What is a Fractional Employee?

Hiring a fractional employee means bringing someone in for a ‘fraction’ of the time a normal employee would work. You might consider this if you need high-level expertise but don’t have a full time role or if you are setting up a function and need oversight before handing off to more junior team members.

Benefits of Fractional Hiring

• Flexibility - hire for what you need today and scale up or down as needed 

• Lower total cost - higher hourly wage / no benefits / fewer hours 

• Limit risk of bad hire - it is easier to end the engagement compared to a full time termination

• Access to network of talent if required - other Chiefs of Staff, coaches, etc 

• Outsider perspective - more likely to speak truth to power and challenge

Tradeoffs of Fractional Hiring

• You don’t have full time support, your fractional employee is likely supporting other clients as well

• Not building internal talent (note - this can be mitigated by aligning a junior person for mentorship or rotating rising talent through a stint as junior Chief of Staff)