Do I need an HR consultant for a small business?
Most small businesses don't need a full-time HR manager. They need the foundations set up properly once, and someone to call when something goes wrong. That's usually a few thousand dollars a year, not a salary.
The work doesn't shrink with headcount
A business with five employees has the same obligations as a business with five hundred. The contracts still have to match the award. The pay still has to be right. If someone isn't performing, the process for dealing with it is the same process.
What changes with size is who does the work. In a large organisation there's a team for it. In a small business it's usually the owner, at the kitchen table, after everything else is finished.
So the question isn't "am I big enough for HR". It's whether this work is getting done properly, by someone who has time to do it.
Five signs you've outgrown doing it yourself
1. You're not certain which award covers your staff
Award coverage drives pay rates, penalties, allowances, breaks and classifications. It's the most expensive thing to get wrong in Australian employment because it compounds quietly. An underpayment that started three years ago is still an underpayment, and it usually surfaces at the worst possible moment.
2. Your contracts came from a template, a friend, or an old employer
Templates aren't the problem. Templates that don't match the actual job, hours or award are. A contract earns its money on the worst day of the employment relationship, not the first. That's the day you find out whether it says what you thought it said.
3. Someone isn't performing and you've been putting it off
This is the most common reason people call. The conversation has been coming for months and it gets harder the longer it waits. There's a proper way to run it that protects the business and treats the person decently, and it isn't complicated once you've seen it done.
4. You're about to hire your first employee, or your first manager
The first hire sets the pattern for everyone after them. The first manager is where you hand over decisions that used to be yours. Both are far cheaper to get right than to unpick.
5. Something has already gone wrong
A resignation you didn't see coming, a complaint between two staff, a Fair Work letter, a payroll error someone has noticed. If you're already in it, you need help now, not a project.
HR consultant, employment lawyer, or HR software?
They solve different problems, and most businesses end up using some mix of all three.
HR software handles records, leave, onboarding paperwork and payroll integration. It's good at admin. It won't tell you whether to dismiss someone, and it won't carry the decision.
An employment lawyer is who you want when there's a claim on foot, a genuinely legal question, or a document that will be argued over.
HR advisory is the judgement in between: what's actually going on, what the sensible options are, and how to run the process so it holds up. Most of what goes wrong in small business employment is a process that was never run properly.
What it costs
A one-off review. A fixed-fee look at your contracts, policies, award coverage and processes, with a written report telling you what to fix and in what order. The TendHR HR Health Check starts at $1,800 and takes ten business days.
A build. Contracts, core policies, an onboarding and probation process and an award classification guide, set up from scratch. HR Foundations starts at $5,500.
Ongoing access. Someone to email when something comes up, on a monthly retainer rather than an hourly rate that makes you hesitate before asking. The Monthly Retainer starts at $900 a month.
For comparison, a part-time HR manager is generally well north of $60,000 a year once you include on-costs. For most businesses under about thirty staff, that maths doesn't work yet.
One thing worth knowing before you panic
If you employ fewer than 15 people, your employees can't bring an unfair dismissal claim until they've been with you 12 months. For larger employers it's six months. Most small employers don't know this, and it means there's usually more room to deal with a bad hire than you'd think.
It isn't a licence to be careless. General protections claims have no minimum employment period, and discrimination law applies from day one. But the sensible move is almost never the panicked one.
Working with TendHR
I'm Emily. Seventeen years in HR: operational HR, senior People and Culture leadership in public and community sector organisations and now advisory work with small and medium businesses across Australia. I work by phone and Teams, so where you are doesn't matter much.
If something is happening right now, say so when you get in touch. Urgent matters start with a short paid triage session so we can work out what needs to happen first.
Not sure where your business sits? The HR Health Check is a fixed-fee review that tells you what to fix and in what order.
This guide is general information, not legal advice, and doesn't take your specific circumstances into account. TendHR is not a law firm.