Every growing business needs strong leaders, capable managers, and people practices that scale.
Glad you're here. Chances are you're thinking about your leadership, your team, or a people decision that needs to go right. Maybe you're growing and you want the foundations in place before you go further. Maybe you're looking at your structure, your managers, or the way people decisions get made, and you'd like an experienced view on what to build next. Or perhaps there's something specific in front of you that matters enough to want it handled properly.
Whatever brings you here, the earlier I'm involved, the easier those decisions become. I've spent over 20 years in senior HR roles, including Head of HR for Saint-Gobain UK & Ireland and an HR leadership role in a 7,000+ person public organization. That taught me what strong leadership does for a business - teams perform better, challenges get addressed earlier, and people have the clarity and support they need to do their best work. Every growing business needs those foundations, and I work alongside you to build them.
Evidence
What this work is worth when it's done properly
"We've been fine up until now — but we're hiring in different states and I know the laws are different. I'm not sure we're even compliant anymore."
"It all feels reactive. We don't have sufficient systems in place because we've never needed them. But now we're growing and I don't have time to figure this out."
"The team used to get on really well. Now there's so much to do, tempers get frayed quickly. I don't want this for us."
"We just hired our first employee in the UK. Someone told us it's nothing like hiring here. Now I'm not sure we've done any of it right."
Facilitated team development, Insights Discovery and coaching - so your leadership team works well together, and the people below them have the clarity to do their best work.
Explore →Organizational design and workforce planning that carries your next twelve months - without adding complexity you don't need.
Explore →Hiring, retention and development approaches that fit your stage of growth, and help good people stay and progress.
Explore →Multi-state employment, UK hires and the practical groundwork that lets you expand knowing it has been done properly.
Explore →Someone who's
built this before
Over 20 years in senior HR leadership — including nearly eight as Head of HR for Saint-Gobain UK & Ireland and eleven inside a 7,000+ person organization.
Now I bring that same thinking to businesses like yours. Right-sized, practical, and built for where you actually are.
"I've also been told I make the hard stuff less miserable. Take that as you will."
From the people who ran the business
"From our first conversation, it was clear that Joanne combines deep HR compliance expertise with a collaborative approach that made the entire process seamless."
"Jo made a significant and lasting impact on both our people and performance — a rare ability to translate strategy into development that leaders actually use."
"Jo consistently displayed strong leadership and strategic thinking. She works exceptionally well with senior managers and executives — whoever she works with in future will be gaining an outstanding HR professional."
You don’t need a big HR department.
You need the right person.
Someone who knows what good looks like - because they’ve built it - and can bring that thinking to your business at a level that works for where you are now.
Most growing businesses reach a point where an office manager handling recruitment and leave admin isn’t enough anymore. What comes next is the leadership capability, the operating model, the hiring approach, the performance practices and the structure your business is growing into. That’s the work I do alongside you, so you’re not carrying it on your own.
And I work this way by choice. Senior HR leadership doesn’t have to be full-time to be serious - for a business your size, this shape of it often works better.
If any of this sounds like something you need, let’s have a conversation.
30 minutes, no pitch and no pressure. You share with me what’s going on and I’ll tell you what I think - and whether I’m the right person to help.
