HR Outsourcing · Compared
Fractional HR gives you senior HR expertise for the hours you actually need, typically between 10 and 200 employees. Full-time HR wins when daily employee-relations volume fills a desk.
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Side By Side
| Factor | Fractional HR | Full-Time HR Hire |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | A fraction of a salary; flat monthly in the BEG model | $60K-$100K per year all-in for one generalist |
| Seniority for the money | Senior-level judgment at partial-hours pricing | The same budget buys mid-level, full-time presence |
| Bench depth | A team behind the lead: leave, compliance, multi-state specialists | One background, one set of strengths and gaps |
| Availability | Scheduled plus on-demand; no PTO gaps, no resignation risk | In the building daily, out when sick or gone |
| Sweet spot | Roughly 10 to 200 employees | 200-plus employees or heavy daily employee-relations volume |
| Ramp time | Weeks; playbooks and templates already exist | A search measured in months, then a build from scratch |
| Culture presence | Visits and video, not the hallway | Reads the room every day: the honest advantage |
| Scaling | Turn the dial up or down with headcount | Each stage change means another hire or a layoff |
Sources: US Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division · NAPEO industry data
The Real Tradeoffs
Fractional HR borrows its name from fractional CFOs: senior expertise purchased in the quantity you need instead of the quantity a salary forces on you. A fractional HR leader or team owns your compliance calendar, handbook, leave process, and manager coaching on a recurring basis, present enough to know your business, without occupying a desk five days a week. It is not a hotline you call after something breaks, and it is not a consultant who ships a binder and disappears. The defining feature is ongoing ownership of the HR function at partial-time cost, with employment law obligations from agencies like the Department of Labor tracked continuously, not annually.
Around ten employees, HR stops being an occasional errand: you have a handbook to defend, leave requests with legal deadlines, and terminations that can turn into charges. But the workload does not fill a full-time desk until somewhere around 200 employees, and often later in calm white-collar environments. Inside that window, a full-time hire spends real hours underemployed while costing $60K-$100K, and the roles companies can afford at that stage tend to be junior exactly when the questions are hardest. Fractional flips the ratio: senior judgment, sized to actual volume. That window is where most BEG HR outsourcing clients live.
Some HR work only happens in person. Reading a shop floor after a difficult announcement, catching a brewing conflict before it becomes a complaint, being the door someone knocks on at 4pm with something they were not going to put in writing: no remote model replicates that. When daily employee-relations volume is high, think frequent investigations, heavy hourly turnover, constant scheduling friction, or any union environment, a full-time presence stops being overhead and becomes infrastructure. Past roughly 200 employees this is the normal state, and pretending otherwise would be selling, not advising. The full build-or-buy math lives at HR outsourcing vs hiring an HR manager.
The strongest configuration for growing companies is rarely either extreme. A common pattern: hire one in-house HR generalist or people-ops coordinator for presence, culture, and daily employee relations, and keep a fractional team behind them for the fifty-state compliance surface, leave administration edge cases, and the questions a solo practitioner should not answer alone. The in-house person gets a bench instead of a void; the company gets coverage without building a department. This also de-risks the solo hire, because when that person takes leave or resigns, the HR function does not go dark. The dial turns gradually instead of flipping.
Fractional HR is sold three ways: hourly, which punishes you for calling; retainers with hour caps, which turn every February into a true-up negotiation; and flat monthly fees, which make the cost boring and predictable. BEG uses the third: a flat monthly price by headcount and plan level, estimated on screen before anyone calls you. Also confirm what is behind the fractional person. A solo consultant is a single point of failure with a template folder; the BEG model, detailed on the HR outsourcing overview, puts certified HR professionals and a full compliance stack behind every account. Marketing agencies sizing this exact decision can start at HR outsourcing for marketing agencies.
Which Should You Choose
Fractional fits. You get senior HR ownership of the handbook, leave, and compliance for a fraction of a salary, and the plan level moves with your headcount.
Hire full-time, and we mean it. Investigations every week, high hourly turnover, or 200-plus employees need someone in the building. Fractional backup still covers the specialist gaps.
Neither fractional nor full-time HR delivers that: it is a PEO, and we will tell you so on the call. Fractional expertise and pooled benefits are different purchases.
Where BEG Fits
BEG HR outsourcing, powered by isolved, delivers what fractional HR promises with a team instead of a single consultant: certified HR professionals on your policies, compliance monitoring across all 50 states, and a dedicated HR Business Partner on the top plan. You stay the only employer; there is never co-employment. Answer six questions and your flat monthly estimate appears on screen in about ninety seconds.
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Questions
Senior HR expertise purchased in the amount you actually need: a certified professional or team handling your compliance, policies, and people questions on a recurring basis, without a full-time salary.
Roughly 10 to 200 employees. Below that, on-demand answers may be enough; above it, daily employee-relations volume usually justifies someone in the building, often with fractional backup retained.
Fractional HR is one flavor of HR outsourcing. The BEG model delivers the same outcome as a fractional leader plus a team behind them, with flat monthly pricing instead of hourly rates.
When there is a desk worth of daily work: heavy hourly turnover, frequent investigations, constant scheduling friction, or 200-plus employees. Presence in the building becomes the deciding advantage.
Yes, and the hybrid is common: an in-house generalist owns culture and daily employee relations while the fractional team covers multi-state compliance, leave administration, and specialist questions.
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