“We need to hire, but our roles and pay are unclear.”
Clear roles, practical pay ranges, and a hiring plan managers can use.
HR & compensation leadership for growing companies
Senior HR leadership for companies that have outgrown winging it.
You started your company to bring an idea to life. As the team grows, hiring, pay decisions, manager questions, and people processes can begin to take time away from that work. Level Consulting helps you make those decisions with confidence, with experienced HR and compensation support shaped around your priorities and stage of growth.
Build the right team. Support the people you have. Stay focused on what you set out to do.
60-second people check
5 questions
How solid is your people foundation?
Answer five quick questions about your team — pay, hiring, and who makes the people calls. In under a minute you'll get an honest read on where you stand and which kind of support fits. It's free, no email required to see your result.
Sound familiar?
“Every people decision comes back to the founder.”
Guidance and processes that help managers make sound decisions.
“We’re growing faster than our HR support.”
Senior expertise for the work at hand, without adding a full-time leadership role.
How it works
A clear path from first conversation to steady leadership.
01
Listen and diagnose
Understand the business context, the visible challenge, and the organizational issue underneath it.
02
Set the mandate
Define the right model, decision rights, cadence, priorities, and outcomes before the work begins.
03
Lead and deliver
Bring structure to ambiguity, move decisions forward, and leave leaders with systems they can sustain.
Service index
Where senior People leadership changes the trajectory.
The work is shaped around business outcomes—not a menu of disconnected HR tasks.
01
Fractional CHRO leadership
Senior counsel at the executive table, translating business priorities into a focused People agenda, sound decisions, and accountable execution.
02
Organization & workforce
Roles, levels, structures, succession, and workforce plans that clarify accountability and prepare the organization for what comes next.
03
Total rewards
Compensation philosophy, salary structures, incentives, retention approaches, and governance balanced for competitiveness, equity, and affordability.
04
Talent & manager capability
Practical performance, development, talent review, and coaching systems that managers can use consistently—not programs that sit on a shelf.
05
HR operations & technology
Reliable processes, policies, data, decision rights, and HR technology foundations that support growth rather than slowing it down.
06
Change & people analytics
Clear workforce insight, stakeholder alignment, communications, and implementation support for complex organizational change.
07
M&A & growth transitions
People diligence, integration planning, leadership alignment, and steady hands through acquisitions, restructurings, and rapid scaling.
Milestone 01 of 05
Listen
A first conversation about what's working and what's slipping
- Listen
- Assess
- Design
- Build
- Scale
Founder & principal
Lydia Hatcher, SHRM-SCP
Lydia is a strategic People and Total Rewards executive with more than 15 years of experience helping leaders build, scale, and transform the way their organizations work. Her perspective spans entrepreneurial teams with fewer than 100 employees and global enterprises with more than 100,000.
She is known for finding the organizational problem beneath the presenting symptom, then building practical, data-informed solutions leaders can execute. Her experience includes Intel, global HR transformation across 18 operating companies, consulting across sectors, and hands-on leadership through the full employee lifecycle. Engagements often reach beyond the core People agenda — M&A diligence and integration, first-CHRO builds for scaling companies, restructuring support, and board-level counsel on executive talent decisions.
SHRM-SCPLean Six Sigma Green BeltPittsburgh based · Broadly available
Ways to engage
The right level of leadership for the moment you’re in.
Every engagement is scoped around the situation, outcomes, access, and operating cadence your team actually needs.
Project
Defined engagement
A focused, time-bound body of work with clear deliverables and a practical handoff.
- Organizational or job architecture
- Compensation and rewards design
- Talent, succession, or HR assessment
Most common
Fractional retainer
Ongoing senior People leadership on a predictable cadence, aligned to the priorities that matter now.
- Executive advising and decision support
- Standing leadership-team presence
- Flexible priorities as needs evolve
Embedded
Interim people leadership
A deeper engagement to stabilize, build, or transform the People function through a period of change.
- Dedicated executive ownership
- Multiple coordinated workstreams
- Capability building for the long term
Bridge to hire
Path to permanent
An engagement that doubles as an extended interview — prove the fit through real work before a full-time offer.
- Trial period with real outcomes
- Structured handoff or conversion
- Permanent CHRO placement when it fits
Pricing is tailored after a scoping conversation.
Next step
Let’s find the right fit for your team.
Share what is changing, where the organization feels stuck, and what a strong outcome would look like — whether the answer is a retainer or a project. The first conversation is about fit—not a sales pitch.