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On-Demand HR Director

Hire a Fractional HR Director and Get the People Work Off Your Desk

Payroll, benefits, compliance, and the hard conversations are landing on whoever has time, and lately that's you. A fractional HR director takes the whole function over, then builds the systems so it doesn't come back.

Book Your Free Discovery Call →

15 minutes. Free. You'll leave knowing your next step either way.

In seat in about 2 weeks●4.5k one-time success fee●Lifetime Second Match Free Guarantee™

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15 minutes. Free. You'll leave knowing your next step either way.

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150+
Companies Transformed
95%
Success Rate
750+
Vetted Experts

Trusted clients who love our fractional executives

Aged Diagnostics Coursera Georgetown University Mindshare RightHear Tarsus
What you're actually hiring

Three Problems That Look Like One Hire

Most CEOs call us about one thing, usually payroll. What they describe next is three separate problems that have been running without an owner. Here's what a fractional HR director actually takes on, so you can work out which part is costing you most right now.

Payroll runs through one person

Payroll and Benefits Operations

Someone senior owns the pay cycle, so it isn't one resignation away from falling over.

  • ✓ Payroll run, reconciled, and documented every cycle
  • ✓ Benefits administration and open enrollment
  • ✓ Written process, so cover isn't a crisis
  • ✓ Coordination with your broker and payroll platform

You need this when one person knows how payroll works and nobody has written it down.

You're one complaint from a claim

Compliance and Employee Relations

The difficult conversations get handled properly, by someone who has had them before.

  • ✓ Classification, leave, and wage-hour exposure closed off
  • ✓ Documented performance and disciplinary process
  • ✓ Investigations and terminations run to a standard
  • ✓ Multi-state requirements tracked as you hire

You need this when a personnel issue lands on your desk and you're guessing at the right next step.

Every hire starts from a blank page

Hiring, Onboarding, and Structure

People leadership, so the org you're building holds together at the next headcount instead of straining.

  • ✓ Handbook, onboarding, and offboarding that actually run
  • ✓ Performance reviews and compensation planning
  • ✓ Scorecards, so hiring decisions aren't gut calls
  • ✓ Roles and reporting lines mapped before you scale them

You need this when new hires spend their first week waiting and nobody owns what happens next.

Not sure which one is actually urgent? That's the first thing we sort out on the discovery call, and plenty of CEOs find they need less than they thought. Fifteen minutes, no cost, and you'll know either way.

Success Story

Their HR Director Quit. Payroll Was Due in Seven Days

A cannabis dispensary company with more than 50 employees lost its HR director with payroll due the following week. Nobody left inside knew how to run payroll, manage benefits, or handle compliance, and leadership was staring at missed paychecks and legal exposure.

Cannabis Dispensary 50+ Employees 11 Month Engagement

Onboarded in 48 hours, not seven days

Their fractional HR director was introduced and fully onboarded inside two days, then took over payroll, benefits, HR operations, and compliance for the entire company.

She built the emergency processes and documentation that stopped HR being one resignation away from a crisis, and stayed on as the whole HR department for eleven months rather than patching a single week.

Afterwards the company tried a cheaper full-time HR hire. That produced three months of chaos and mistakes on almost every payroll before the person quit. One phone call brought their fractional director back and stabilised it again.

What they hired: Emergency seven-day payroll coverage.
What they got: A trusted long-term HR partner on speed dial.
48 hrs
From introduction to fully onboarded, against a seven-day payroll deadline
0
Payroll disruptions across the eleven-month engagement
50+
Employees covered for payroll, benefits, and compliance
11 mo
Serving as the entire HR department, not a one-week patch
"This was a very expensive lesson, more than if we had kept Jenn. It's impossible to find this unicorn."
Controller · on replacing the fractional HR director with a cheaper full-time hire
Jenn Marecki, fractional HR director
Jenn MareckiFractional HR Director
The math

Director-Level People Leadership Without the Director Salary

A full-time HR director costs $200K to $400K+ once you add salary, bonus, benefits, and a 4 to 6 month search. A fractional HR director gives you the same seniority for the hours you actually need.

The full-time hire
$200K–$400K+
per year, loaded
  • ✕ 4 to 6 month executive search before day one of value.
  • ✕ Equity dilution and full payroll burden for one function.
  • ✕ A mis-hire costs 6 to 12 months of momentum.
The smarter bet
The fractional HR director
$3K–$15K
per month, scaled to your scope
  • ✓ In seat in about two weeks.
  • ✓ No equity. No payroll. No long-term lock-in.
  • ✓ Scale up for open enrollment or a hiring push, scale back down after.
  • ✓ One 4.5k success fee when we place your match.

Want numbers for your exact situation? Run them on our fractional executive cost calculator.

Mike Malloy, right, in the Hawaiian shirt, sealing a match with a client and their new fractional executive
Lifetime Second Match Free Guarantee™

Wrong hires burn cash and kill momentum.

If the first match isn't right, the second one is on us.

If your fractional HR director isn't hitting the agreed-upon outcomes, we deploy a better fit at no additional cost, for as long as you're an active client. In more than 150 engagements, it's been used twice.

Zero additional fees No expiration date Forever
What CEOs Are Saying

Real Results. Real CEOs.

★★★★★

"Fear of the unknown. Fear of not knowing Mike Malloy or Malloy Industries and having to trust that they were good at their jobs. That's why we almost didn't invest...The Malloy Industries team built trust very quickly with their transparency and consistency."

Leora DavalosLeora DavalosCo-Founder & CEO, Thrive Digital Health
★★★★★

"It became clear in the first 2 weeks of the onboarding process that Malloy Industries was actually dedicated to understanding the root causes of our problems. I was impressed with the thoroughness, diligence, and well documented process. They were clear in how it works and helped me feel confident that they know what they're doing."

Alex EstepAlex EstepCo-Founder & COO, Little Arms Studios
★★★★★

"Honestly, I was concerned about the upfront cost and risk associated with making the 7.5k investment...Working with Malloy definitely made finding a good fit to lead our sales team a lot easier. Unlike competitor firms or individual fractionals, who might rush to figure out the quickest thing they can start working on to make money ASAP without understanding all the variables, the Malloy Industries team invested a lot of time to deep dive into the business."

Kyle BishopKyle BishopCo-Founder & CEO, Little Arms Studios
Lifetime Second Match Free Guarantee™ ·
Ready to move fast?

You've Waited Long Enough.

One call. That's all it takes to find out if we're the right fit.

Book Your Free Discovery Call →

15 minutes. Free. You'll leave with a clear next step either way.

Frequently Asked Questions

Got Questions? We've Got Answers.

The most common questions growth-stage CEOs and Founders ask before working with Malloy Industries.

I'm the bottleneck. Everything runs through me. How does a fractional get things off my plate?

A fractional executive owns a function end to end, turning what lives in your head into systems your team can run, so you stop being the single point of failure.

  • They take what lives in your head and turn it into systems your team can run.
  • They train the team to own it.
  • They report back so you keep visibility without doing the work yourself.

The goal is to remove you as the single point of failure in the part of the business that is eating your time, so you get back to the work only you can do.

I've been burned before. Why should I trust you?

We have 150+ clients who trust us with their businesses, and we're happy to connect you directly with CEOs we've helped. Just book a discovery call and ask.

If you've hired a consultant who delivered a beautiful deck and disappeared, or a "fractional CMO" who talked a big game and produced nothing, your guard should be up.

  • My name is on the door: I'm Mike Malloy, the CEO. The buck stops with me. If something isn't working, you talk directly to me, and I make it right.
  • We prove our value first: Throughout our process, especially Express Match™, we introduce you to candidates and provide strategic recommendations before you invest a dollar.
  • Lifetime Second Match Free Guarantee™: For as long as you're an active client, if your fractional executive isn't the right fit, we find a better one at no additional fee.
  • We never disappear: Weekly TPS Reports™, monthly check-ins, and quarterly Strategic Business Reviews with me.
Our sales are unpredictable and we have no repeatable process. Can a fractional build that?

Yes, a fractional sales executive builds the pipeline, the process, the playbook, the cadence, and the coaching, so your team can close without you in every deal.

A fractional sales executive can help you if you have:

  • No defined pipeline: Deals live in inboxes and memory, not stages.
  • No consistent process: Every deal is run differently.
  • Haphazard outreach: Materials and messaging that are haphazard.
  • CEO-dependent deals: Opportunities hover for months by CEO bottleneck.
I'm not even sure what role I need to fill first. Can you help me figure that out?

Yes, the free Scalability Audit pinpoints where the gaps are, how severe they are, and what to fix first.

You will know:

  • The role you need to fill first.
  • The scope of work that role will own.
  • The working-style fits your team needs.
  • Your Prioritized Action Plan for the next 12 months.
When does hiring a fractional executive make more sense than hiring full-time?

A fractional executive makes more sense when you need the expertise now, but not 40 hours a week and not as a $300k+ bet on one person.

  • Immediate coverage: A key team member quit and you need someone now.
  • Stuck in the weeds: You're wearing too many hats.
  • Raising capital: You need to look investor-ready fast.
  • Underperforming department: A function needs an expert turnaround.
  • Budget reality: You can't afford a full-time executive but need the expertise.

Most growth-stage companies aren't ready for a full C-suite. Paying $300k+ to one person is a huge bet you're not ready for yet.

Fractional is the bridge that gets you enterprise-level leadership without enterprise-level risk.

How much do fractional executives cost per month, and how does that compare to a full-time hire?

Most fractional executives run between 4k and 15k per month, depending on seniority, scope, and how much of their time you need. That is the blended monthly investment, and it is the number you plan around.

  • Full-time executive: 150k to 300k in salary, plus 25k to 60k in overhead, plus 30k to 90k in recruiter fees. 205k to 450k total, with no guarantee and 17 weeks to hire on average.
  • Fractional engagement: Your monthly investment plus a flat 4.5k one-time success fee, backed by our Lifetime Second Match Free Guarantee. Live in as fast as two weeks, and you can increase, decrease, or cancel anytime.
We're only a $2M company. Are we too small for this?

No, at your stage you probably already have a CEO bottleneck, and the problem is far cheaper to fix now than after it compounds.

the sweet spot is usually above 3 million, but the decision sums up to:

  • Your margins: Whether the investment pencils out for your business.
  • The time you need: How much of an executive's week your constraint requires.
Will my team respect and follow someone who's only here part-time?

Yes, we design the onboarding and introduction process to set your fractional executive up for credibility from day one.

In our experience, teams respect competence, clarity, and follow-through, and they will be relieved. They've been waiting for someone to bring structure, accountability, and expertise to a function that's been held together with duct tape.

What happens if the fractional executive isn't the right fit?

We activate the Lifetime Second Match Free Guarantee™. Our Client Service team and CEO step in first to understand what's not working, because sometimes the issue is fixable through coaching or a scope adjustment.

If a replacement is the right call:

  • New match: We replace your fractional executive from our network of 750+ at no additional matchmaking cost.
  • Interim coverage: Provided if needed.
  • Timeline: A replacement is typically ready within 1–4 weeks.
What does the process look like from the first call to having someone start?

The process is three steps, everything up to the match is free, and a fractional executive can be working in your business in as fast as two weeks.

  • Day 1: Scalability Audit. 30 minutes. Free. Tell us what's slowing your growth, with no prep and no pressure. We pinpoint the biggest constraint holding your growth back and show you how fractional leadership can fix it. You decide whether you want to see a draft Statement of Work.
  • Day 3 to 7: SOW Alignment Meeting. 30 minutes. Free. We review your draft Statement of Work live on screen, adding, cutting, and adjusting in real time to fit your needs. You walk away with a clear scope, timeline, and investment range, and you keep the SOW to review with your team before anything is signed.
  • Day 7 to 14: Interview 2 Vetted Fractional Executives. 2 hours. Free. You meet operators one and two before you commit to anything, with no obligation to hire either one. Your Client Service Manager facilitates, so it's your interview to run while she keeps the conversation on track. You debrief with her right after and either schedule the kickoff or ask to see who's behind door number three, on a 4k to 15k per month engagement with a flat 4.5k one-time success fee.

Still have a question? Read all FAQs or talk to the team.