Hiring your first dedicated HR person is a bigger decision than it looks. Get the timing wrong and you either pay for capacity you do not need yet, or you muddle through without the support your team actually requires. Fractional HR offers a third path, and for many life sciences companies at the growth stage, it is the most sensible one.

What fractional HR actually means

Fractional HR means bringing in an experienced HR professional on a part-time or project basis, rather than hiring someone full-time. You get a senior-level person, typically with ten or more years of experience, working with your business for an agreed number of days per week or month.

This is not a recruitment agency. It is not an HR software platform. It is a real person, embedded in your organisation, who understands your business and helps you build the people infrastructure you need.

That can include:

  • Setting up employment contracts, policies and handbooks
  • Supporting recruitment and onboarding processes
  • Managing employee relations issues as they arise
  • Designing pay structures and benefits frameworks
  • Supporting managers through performance conversations
  • Keeping you compliant with UK employment law as you scale
  • Building the groundwork for a future in-house HR function

The scope is flexible. Some companies need a fractional HR lead for a few months during a period of rapid hiring. Others work with one on an ongoing basis for a year or more.

When fractional HR makes sense for life sciences companies

Life sciences businesses grow in bursts. A successful funding round, a new clinical trial, a product launch, a partnership deal: any of these can mean you need to hire quickly, manage complexity you have not faced before, and keep your team engaged through uncertainty.

At that point, the people challenges become real and urgent. But the business may not yet be large enough to justify a full-time HR director or even a senior HR manager.

Fractional HR tends to be the right fit when:

  • You have between 15 and 100 employees and no dedicated HR resource
  • You are scaling headcount quickly and need proper process in place
  • You are navigating your first complex employee relations situation
  • You are preparing for due diligence and need clean people documentation
  • You want senior HR thinking without committing to a permanent hire

It also works well when you have a junior HR coordinator in place but need more experienced leadership above them, without the cost of a full-time head of people.

How it compares to building in-house

Building an in-house HR team is the right move eventually. For most life sciences companies, that point comes somewhere between 80 and 150 employees, depending on the complexity of your workforce and your growth trajectory.

Before that threshold, a full-time senior HR hire is often hard to justify on cost alone. Salaries for experienced HR leaders in life sciences are substantial, and when you add employer National Insurance, pension contributions and the time it takes to recruit well, the total investment is significant.

Fractional HR gives you access to the same quality of thinking at a fraction of the cost. You pay for what you need, when you need it. The person can scale their time up or down as your requirements change.

There is also a practical advantage that is easy to overlook: a fractional HR professional who works across multiple companies tends to bring broader perspective. They have seen more situations, more cultures and more people challenges than someone who has only ever worked in one organisation.

A note on life sciences specifically

People challenges in biotech, medtech and diagnostics are not the same as in a generic tech startup. You may be managing highly specialised talent in a competitive market, navigating regulatory requirements that affect how you structure roles, or building teams across research, clinical and commercial functions that have very different cultures. Sector experience matters.

How Sajawo can help

Sajawo works with growing life sciences companies across the UK on exactly these questions. If you are trying to work out whether fractional HR is the right fit for where your business is now, we are happy to have a straightforward conversation about it.