The Situation

A management consulting firm that grew from 22 to 72 employees in 18 months. On paper, a success story. In practice, a culture problem no one can name.

Two senior consultants — both strong performers, both client-facing — resigned in Q3 citing “leadership confusion” and “no clear path forward.” A third is quietly interviewing. No exit interviews have been conducted. No one has asked why they’re leaving.

The CEO reaches out to Performance HR Partners after the second resignation. He knows the problem is real but can’t locate it. His hypothesis: compensation. PHRP’s assessment finds something more structural — a management layer promoted for client delivery, not people leadership; a compensation architecture that quietly collapsed under aggressive hiring; and a performance process that exists in name only.

The company isn’t losing people to competitors. It’s losing them to its own disorganization.

The Challenge

PHRP engages as a Fractional People Partner to stabilize the organization, diagnose the root causes of attrition, and build the people infrastructure the company needs to operate at 72 employees — and beyond:

• Senior talent attrition: Multiple senior consultants resigned or at risk. No exit data, no root cause analysis, no retention strategy in place
• Management layer not built for scale: Managers promoted for technical performance, not people leadership. No coaching frameworks, no accountability structure
• Compensation architecture collapse: Fast hiring without a salary structure created internal compression and equity gaps visible to senior employees
• Performance process in name only: Reviews existed on paper. In practice: no calibration, no role-based expectations, no feedback cadence

The Approach

PHRP structures the engagement around four sequential People Sprints, anchored to diagnostic data from the Organizational Performance Assessment and guided by the Organizational Velocity Scorecard:

Sprint 1 — Diagnostic & Root Cause Analysis: OPA administered to leadership. Stay interviews conducted with at-risk employees. Exit patterns analyzed. Compensation architecture mapped against market benchmarks. Root cause findings presented to CEO within 30 days.

Sprint 2 — Compensation Architecture Rebuild: Role-based salary bands designed and benchmarked. Compression and equity gaps identified and sequenced for remediation. At-risk employee retention conversations facilitated with data-backed rationale.

Sprint 3 — Performance Architecture Build: Performance framework designed: role-level expectations, quarterly check-in structure, calibration process, and promotion criteria. Manager Toolkit deployed. First performance cycle launched with PHRP facilitation.

Sprint 4 — Manager Enablement & Sustainability: Manager training delivered on performance conversations, documentation, and difficult dialogue. At-risk employees formally retained. Leadership running the cycle independently. Organizational Velocity Scorecard embedded for ongoing measurement.

Illustrative Results

At the close of a 6-month engagement like this, an organization has a functioning performance architecture, a stabilized management layer, and a compensation structure leadership can defend — internally and to candidates.

• Root cause of senior attrition identified within 30 days — not compensation, but structural management and path clarity gaps
• Compensation architecture rebuilt with role-based bands, market benchmarking, and internal equity remediation sequenced by fiscal impact
• Performance management framework designed and launched — role expectations, calibration process, feedback cadence, and promotion criteria
• All at-risk senior employees retained through the final sprint
• Leadership running performance review cycles independently by Month 5, without external facilitation