Scaling People Infrastructure During 40% Annual Growth

The company was growing rapidly. 1,800 hires were made in just 12 months. Revenue was increasing. But early warning signals were appearing: critical role attrition reaching 26%, rising first-year attrition, and an HR function that was visibly overwhelmed.

The private equity owner recognised that the people infrastructure had not scaled with the business. The HR function was still operating as it had when the company was half the size. An interim CHRO was engaged to assess the situation and build the infrastructure needed to support continued growth.

The Diagnosis

The interim CHRO conducted a rapid assessment of the HR function and the broader people infrastructure in the first three weeks. The findings were consistent across every area reviewed:

Under-resourced HR function	The HR team had grown from 12 to 18 people while the business had grown from 2,200 to 4,000 employees. The ratio of HR staff to employees had deteriorated significantly. The team was reactive, firefighting constantly, and unable to deliver strategic work.
No HR technology infrastructure	Core HR processes were running on spreadsheets and email. There was no HRIS, no applicant tracking system, and no onboarding platform. Data quality was poor and reporting was manual and unreliable.
Inconsistent onboarding	New hire onboarding varied significantly by market and by manager. There was no standard process, no structured first-90-days framework, and no systematic check-in process. First-year attrition was running at 31%.
No workforce planning	Hiring was entirely reactive. There was no forward-looking headcount plan, no skills gap analysis, and no pipeline for critical roles. The business was always behind demand.

The Intervention

The interim CHRO developed a 12-month people infrastructure roadmap and presented it to the board within 30 days of starting. The roadmap was approved in full. Implementation ran across four workstreams.

HR function restructure: The HR team was restructured into three specialist functions – HR business partnering, talent acquisition, and people operations. Six additional hires were made, including a Head of Talent Acquisition and a People Operations Manager. The team moved from a generalist model to a specialist model aligned to business units.

HR technology: A cloud-based HRIS was selected and implemented within 90 days. An applicant tracking system was integrated with the HRIS. A digital onboarding platform was deployed in all markets within 120 days. Data migration from spreadsheets was completed in parallel.

Onboarding redesign: A standard onboarding framework was designed and implemented across all markets. The framework included a structured first-week programme, a 30-60-90 day objective-setting process, and mandatory manager check-ins at 30, 60, and 90 days. Completion was tracked via the HRIS.

Workforce planning: A quarterly workforce planning process was introduced, aligned to the business planning cycle. Each business unit produced a 12-month headcount forecast. A critical role pipeline was established, with proactive sourcing initiated for roles anticipated to open within 90 days.

The Results

At the 12-month mark, first-year attrition had fallen from 31% to 19%. Critical role attrition fell from 26% to 17%. Time to fill for all roles improved by an average of 22 days as proactive workforce planning reduced reactive hiring pressure.

The HR function moved from a reactive, firefighting posture to a structured, forward-looking operation. HR satisfaction scores among business unit leaders improved from 34% positive to 71% positive in the annual leadership survey.

The private equity owner noted the people infrastructure improvements as a key value creation milestone in the investment narrative ahead of a planned exit in the following year.

By Ingmar Booij | 25.03.26