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HR

Fractional HR

HR Director, part-time

A Fractional HR Director is a senior HR leader who works with your company part-time to set people strategy, build policies and processes, keep you compliant and coach your managers. Your HR executive keeps running day-to-day work; the HR Director makes sure the whole system holds together.

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What is a Fractional HR Director?

Between 200 and 500 people, HR stops being paperwork and becomes a business risk. Managers hire and discipline in different ways, pay drifts out of line, good people leave without anyone knowing why, and compliance gaps surface during an audit or a claim.

A Fractional HR Director builds the foundations a company this size needs: clear policies, a hiring process managers follow, fair performance and pay frameworks, and a compliance check in every market you hire in. Because Trust Partners already handles work passes and recruitment, foreign hiring can be planned and processed by the same team.

What a Fractional HR Director does

People strategy

  • Builds a 12-month workforce plan: roles, headcount and budget
  • Designs the organisation structure and reporting lines
  • Sets an engagement and retention plan

Policies and compliance

  • Writes the employee handbook and HR policies
  • Standardises contracts and offer letters
  • Checks compliance with employment law in each market
  • Sets grievance, disciplinary and exit procedures

Hiring

  • Designs the hiring process, scorecards and interview guides
  • Improves job ads and your employer brand
  • Plans work passes for foreign hires with the Trust Partners pass team
  • Builds an onboarding programme

Performance and pay

  • Runs the performance review cycle
  • Sets pay bands and job levels
  • Designs bonus and incentive schemes
  • Reviews benefits against the market

Managers

  • Coaches managers through difficult conversations
  • Trains managers on hiring and performance
  • Advises on sensitive cases such as misconduct, disputes or restructuring

HR operations

  • Selects and sets up an HR system
  • Reports on turnover, absence and time to hire
  • Supervises your HR executive and payroll provider

How your company benefits

  • Fewer costly mistakes

    Clear contracts, policies and procedures lower the risk of disputes, claims and penalties.

  • Better hires, faster

    A consistent process and scorecards help managers choose well, and help good candidates say yes sooner.

  • People stay longer

    Fair pay bands, regular reviews and trained managers deal with the most common reasons people leave.

  • Foreign hiring without the headache

    Workforce planning and work pass applications sit with one team that handles passes every day.

  • Your HR team grows

    Your HR executive learns from a senior leader instead of working alone.

  • Senior HR, sized to you

    You pay for the days you need, not a full HR director package.

Signs you need a Fractional HR Director

Tick the ones that sound like your company.

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Tick the statements that sound like your company.

How it works

Your first 90 days

  1. Days 1 to 30

    Audit

    Review contracts, policies, payroll set-up, pass holders and records, interview managers, and rank compliance gaps by risk.

  2. Days 31 to 60

    Fix

    Close the urgent gaps, publish the handbook, standardise contracts, and launch the hiring process and scorecards.

  3. Days 61 to 90

    Build

    Start performance reviews, train managers, agree pay bands and set the 12-month people plan.

A typical month

  1. Week 1Leadership meeting and people dashboard
  2. Week 2Hiring reviews and manager coaching
  3. Week 3Policy work and sensitive cases
  4. Week 4HR team supervision and monthly report

Example for an Embedded HR Director at 4 days a month. Urgent people issues are handled by phone between visits.

What you receive

  • HR compliance audit with risk ratings
  • Employee handbook and policy set
  • Contract and offer letter templates
  • Hiring process, scorecards and interview guides
  • Performance review framework
  • Pay bands and job levels
  • 12-month workforce plan
  • Monthly people dashboard

Work passes, handled in-house

Trust Partners is a MOM-licensed employment agency (EA licence 22C0912). When your workforce plan includes foreign hires, the team that plans the hire also processes the pass.

Ways to engage

  • Advisory

    2 days a month

    Policy, sensitive cases and compliance, while your HR executive runs operations.

    Best when your HR team is capable but junior.

  • Embedded

    4 to 8 days a month

    Leads HR: hiring, performance, pay and compliance.

    Best when nobody senior owns people matters.

  • Project

    Fixed scope and price

    A handbook and compliance reset, pay band design, or HR set-up for a new country.

    Best for one defined piece of work.

How success is measured

  • Time to hire
  • Offer acceptance rate
  • Staff turnover and regretted leavers
  • Compliance gaps closed
  • Managers trained

When a full-time hire makes more sense

  • You hire dozens of people every month.
  • Employee relations cases need senior attention every day.
  • You run large teams in several countries, each with its own HR needs.

Your Fractional HR Director can design the role, run the search and hand over to the full-time hire.

What it looks like in practice

  • Retail and F&B

    Builds one hiring and onboarding process across outlets, so new staff are productive in their first week.

  • Healthcare

    Plans clinical hiring, including foreign professionals, with pass applications handled by the Trust Partners team.

  • Construction

    Sets up compliant records and rosters for a large foreign workforce across several sites.

Typical engagements by industry.

Local rules we work with

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Employment

The Employment Act covers most employees, with extra protections on hours and overtime for lower-paid staff. Citizens and permanent residents receive CPF contributions, and the Tripartite Guidelines set fair hiring practices.

Hiring foreign staff

Employment Pass, assessed on salary and the COMPASS points framework, plus S Pass and Work Permit, which carry quotas and levies.

Questions about Fractional HR

We already have an HR executive. Do we need this?

Usually, if your HR executive works without senior guidance. They keep running operations; the Fractional HR Director sets direction, handles complex cases and coaches them.

Do you run payroll?

Payroll stays with your HR executive or payroll provider. The Fractional HR Director checks it is set up correctly and compliant.

Do you handle work passes?

Yes. Trust Partners is a MOM-licensed employment agency (EA licence 22C0912) and processes Employment Pass, S Pass and Work Permit applications, so planning and processing stay with one team.

Can you help with a difficult dismissal or dispute?

Yes. We advise on the process, documents and communication, and bring in an employment lawyer when the case needs one.

Do you help with hiring in Malaysia and Indonesia?

Yes. We advise on local contracts, statutory contributions and foreign worker rules, and work with local partners where a local entity or licence is required.

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