Temporary HR Manager: When and What It Costs
A temporary HR manager is brought in for the periods a company cannot handle with its existing people function: a restructuring, a reorganisation, a rapid hiring phase, or the departure of the HR director.
When it is the right call
- A restructuring with collective procedures and union negotiation
- A reorganisation that changes reporting lines across the company
- A hiring phase the internal team cannot absorb
- The HR director has left and the function has no senior cover
- Post-merger integration of two employment structures and cultures
What the mandate should cover
- The organisational design, not only its administration
- Union and works council relations, led personally
- Exit processes handled correctly, quickly, and with dignity
- Retention of the people the company cannot afford to lose during the change
- A functioning people process left behind: hiring, review, and succession
The part most companies get wrong
Companies treat a restructuring as a legal and administrative exercise and forget the people who stay. The performance of the business after the change is decided by the group that remains, and they are watching how the leavers were treated. A temporary HR manager who handles only the procedure has done half the job.
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