acquisition integration.
Exec Capital’s HR Director Search Process
Our HR Director search process combines network-driven candidate identification with rigorous assessment against the specific requirements of each brief:
- Brief and scoping: We take a detailed brief from the CEO or Chairman — covering the business context, the specific HR challenges the new HRD will need to address, the team they will inherit, the reporting relationship, and the personal characteristics that will work well in the specific leadership culture. We ask about the previous HRD if there was one, what worked and what did not, and what the board most wants to be different.
- Candidate identification: We draw on our active HR Director network — individuals we have placed previously, candidates we have met and assessed over many years, and targeted referrals from our broader C-suite network. We do not rely on job board applications as the primary source for HR Director searches.
- Screening and assessment: We conduct structured conversations with every candidate before presenting them, assessing commercial orientation, relevant sector experience, leadership approach, and likely cultural fit with the business. We specifically probe for the gap between how candidates describe their experience and what they actually did — HR CVs are particularly susceptible to inflation.
- Shortlist presentation: We present two to four candidates with full briefing notes — not CVs — covering their specific relevant experience, our assessment of fit, and any considerations the client should be aware of.
- Interview support: We provide structured interview guidance and are available throughout the selection process to advise on candidate assessment and offer management.
- Offer and onboarding: We manage offer negotiation and remain in contact during the early months of the appointment to ensure the relationship is developing as intended.
Frequently Asked Questions
At what size does a business need a dedicated HR Director?
Most businesses benefit from a dedicated HR Director appointment from around 50–80 employees, though the right timing depends more on the rate of growth and the complexity of the people challenges than the absolute headcount. A business growing from 50 to 200 employees in 18 months needs HR Director-level leadership well before it reaches 200. A stable business of 100 employees with low attrition and a mature management team may manage without one for longer. If the CEO is spending more than 20% of their time on people issues, that is usually a reliable signal that an HR Director appointment is overdue.
Should the HR Director sit on the executive team?
Yes, in most businesses of any meaningful scale. The HR Director needs access to the executive team’s strategic discussions in order to translate business decisions into people implications in real time. An HR Director who is briefed after strategic decisions have been made is consistently playing catch-up and will not deliver the same value as one who is in the room when the decisions are made. The reporting line — directly to the CEO rather than to the CFO or COO — is equally important for the same reason.
How do we assess cultural fit in an HR Director appointment?
Cultural fit for an HR Director is particularly important because they are the person who most directly shapes the culture for everyone else. The most reliable assessment is reference-based — speaking to people who have reported to the candidate, been peers with them, and been managed by them. Exec Capital facilitates structured reference conversations as part of every search. The interview process itself should include a case study or scenario-based assessment — presenting the candidate with a specific people challenge the business is facing and assessing how they think through it.
What is the difference between an HR Director and an HR Business Partner?
An HR Business Partner (HRBP) is typically a senior HR professional embedded in a specific business unit or function — providing dedicated HR support to a leadership team without overall accountability for the HR strategy or function. An HR Director has strategic accountability for the whole HR function, manages the HR team, and sits at the top of the HR leadership structure. Many excellent HR Directors have been HRBPs earlier in their careers; the step up requires a different set of skills — strategic thinking, people leadership, commercial navigation, and board-level communication — that not all HRBPs make successfully.
How much does it cost to hire an HR Director in the UK?
There are two costs: the HR Director’s own package and the search fee. The ONS median for full-time HR managers and directors gives a floor rather than a guide to board-level pay, and the package rises with headcount, sector, and whether the role carries a seat on the executive team. Our HR Director salary guide, linked in the salaries section above, sets out the current picture, and we confirm the market rate for your specific brief before the search starts.
How long does it take to appoint an HR Director?
It depends on the format and on the candidate’s notice period. Interim and fractional HR Directors are often available at short notice because they work between assignments. Permanent candidates usually have to serve notice with their current employer, which is often the longest part of the process. We agree a realistic timetable with you at briefing rather than quoting a fixed number of days.
Are interim HR Directors inside or outside IR35?
Status depends on how the engagement actually works — control, substitution and mutuality of obligation — and must be assessed for each assignment. Medium and large clients make the status determination themselves. The Companies Act size thresholds rose for financial years beginning on or after 6 April 2025, but HMRC’s April 2025 Employer Bulletin confirms this has no practical impact on the off-payroll rules until 6 April 2027 at the earliest. Our guide to IR35 for senior executive engagements covers the detail.
Can a fractional or interim HR Director become permanent?
Yes, and it is a common route. A business may bring in a fractional HR Director to build the basics, then find the role has grown into a full-time position; an interim may be offered the permanent job after covering a vacancy. The terms for converting an interim or fractional appointment to permanent are set out in our terms of business and agreed before the engagement starts, so there are no surprises if it happens.
How It Works
Whichever format you choose, the steps are the same. The detail of each step is set out in our search process above; this is the outline we agree with you at the start.
| Step | What happens |
|---|---|
| 1. Brief | We meet the CEO or Chair to agree the scope, reporting line, format (permanent, interim, fractional or part-time), package and timetable. |
| 2. Search | Our team approaches HR Directors from our network and from targeted research, not just those actively looking. |
| 3. Shortlist | You receive a small number of assessed candidates with briefing notes on fit, experience and any considerations. |
| 4. Interviews | We coordinate interviews, suggest a scenario exercise based on a real people challenge, and gather feedback after each stage. |
| 5. Offer | We manage references, the offer and negotiation, including notice periods and start dates. |
| 6. Onboarding | We stay in touch with both sides through the first months of the appointment. |
Permanent, Interim, Fractional or Part-Time: Format Comparison
The right format depends on what the business needs the HR Director to do, for how long, and how much senior HR time the work genuinely requires. This table summarises the trade-offs.
| Format | Best for | Time commitment | How it is paid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Permanent | A business that needs a long-term people leader to build and own the HR function and culture | Full-time, ongoing | Salary, bonus and benefits; one-off search fee |
| Interim | Cover for a vacancy or leave, a restructure, TUPE transfer, acquisition or other defined change programme | Full-time or near full-time, for a fixed period | Day rate |
| Fractional | A growing business that needs HR Director-level judgement but not yet a full-time hire | Typically one to three days per week | Day rate or monthly retainer |
| Part-time | A settled business that wants a regular, employed senior HR lead on reduced hours | Fixed reduced hours, ongoing | Pro-rata salary and benefits |
Other ways to hire an HR Director
This page covers HR Director recruitment across formats. If you already know the format you need, our dedicated pages go into more detail: fractional HR Director recruitment for one to three days a week, part-time HR Director recruitment for an employed role on reduced hours, and interim HR Director appointments for cover and change programmes. Where the role is broader than running the HR function — a C-suite seat with responsibility for organisation design, culture and talent strategy — see our Chief People Officer recruitment page alongside the CHRO page linked above.
The Employment Rights Act: What a New HR Director Inherits
Any HR Director appointed now walks into the largest change to UK employment law in a generation. The Employment Rights Act 2025 is being brought into force in stages, and Acas sets out the timetable. The main dates for employers are:
- 6 April 2026 (in force): statutory sick pay from the first day of illness, with the lower earnings limit removed; paternity leave and unpaid parental leave became day-one rights; the maximum protective award for collective redundancy failures doubled to 180 days’ pay; and employers must keep holiday and holiday pay records for six years. The Fair Work Agency was established on 7 April 2026.
- 1 October 2026 (in force): most employment tribunal time limits extended from three months to six.
- 30 October 2026 (in force): employers must take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment and can be liable for harassment by third parties; trade union access and recognition rules changed.
- 1 January 2027: the unfair dismissal qualifying period falls from two years to six months and the compensation cap is removed; employers must tell workers of their right to join a union.
- March 2027: dismissing and re-engaging staff on worse terms (“fire and rehire”) becomes automatically unfair in most cases.
- April 2027: a new right to unpaid bereavement leave, including for pregnancy loss; collective redundancy thresholds counted across the whole organisation; and gender pay gap and menopause action plans mandatory for employers with 250 or more workers.
- October 2027: stricter tests for refusing flexible working requests and stronger protection against dismissal for pregnant workers and those returning from maternity leave.
Some later dates depend on consultation and may move, so check the Acas page for the current position. The practical point for the hiring decision is that the first six months of employment are about to become a much more important period. With the qualifying period cut to six months from January 2027, probation, onboarding, management capability and documentation all need to be in good order. An HR Director who has already mapped these changes against the business’s contracts, policies and manager training is worth asking about at interview.
HR Directors in FCA-Regulated Firms
In financial services, the HR Director works closely with the compliance function on certification, annual fitness and propriety assessments, regulatory references and the Conduct Rules training that applies to almost all staff. Smaller regulated firms often find that the gap is not HR leadership at all but compliance oversight. The Compliance Oversight (SMF16) and Money Laundering Reporting Officer (SMF17) functions still require FCA pre-approval, and many smaller firms fill them on a part-time basis. If that is your situation, see our fractional compliance officer service and SMF16 Head of Compliance recruitment, which cover fractional SMF16 and SMF17 appointments.
Engagement and Fees
We agree the fee structure with you at briefing, before any work starts, and confirm it in writing. Permanent HR Director searches are usually run on a retained basis, which gives the search a committed team and a structured process; for some roles a contingent arrangement may suit better, and our guide to retained vs contingent executive search explains the difference. For interim and fractional HR Directors, you pay a single day rate that includes our fee, so there is no separate placement charge to budget for. In every case the fee covers the brief, market mapping, candidate approaches, assessment, the shortlist, interview coordination, references and offer management.
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Hire an HR Director — Permanent, Interim or Fractional
Exec Capital places HR Directors for UK businesses at every stage of growth. We have an active network of HR Director candidates ready now — including specialists in PE-backed businesses, technology, financial services, and transformation. Every search is run by our specialist team, with Adrian Lawrence FCA overseeing each mandate.
Permanent search
Retained search — timetable agreed with you at briefing
Interim placement
Experienced interims available — urgent requirements prioritised
Fractional HRD
Part-time HR Director for businesses of 20–100 employees not yet needing full-time
Related HR and People Leadership Appointments
- CHRO Recruitment — Chief Human Resources Officer appointments for larger organisations
- Fractional HR Director — part-time HR Director for growing businesses
- Interim CHRO — senior interim HR leadership for transition and transformation
- Fractional CHRO — fractional Chief HR Officer for businesses scaling towards enterprise
Related C-Suite Appointments
- CEO Recruitment — permanent, interim and fractional Chief Executive appointments
- CFO Recruitment — Chief Financial Officer appointments
- COO Recruitment — Chief Operating Officer appointments
- Private Equity Recruitment — executive appointments in PE-backed businesses
- Interim Executive Recruitment — interim C-suite and senior leadership placements
- Directors Recruitment — full range of director-level appointments
Sources and Further Reading
- Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) — professional body and qualifications for HR professionals
- ACAS — Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures
- ACAS — Employment Rights Act 2025: what is changing and when
- Employment Rights Act 1996 — statutory employment rights framework
- Equality Act 2010 — discrimination law and gender pay gap reporting obligations
- UK Government — National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates
- FCA — Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMCR) obligations
- UK Government — Gender pay gap reporting guidance for employers
- HMRC — IR35 off-payroll working rules for interim HR engagements
- CIPD — the role of HR and the people function
Salary information on this page draws on ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings data and is indicative only. Actual compensation is agreed on a per-engagement basis. Contact our team for specific market rate guidance.
Related HR and People Leadership Services
Exec Capital places HR and people leaders on permanent, interim, fractional and part-time terms across the UK. Every search is run by our specialist team, with Adrian Lawrence FCA overseeing each mandate.
PRACTICE AREA
People Leadership
Permanent C-suite people leaders for businesses that need HR represented at board and executive level.
→ Chief People Officer Recruitment
PRACTICE AREA
Interim HR Leadership
Full-time, fixed-term HR leaders for vacancies, restructures, TUPE transfers and transactions.
→ Interim Chief People Officer
PRACTICE AREA
Fractional and Part-Time HR
Senior HR judgement one to three days a week, or an employed HR lead on reduced hours.
PRACTICE AREA
Wider Leadership Team
Fractional, interim and permanent appointments across the rest of the C-suite and regulated roles.
→ Fractional Compliance Officer (SMF16/17)
Every search is run by our specialist team, with Adrian Lawrence FCA overseeing each mandate.
About the author
Adrian Lawrence FCA is the founder of Exec Capital. He is a Chartered Accountant holding an ICAEW practising certificate in his own name, with more than 25 years’ experience operating at C-suite level. His background spans private equity-backed businesses, owner-managed companies and listed environments, giving Exec Capital a practitioner’s understanding of what senior leadership hires actually require. View Adrian’s ICAEW profile.