CASE STUDIES
What This Looks Like in Practice
CLIENT WORK
Real Situations, Real Outcomes. What Ballast Has Delivered for Businesses Like Yours.
From scaling businesses and investor-backed organisations to leadership teams under pressure, these companies benefited from the right capability at the right time, delivered through Ballast's embedded partnership model.
PE-BACKED B2B
Consolidated Timber Holdings Builds the People Capability Its Strategy Demanded
THE CHALLENGE
OUTCOMES
"We were bereft of a people plan and had an HR department that wasn't able to service the needs of the evolving organisation. We were too small to incorporate all of the HR specialisms needed to move the agenda forward, but too large to just have one or two individuals who could realistically cover all elements of HR."
Ballast embedded a full fractional people function inside Consolidated Timber Holdings, providing CPO leadership and specialist execution across six areas. Over twelve months, CTH moved from a people function that could not carry the commercial agenda to one that is actively shaping it.
People KPIs providing leadership visibility where none existed before
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Performance framework introduced across the business
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People plan developed and year-one delivery underway
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Full people function built and operational across six specialisms
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INDEPENDENT FAMILY BUSINESS
Stourflex Brings the Right People Leadership In at the Right Time
THE CHALLENGE
OUTCOMES
"We needed an expert to help us navigate this transition, someone who could build our systems from the ground up without disrupting our company culture."
A documented business strategy, where none existed before
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Stourflex recognised that supporting the team with structured, professional HR practices needed dedicated senior attention that the business could not give consistently while also running day to day. Nicola Hale embedded as fractional CPO closed specific gaps, from paper-based HR processes to a business strategy built from scratch, without imposing a framework that felt alien to how the business worked.
Consistent regular review processes implemented
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In-house recruitment and interview capability support
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Modern HR systems and a full performance cycle replacing paper-based processes
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EMPLOYEE-OWNED B2B
DeltaXignia Builds the People Infrastructure Its Transformation Demanded
THE CHALLENGE
OUTCOMES
"I knew from the outset I needed the support of a Chief People Officer skillset. General HR support was required across our business, from strategic people decisions to administration setup and ownership."
Talent strategy developed to support the pivot from technical to market-driven business
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Ballast entered as fractional CPO alongside CEO Eithne Devine-Hynes, then evolved into a full embedded HR partnership as the transformation took hold. DeltaXignia now has a people function built for where the business is going, not where it has been.
Dedicated HR function established for the first time in the organisation's history
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Hybrid capability model defined and embedded across the engineering team
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Embedded HR partnership in place, operating as an extension of the leadership team
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ORGANISATIONS WE'VE WORKED WITH
Built on Experience Across Sectors and Scales
From global enterprises and regulated industries to fast-growing independents, the breadth of experience that sits behind every Ballast engagement.
