You started with a bike.
You need a car.
Most businesses begin with the cheapest HR solution available. Practical in theory. Until the add-ons start stacking up — and suddenly your low-cost option is neither low-cost, nor practical.
How the cost creep happens
It always starts sensibly. A pragmatic hire, a modest budget, a plan that makes sense on paper. Then reality sets in — one add-on at a time.
You hire an HR generalist. Affordable, practical, gets you from A to B. Handles day-to-day people admin, keeps things moving. Ticks the box. It makes sense — until you actually start riding in different weather.
Your generalist doesn’t have the depth for compensation benchmarking. You’re losing good people to better packages. You bring in a specialist — or a consultant — to plug the gap. Add it to the cost.
Your generalist can’t run strategic hiring campaigns. You bolt on an RPO, a recruiter, or a talent acquisition specialist. The bike still functions — technically — but it doesn’t feel like the lean solution it once was.
You’re now running multiple HR functions, each with its own overhead. Your “cheap” solution is adding up fast — salary, benefits, add-on contracts, consultants. The original logic has dissolved entirely.
You need a car — senior, strategic HR that covers everything the bike couldn’t. But you don’t need to own it 24/7. Executive Access Partnership is your Zipcar: pick it up when you need it, put it down when you don’t.
Not just a car.
A Zipcar.
You need the full capability of a senior HR director — strategic thinking, specialist depth, executive presence. But you don’t need it sitting in an office five days a week. Executive Access Partnership gives you the keys. Use it when you need it. Set it down when you don’t.
We only take on work where real impact is possible.
The bike made sense. Then the waterproofs. Then the panniers. By the time you’ve added everything up, you’ve spent more than a car — and you’re still getting rained on.
Kelly Smallcombe — Founder, Meliorem HR ConsultancyStop buying
the whole bike.
Senior HR leadership, on demand, without the overhead. Pick it up when you need it. Put it down when you don’t.