The Time-Sharing HR Director

Interview with Philippe CAQUET

More and more articles, conferences and presentations are dedicated to the time-sharing HR Director. But who exactly are they? We interviewed Philippe CAQUET, Co-Founder of Boost’RH, to share his vision of time-sharing Human Resources.

How did this idea of a time-sharing HR Director come to you?

I spent the entire first part of my career in HR, having been an HR Director for 25 years in subsidiaries of major international groups (Lagardère, Kering, Sanofi, Gucci, Perstorp, Daimler Benz…). In parallel, for 15 years I had the opportunity to serve as Presiding Judge at the Labour Court. During my three terms, I became aware that small and medium-sized businesses needed operational HR support that was flexible and time-shared. That was more than 10 years ago, and I then created Boost’RH to address this need and offer the new concept of the time-sharing HR Director.

What are the missions of a time-sharing HR Director?

You mention the missions of a time-sharing HR Director — that was the service Boost’RH offered up until 5 years ago. Now, we offer a flexible service tailored to the client’s needs.

• You are an SME with 30 employees and you need an HR professional managing your payroll, your employment contracts, and your legal and administrative obligations — we will assign you a Payroll and HR Administration Manager. For 2 or 3 half-days per month, they will handle all HR administrative tasks (payroll control, declarations, employment contracts, mutual termination agreements, professional interviews, election organization, preparation of CSE meetings…). They will ensure the company director’s legal compliance and support them, their managers, and their employees on HR matters.
• You are a fast-growing start-up and wish to outsource the HR function to focus more on developing your company. We provide you with a time-sharing HR Manager (Human Resources Manager) who will manage the entire HR function: Payroll and HR Administration, Recruitment, Training, Skills Development, Individual or Team Coaching, CSE Employee Relations… This HR Manager will work 3 or 4 half-days per month alongside the company director and employees.
• You are an SME with 40 employees with an ambitious three-year development plan, requiring the company and its competencies to evolve — we offer the experience of a senior HR Director who, following an HR situation assessment, will advise the company director and the executive committee on building an HR strategy. They will thus modestly contribute to the company’s development by leveraging drivers of efficiency, performance, and employee motivation.
• Finally, you are a large international group with an entire HR team at your disposal, but you need to manage, for a limited period, a small subsidiary in a remote region. You will look for a time-sharing HR Director who, familiar with large international groups and complex political contexts, will manage the HR scope of this subsidiary, under the guidance of the Group HR Director.

As you can see, there is not just one time-sharing HR Director, but an entire HR team tailored to each client’s specific needs. I prefer to speak of time-sharing HR — I find the term more accurate.

A professional and specialist in the field, this time-sharing HR professional is supported at Boost’RH by HR Experts who assist them on highly specialized topics. I will simply give the example of the Employment Law specialist, the Payroll Auditor, the Recruiter, the Coach, or the Psychosocial Risk Prevention Manager.

Ultimately, it is not a single time-sharing HR Director who is dedicated to the client, but an entire structured HR team that can step in according to the client’s evolving needs.

Who can benefit from the services of a time-sharing HR Director?

We have already partially addressed this point — any company that does not have the size, the resources, or the need to recruit a full-time HR professional: the start-up being created that is looking to hire its first employee, the very small business with 10 employees that needs to establish the HR function, the SME with 30 employees that outsources the HR function, and companies with more than 50 employees that seek HR expertise without the constraint of hiring a full-time employee.

Moreover, our ability to respond very quickly to client requests enables companies to make the right decisions promptly. Let us emphasize that the relevance of our advice comes not only from our expertise, but also from our thorough knowledge of the context, the company, and its employees.

What does a time-sharing HR Director cost?

A time-sharing HR professional should generate savings for the company and not be a cost. You may be surprised by my words, but when you reduce your legal budget and recruitment costs, when your sick leave and absenteeism decrease and your employees are confident, motivated and positive, you achieve savings — even if you are paying a time-sharing HR professional for 2 to 4 half-days per month.

Of course, this approach is not scientific, because we cannot measure the breadth of the smiles of motivated employees, but it is verified economically year after year.

But to answer your question precisely, a time-sharing HR service costs on average less than €100 excl. VAT per month per employee.

You offer interventions of just a few half-days per month. Is that enough?

Yes, experience has proven it. Our HR professionals are experienced and, supported by our experts, manage 6 to 8 clients simultaneously. To do this, they must possess strong organizational skills, be efficient, responsive and adaptable. These qualities are not something everyone possesses.

What is the future of the time-sharing HR Director?

The future looks very bright. More and more, this flexible, agile and highly operational model is gaining traction. It makes sense in a society undergoing profound change that needs to adapt as quickly as possible to a shifting environment, and to do so with great flexibility. It is a way of working that has evolved significantly over the past 10 years and continues to change every day.