Why are so many HR leaders going solo?

Train-up, gain experience, quit to become a consultant.

Why does this particular chronology seem to most accurately describe the career paths of many HR practitioners today?

If you’ve noticed how LinkedIn has recently resembled a sea of former HRDs striking out alone, wanting to ply their trade on their own terms, you’re probably not alone.

Each week it seems there are swathes of new-joiners all entering an increasingly crowded HR consultancy space – and one of the most recent is Paul Neal.

The day HR Grapevine spoke to the former HR Director at Regency, his new business – Verdant Purpose – was literally two days old. It’s a business that aims to offer up HR services to organisations in the more cash-strapped voluntary sector and according to Neal the notion of leaving corporate live behind has been one that he’s had in the back of his mind for a while now. “I wanted to follow my passion,” says Neal, who already volunteers with the RSPCA.

He says: “My HR roles started to become all-too consuming. By contrast, I was finding I really enjoyed doing charity work on the side,” he says. “Being a consultant has always appealed, and while I wouldn’t say I’ve had a mid-life crisis [he’s in his early 40s], I did recently start to reflect about what my values were and whether my work was aligning to this.” He continues: “I sort of thought that I’d gotten to the stage of my career where it was now or never. I know what I’m good at, and I felt that if I could support smaller organisations, and really make a difference, then why not?”

Grabbing a slice of the pie

Neal, like others around him, are all no-doubt trying to secure their own small slice of the increasingly lucrative HR consulting market – a burgeoning sector that shows no signs of slowing down.

A 2022 poll of UK 161 independent HR consultancies by HRi [see also later], found a whopping 93% expected their business to grow in the next 12 months. And with the overall global HR consultancy market expected to see compound annual growth of 5.2% through to 2032, it’s perhaps no surprise HRDs who have reached a certain experience level (and possibly also a level of dissatisfaction with their internal role), feel like they can risk going it alone to do something more meaningful.

“It’s kind of inevitable in some ways,” says Sara Daw, Co-Founder and CEO of The CFO Centre – which encourages CFOs to branch out for themselves. “In-house people, especially those that stay in the same organisation start to see their networks slim down, and their work can sometimes become less interesting and less challenging, or weighed-down by politics.” She says: “I think Covid-19 also showed people that it’s not always good to have all your eggs in one basket, and there’s also an element of people wanting to stay strategic when often they feel like their being dumbed-down, doing procedural work.”