Almost every CEO I meet for the first time tells me the same thing: “I need to set up HR, but I don’t have the budget for a whole department.”
That’s the wrong way to look at it. You don’t need a department. You need a minimal, functional system.
I have built and reorganised HR functions in dozens of Italian companies over the last 27 years. The minimum that works is always the same combination.
3 tools.
2 processes.
1 dedicated person.
🟥 The 3 tools without which there is no HR function: A standard job description system; for every role, there must be a document describing responsibilities, expected KPIs and required skills. Without this, you’re recruiting in a vacuum and assessing based on gut feeling. A written onboarding protocol; the first 30–90 days of a new hire must be planned, not improvised. 20% of voluntary resignations occur within this window. An HR dashboard with 4 minimum KPIs: turnover by department, time-to-hire, absenteeism, cost per hire. If you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it.
🟥 The two processes that hold everything else together: Structured recruitment; not a free-form interview, but a process with defined stages, explicit assessment criteria and traceability of decisions. It takes the same amount of time and significantly reduces hiring errors. Performance appraisal; at least two or three structured sessions a year where manager and employee discuss objectives, feedback and development. An informal chat in the corridor isn’t enough.
🟥 The dedicated person: This does not need to be a full-time senior role, at least initially, and they must have one essential thing: dedicated time to do HR. Not half an hour squeezed in between emergencies. Not just when there’s time left over. HR done this way does not exist; there is only emergency management disguised as staff management. This is the bare minimum. It does not solve everything, but it creates the conditions for people to be managed methodically rather than on a whim.
And this alone, in an average company, translates to a 10–20% reduction in staff turnover within 12–18 months.
Message me privately if you want to know where to start in your specific situation.