A fractional HR practice · by referral
At PRISM one senior practitioner works inside your company on a regular monthly cadence, settling how people are hired, paid, managed and — when it has to happen — let go.
The practice, in one sentenceFold 00
Nearly everyone who calls is standing in one of two rooms. Choose yours and the section re-cuts around it — the photograph, the sentence and the five faces of the work.
Offers were made on instinct, the second manager has never managed, and every awkward conversation still ends on the founder's calendar. At PRISM the answer is not a handbook — it is the four or five structural decisions that make the next thirty hires survivable.
The shape of the company written down: who reports where, what each level means and what it pays. Done once, properly, it removes a year of improvised answers.
A loop that does not depend on one person's calendar or one person's instinct: scorecards, a short defensible interview, and a decision made the same way twice.
Most first-time managers were promoted for being good at the other job. At PRISM they are given the sentences to use, a cadence to hold, and someone to call before the hard conversation rather than after.
Handbooks, contracts and the exposures nobody has had time to read. Not a compliance exercise — a short list of what would actually hurt, in the order it should be fixed.
Someone leaves every year, and how it is handled is watched by everyone who stays. At PRISM the conversation is prepared, the paperwork is right, and nobody is made to improvise it.
I started as an executive assistant at a grassroots nonprofit inside the United Nations system in New York — nearly seven years helping community leaders reach the funding and expertise they needed. It was the hardest job I've ever had, and it shaped everything I do now.
From there, grant writing, then in-house fundraising, working shoulder to shoulder with founders. When a fast-growing organization needed leadership it didn't have, I took on HR before I really knew what it was, and found I had a knack for it. Founders began bringing me into their portfolio companies — early-stage companies don't need full-time HR, but they do need it. So I started my own practice.
Twenty years in, I know what I'm here to do. I speak fluent founder. There's no bench here, no associate assigned to your account — the work is done by the person you met.
ErinFounder · PRISM
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.
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.
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.
03 — how a month goes, what it costs, what gets asked
A month at PRISM
Week 01
Time with the people who carry the friction, and nothing written yet.
Week 02
What is true, what is exposed, and the four things worth doing first.
Week 03
Levels, loops, documents — made with you rather than handed over.
Week 04
Your managers run it; PRISM stays reachable on the difficult week.
A day, borrowed
One day a month for a company that mostly knows what it is doing and wants one senior head to check it.
Scoped per engagement
Inside the company
A set cadence each month, a written view early on, and everything after it built with your managers.
Scoped per engagement
One hard thing
A restructure, a departure, an investigation — scoped, held and finished.
Fixed fee
No placement fee and no commission of any kind.
Sooner if something has already gone wrong.
Everything written down belongs to you.
There is no bench and no one else to hand you to.
The answer is usually simpler, and less comfortable, than the one you were hoping for.
04 — start a conversation
Let's talk about what's not working. The honest feedback starts immediately.
Thank you.
A reply comes from a person, usually within two working days.
