Fractional VP of HR in Guelph, Ontario
You do not have a people problem because you hired badly. You have one because the company grew past the point where HR could be whoever had time, and nobody made the call to bring in real HR leadership before the risk showed up.
This is a reset, not a permanent arrangement. I step into the HR seat, align what you are doing in HR to where the business is actually going, connect the pieces that have grown up separately, and get the whole thing running. Then I hand it to the HR manager you hire. I step out of the seat, but I stay in their corner.
You get senior HR judgment, the compliance cover, and the hard calls handled by someone who has made them before, without carrying a six-figure salary you are not ready for, and without signing up for a consultant who is still around three years later.
I am Ashley Wesley (MA, CHRL, CIM), a Fractional VP of Sales and HR based in Guelph, Ontario. I work with owners and leaders at Ontario companies between 20 and 500 employees who have outgrown ad hoc HR but do not need, or cannot yet justify, a full-time CHRO.
What a fractional VP of HR actually does
A fractional VP of HR goes by a lot of names: fractional HR executive, fractional CHRO, part-time HR director, interim HR leader, or just outsourced HR leadership. They all describe the same thing. A senior HR leader who steps into the seat for a defined stretch. Not a coordinator who processes paperwork, and not a consultant who hands you a slide deck and leaves. Someone who owns the HR function at a leadership level while the reset is happening, and is accountable for whether it works.
The work is the judgment, not the admin:
- Align what HR is doing to where the business is actually going, not where it was.
- Build compensation and incentive structures that reward the right behaviour.
- Keep you onside with Ontario employment law before a problem becomes a claim.
- Handle the hard calls: terminations, investigations, restructures, performance.
- Design hiring and selection so you hire the right person, not the one who interviews well.
- Coach your managers, because most people problems are manager problems.
- Leave behind something an HR manager can actually run, hand it to them properly, and coach them once they are in it.
When does an Ontario business need a fractional VP of HR?
Most owners wait too long. The need for HR leadership arrives well before the headcount that would justify a full-time hire, and the usual stopgap, promoting a willing admin into HR, buys you capacity when what you are missing is judgment.
You are likely past the line if any of these are true:
- You are between roughly 20 and 500 employees and HR is bolted onto someone's other job.
- You have had a termination, a harassment complaint, or a human rights issue and were not sure you handled it right.
- You are growing or restructuring and the org chart is being drawn on instinct.
- Your compensation plans grew by exception and now nobody can explain them.
- You know Ontario has rules you are probably not meeting, and you are hoping nobody checks.
On that last point: Ontario's compliance obligations do not wait for you to get big. Once you regularly employ more than five workers, your workplace harassment and violence policies have to be in writing and posted. The Human Rights Code applies from your first employee, with no small-business exemption. Pay equity obligations reach private-sector employers at ten or more. The risk shows up long before the volume does.
That gap, real exposure without the volume to justify a full-time senior hire, is exactly what a fractional VP of HR is built to fill.
Fractional VP of HR vs full-time vs an HR coordinator
There are three ways to cover HR, and most companies pick the wrong one for their stage.
An HR coordinator
The common first hire, and the right move for administration: payroll support, onboarding paperwork, record keeping. It is the wrong move when the actual gap is leadership. You end up with the tasks handled and the judgment calls still landing on the owner's desk.
A full-time VP of HR
The right answer eventually. It is also a six-figure fixed annual cost plus benefits, and at under a few hundred employees you often cannot keep a leader at that level busy enough to justify it. You pay for a full-time executive and use a third of one.
A fractional VP of HR
The bridge between the two. Senior judgment, strategy, and compliance cover while HR gets reset and connected, then a handoff to the manager or leader you hire to run it. You are buying the decision-maker for as long as the decisions need making, not a permanent desk.
The reset, in four phases
Most HR functions inside a growing company were not designed. They accumulated. A policy here after a bad termination, a comp exception there to keep someone, a hiring process somebody copied off the internet. Each piece made sense on the day. Together they do not add up to anything.
Start with the business strategy, not the HR binder. Where is the company going, what does it need from its people to get there, and where is HR currently pulling the other way?
Get the pieces talking to each other. Hiring, compensation, performance, org structure and compliance stop being five separate conversations and start being one system.
In the seat, running it. The hard calls get made, the managers get coached, and the new way of doing things survives contact with a real week.
You hire your HR manager and I hand them a function that runs, not a pile of documents. I am out of the seat at that point, but I stay available to coach them through the first hard calls.
The credentials behind it: a Master's, the CHRL designation, and the CIM, plus years of building and fixing sales and HR functions inside Ontario companies. I also teach HR strategy and consulting at Conestoga College, which is a useful discipline... it is hard to teach the research on what works and then go cut corners on it in the field. If sales leadership is the gap rather than HR, that is the fractional VP of Sales in Ontario side of the practice.
How a fractional engagement works
- We start with a call. You tell me where the business is and what is keeping you up. I tell you honestly whether you need a fractional VP of HR, a different hire, or just a one-time fix.
- We scope the work. A clear picture of what I own, the hours, and the outcomes, so you are never paying for a desk you are not using.
- We run the reset. I am in the business often enough to lead it, not so much that you are carrying a full-time cost.
- You hire your HR manager and I hand off. That search is separate work, and I can run it or stay out of it. Either way, I am out of the seat once someone else is holding the function.
- I stay in their corner. Your new HR manager gets coaching and backup from me on an ongoing basis. They are running it. They are just not running it alone.
Why growing companies go fractional first
This is not a trend story. There are four specific reasons a company your size brings in senior HR before hiring one, and they show up in the data as clearly as they show up in the conversations I have.
The work arrives before the hire makes sense
Most companies make their first dedicated HR hire somewhere around 40 to 50 employees, and nearly all have one by 100. But your written harassment policy is required past five workers, the Human Rights Code applies from your first, and pay equity obligations land at ten. The exposure shows up years before the headcount does.
Thin HR costs more than it saves
SHRM benchmarks put the average at about 1.7 HR staff per 100 employees, and smaller companies typically need a higher ratio, not a lower one, because the base workload does not shrink with headcount. ADP's research across millions of employee records found that companies with more HR capacity run measurably lower turnover, up to a point. A 70-person business running on half an HR person is usually carrying unmanaged risk rather than saving money.
Systems get installed, not recommended
What fractional leaders are genuinely good at is installing discipline: the process that actually runs, the cadence that holds, the reporting that tells you something. That is different work from advising, and it is the work most growing companies are missing.
You learn what the role should be before you hire for it
This is the one owners underrate. Running the function for a stretch tells you what the job actually requires at your company, so you hire against a real job description instead of a guess. The sequence that works is fractional first, systems built, then hire the person to run them. Hiring an HR manager into chaos and hoping they figure it out is how you end up hiring twice.
I teach this material, which means I spend as much time with the evidence on what actually moves turnover and performance as I do applying it. The short version: HR is a performance lever rather than a cost centre, and that holds in smaller organizations, not just large ones. The problem was never belief. It was that senior HR judgment felt like an all-or-nothing hire. The reset removes that choice.
In short
A fractional VP of HR gives an Ontario business between 20 and 500 employees senior HR leadership, part-time and for a defined stretch, at a fraction of the cost of a full-time CHRO. Ashley Wesley (MA, CHRL, CIM) is a Fractional VP of Sales and HR in Guelph, Ontario. The engagement is a reset: align HR to the business strategy, connect hiring, compensation, performance and compliance into one working system, run it, then hand it to the HR manager the company hires. The role is also known as a fractional HR executive, a fractional CHRO, an outsourced HR director, or a part-time HR director. It is distinct from an outsourced HR department or PEO, which handles HR administration rather than HR leadership.
Frequently asked questions
What is a fractional VP of HR?
A fractional VP of HR is a senior HR leader who works with your company part-time, owning the HR function at a leadership level, strategy, compensation, compliance, org design, and the hard calls, for a fraction of the cost of a full-time executive. It suits Ontario businesses that have outgrown ad hoc HR but do not yet need a full-time CHRO.
How is a fractional VP of HR different from an HR consultant?
A consultant recommends. A fractional VP of HR decides. Both engagements end, but a consultant hands you a report and leaves the hard calls with you, while a fractional VP of HR sits in the seat, owns the function, makes the calls, and is accountable for whether the thing actually works before handing it to your HR manager.
How much does a fractional VP of HR cost in Ontario?
Far less than a full-time senior HR leader, because you pay for the hours and the outcomes you actually need rather than a full salary and benefits. Cost is scoped to the engagement after a call, so you are buying the level of HR leadership that fits your stage.
When should a smaller company hire a fractional VP of HR instead of an HR coordinator?
When the gap is judgment, not admin. A coordinator handles the tasks; a fractional VP of HR handles the decisions, compensation design, compliance risk, restructures, terminations, and hiring strategy, that otherwise land on the owner. Many Ontario businesses need both, but hiring only a coordinator when the real need is leadership leaves the hardest calls uncovered.
Is this ongoing, or does it end?
The seat ends. The relationship usually does not. The engagement is a reset with a handoff built into it: align HR to the strategy, connect the pieces, make it run, then hand it to the HR manager you hire. Once they are in the chair I am out of it, but I stay on as a coach and a sounding board for them, which is where most of the long-term value lands. If you want someone permanently part-time in the seat instead, that is a different arrangement and worth a conversation, but it is not what this is built for.
Can you find the HR manager we hand off to?
Yes, but it is separate work. Retained search is its own engagement with its own scope and fee, not something folded into the fractional one. Plenty of companies run their own hiring and just use me for the handoff.
Is this the same as outsourced HR?
Depends what you mean by it. If you mean an outsourced HR director or part-time HR leader, someone senior who owns the function from outside the payroll, then yes, that is exactly this. If you mean an outsourced HR department, a PEO, or a service that runs your payroll, benefits administration and onboarding paperwork for a monthly fee, then no. Those handle the administration. I handle the decisions. Plenty of companies need both, and they are not substitutes for each other.
Do you only work in Guelph?
I am based in Guelph and work with businesses across Ontario, in person where it helps and remotely where it does not.
Work with Ashley
Ashley Wesley (MA, CHRL, CIM) is a Fractional VP of Sales and HR based in Guelph, Ontario, serving owners and leaders at Ontario companies between 20 and 500 employees. He also teaches HR strategy and consulting at [SCHOOL]. Fractional HR and sales leadership, candidate selection and assessment, and retained executive search. If HR has outgrown whoever currently has time for it, start with a call.
This page provides general HR and business information, not legal advice. Employment law turns on the specific facts and changes over time. Before acting on anything here, confirm it with an Ontario employment lawyer.