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Freedom, flexibility, choosing your hours and clients – being self-employed can be a very enticing career pivot when you work in HR, especially if you have been working in ‘staff’ HR roles and are now feeling like you really want to do something a bit different.
When it comes to being self-employed or freelance in the HR sector, you can choose to become a consultant, or start your own company where you perhaps focus on recruitment, or coaching.
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As you read this, you might be at the stage where it’s been on your mind a while or it might just be the new seed of an idea - it might be you’ve met someone who is self-employed in HR, or connected with them on LinkedIn, and begun to wonder if that life is for you.
The best people to ask, of course, are those who’ve done it.
Pip Foulsham worked in HR roles up to Head of HR for 20 years before she decided to go freelance in 2019. She now runs Pip Foulsham HR, and is a Human Resources Consultant.
She explains: “I got loads of great experience in my employed roles, but I felt that I wanted to work with people who were more open to innovative ideas and who needed my help, such as small and medium business owners who did not have any HR presence. Bigger organisations can tend to have a fixed view of what HR is and should be, and you don’t get as much chance to shape policies and procedures as they are often already in place.”
