People architecture
What you are left withOne page that says who decides what, and who is told afterwards.
The practice
At PRISM, people operations is a practice, not a department: one senior person, engaged by the day, working inside a company at the point where the informal way of doing things stops holding.
A founder at thirty people. A partner who inherited a practice group and no training for it. Two different rooms, one brief — make authority, pay and progress legible enough that nobody in the building has to guess. The work is unglamorous and it is almost always the thing that was postponed.
- FractionalTwo days a week, or one. A practice on call, never a headcount on a chart.
- SeniorThe person in the first call is the person in the room in week six.
- Beside youNot a replacement for whoever holds people operations today; they are left stronger than they were found.
- Not a deckA consultancy leaves a document. PRISM builds the thing and stays long enough to watch it run under load.
- By the dayPriced by the day and quoted after the first conversation, month to month after the first term.
- By referralWork arrives from the last piece of work, which is why this page confirms rather than sells.
- Track recordFive years as PRISM, 100% client retention, and clients see 5 to 10X ROI.
Two rooms
Two rooms that rarely share a vocabulary.
The founder’s room
You hired forty people with a spreadsheet and nerve.
It worked, which is the awkward part. At PRISM the job is not to replace the instinct that got the company here but to put a floor under it.
- Levelling and bands that survive a board meeting
- First-manager training for engineers promoted in March
- Performance cycles that take days, not quarters
- Employment groundwork for the second country
The partner’s room
Your people function reports to everyone at once.
Firms are governed by consensus and staffed by exception. At PRISM the partnership gets one neutral desk, and a written record that it was used.
- Associate progression, written down and voted on
- Lateral onboarding through the first two hundred days
- Direction on compensation governance, and a specialist brought in when it’s truly needed
- Sensitive matters held at arm’s length from the partnership
Nobody should have to guess how their own place works.
Pay, promotion, who decides what and who is told: written down once, in language a person can repeat to someone else without softening it.
The work
Six things, in whatever order the company needs them.
Benefits & foundations
What you are left withDirection on benefits and foundations, and a specialist brought in when it's truly needed.
Hiring systems
What you are left withA scorecard the fiftieth interviewer still uses the way the first one did.
Employee relations
What you are left withA written record of a hard month that reads the same a year later.
Policy & compliance
What you are left withA handbook people open on purpose, and the file counsel asks for first.
Standing hours
What you are left withA number to call in the week it goes sideways, held open on the calendar.
However many of the six a company needs, an engagement runs the same way: a conversation in week zero, two weeks of listening, building through week six, and standing hours after that.
PRISM is one person, on purpose.
“I've worked since I was fourteen, not because I had to but because I wanted the responsibility. Work is where I've done my growing. I started as an executive assistant at a grassroots nonprofit inside the United Nations system in New York — nearly seven years, helping community leaders worldwide reach the funding and expertise they needed. The hardest job I've had, and it shaped everything since.
From there: grant writing, then in-house fundraising, which is where I started working alongside founders. One fast-growing organization needed leadership it didn't have yet; I took on HR before I knew what HR was, and found I had a knack for it. Founders kept pulling me into their portfolio companies, so I started my own practice. COVID took me out of New York, but I kept my clients remotely and picked up a law firm that hired me full-time to build out their HR practice — they're still my referral partner today.
Twenty years in, I know what I'm here to do. I speak fluent founder. I know enough to be dangerous across every part of a business, and I have the right experts on hand for everything else.”
Erin H. Robertson — SHRM-CP certified. Everything DiSC practitioner.
What clients say
Two rooms, one experience.
“Erin's partnership was instrumental to how Forever 21 grew our thinking about talent and HR. After significant changes had been made at the company, she stepped in as an interim HR leader to help unify the team and identify some of the most important hires we made that year, taking Forever 21 into it's most pivotal chapter.”
Daniel Kulle, CEO, Forever 21
“Erin is one of the rare few that can build a vision for the future while seemingly solving the day-to-day. We hired Erin to reset our corporate values, reshape culture and bring our leadership team to the next level. Each of these she delivered beyond any expectation and her work truly multiplied our business performance. Her quality of craft, care and drive is worth the investment out of the first session and already paying dividends before you complete. If you are seeking greater commitment, productivity and a high performing culture Erin and her process is the way.”
Jordan Schenck, CEO, Flashfood
“Erin worked closely with us to build the People structures and accountabilities that have allowed our firm to grow while not only preserving but strengthening the best of our culture. She helped us put scalable foundations in place, intentional hiring, onboarding, performance management, and clear expectations, so that everyone at every level knows our values and leverages them in key moments, even when no one is looking. Our culture has become a competitive advantage, which is a rare thing in the legal profession.”
Rachel Johnson, Co-Managing Partner, J&O Law
Let’s talk about what’s not working. The honest feedback starts immediately.
Twenty minutes, no deck, no obligation. Most people arrive here because someone they trust sent them; say who, and the conversation starts halfway along.
PRISM works remotely, with days on site, and takes a small number of engagements at a time. The next opening is in the autumn.
© 2026 PRISM — fractional people operations
hello@prismfirms.com