Framing your pitch for HR budget when you need external help
Sections of your HR plan will cover areas where internal HR are fully capable and can cover themselves with good levels of proficiency, but what of those areas where external help is required or preferred? How do you frame your pitch for HR budget for external support in a way that business leaders will sign off on?
Guidelines for framing your HR budget pitch for consultancy help
It’s important to frame your budget proposal around business protection and performance – managing risk and achieving growth are challenges that keep business leaders up at night.
And don’t forget that asking for extra HR help because you’re overloaded or overwhelmed is not necessarily the right approach – some leaders will translate that into signals that you can’t cope or you’re not adequately qualified for the evolving role.
Instead, consider these guidelines.
1 Risk and compliance protection
Business leaders talk in terms of managing risks – risk of inflation pushing up costs, risk of not retaining their top talent, risk of compliance not being adhered to, and so much more. Minimising or avoiding such risks is crucial to business success as this in turn minimises costs.
As organisations grow so does the people risk, for example one poorly handled employee relations issue or a compliance gap could cost significantly more than proactive support. If you need support in areas where external expert input is required, then it will help your cause to quantify that support. How much would it cost if:
- The business faced tribunal costs due to a poorly handled employee issue – a cost which could have been avoided if management had adequate employee relations training.
- The business recruited an unsuitable candidate for a leadership or management role and needed to re-hire – investing in talent assessment services to ensure the right candidate is chosen first time will save £10,000s.
- The brand and reputation of the business was exposed to bad PR due to an exodus of employees – an avoidable issue if the wellbeing and satisfaction of those employees was considered more carefully.
If seeking external support to mitigate risks, ask your consultant or supplier to help you to provide estimates of the cost of doing nothing – a good HR consultancy will have come across many a typical case and will be able to provide you with compelling arguments and guideline figures.
2 Link your pitch for external support to growth and capability
If a business expects to grow without proactive input from HR, then they are heading down a path with many a pothole. A reactive response to growth will find a business on the back foot trying to scale while putting employees under huge pressure.
Specialist reinforcement from an HR consultancy will ensure that there is support for the HR person or team when needed. It will also provide leadership with the reassurance that complex employee matters, specialist training or even organisational design can be taken care of professionally without the requirement to make a new hire, and all the time and costs that this will incur.
3 Protecting leadership time
It goes without saying that business leaders are busy. They have huge responsibility for the success of the organisation and their time is money. Ensuring that leadership time is protected by reducing time spent on navigating complex employee issues, for example, is an argument that will resonate.
Having the reassurance that leadership time will be freed up to concentrate on other areas of the business will be music to your boss’s ears!
Closing thoughts: positioning HR support as a strategic investment
Ultimately, securing budget for external HR support is less about asking for additional resource and more about demonstrating clear business value.
When your proposal highlights how specialist expertise protects the organisation from risk, strengthens capability and safeguards leadership time, the conversation shifts from cost to investment – you’re presenting external HR support as a strategic enabler of business success.
Seen through this lens, the value of external HR expertise to reinforce internal HR becomes clear. Whether it is strengthening recruitment decisions, supporting leadership through complex employee relations matters, or preparing the organisation for growth, external specialists provide targeted expertise exactly when it is needed – without the fixed cost of additional headcount.
By carefully framing your HR budget request, you move the conversation away from “extra help for HR” and toward building a stronger, more healthy and resilient organisation.
If you are looking for an HR consultancy to work with you on a day-to-day basis or on a one-off project, get in touch and talk to one of our experienced consultants.
