Who decides? Clarifying HR responsibilities as your business grows

A manager is ready to make an offer. The recruiter is waiting for approval. Finance believes the role is still under discussion. The founder assumes someone else has closed the loop. Everyone has contributed, but nobody can say which decision comes next.

As a business grows, the founder’s informal knowledge of who does what can stop being enough. Adding an HR provider or another manager introduces more expertise and more handoffs. The useful question becomes: which responsibilities and decisions need to be explicit so that the work can move?

Separate doing the work from approving a decision

The UK Government People Group’s HR design guidance uses RACI to distinguish people who do the work, are accountable, are consulted, and are informed. It calls for a clear accountable owner. That is a useful process-design reference; its government arrangements are not a legal requirement for your small business.

You do not need to adopt a large organization’s entire model to make a practical improvement. For a small team, an initial working agreement might distinguish four things:

• Coordination: who gathers the information, keeps the next step moving, and updates the people involved.
• Decision authority: who can approve the action, including any agreed financial or organizational limits.
• Specialist input: whose advice is needed before a particular decision can be made.
• Continuity: who steps in when the usual owner is unavailable, and how they find the current information.

Discuss the agreement with the people named. A document cannot create authority, access, or capacity that they do not actually have. Where an employer obligation or specialist judgment is involved, a role label does not remove that responsibility.

Start with a decision that repeatedly gets stuck

Choose one recurring activity, such as approving a hire, changing a role, or preparing an employee’s departure. Follow a recent example from the first request to the final handoff. Ask where someone waited, repeated work, or made an assumption about approval.

Look at both the instructions and what actually happened. CIPD’s evidence-based HR guidance recommends considering research, professional expertise, organizational information, and stakeholder perspectives. Applied here, that means a written procedure is one source; the people who used it and the record of the actual handoff offer other useful evidence.

In the hypothetical hiring example, the recruiting coordinator might prepare the candidate and offer information. A business leader could approve the role and compensation within their authority. Payroll or another qualified specialist might confirm the setup information they require. The agreement should state which approval is needed before an offer is communicated and who confirms that the next team has received it.

Write the handoff in a form people can use

For the activity you selected, record the trigger, coordinator, approver, required input, expected output, and next recipient. Add the backup and the route for a blocked decision. Use role names alongside named contacts so the arrangement can be maintained when people change.

Be precise about timing. “As soon as possible” leaves the sender and receiver to interpret urgency differently. Agree a response expectation suited to the work, identify genuine exceptions, and explain how an urgent issue should be raised.

If an external HR professional supports the process, confirm which tasks they coordinate and which decisions stay with your leadership team. Put those responsibilities in the agreed scope. A provider can support the work more effectively when the organization’s own authority and escalation routes are clear.

Test the agreement before expanding it

Walk through the next real example with the people involved. Can the coordinator identify the next decision? Can the approver see the information needed? Does the backup know how to continue? Ask the receiving team whether the handoff was usable.

Review delays and unclear decisions alongside completion. Fewer messages alone would not show that the right review happened. Adjust the agreement when an approval, system, role, or provider changes.

Start with the decision your team is waiting on today. Clarify the next owner, required information, and decision route. If you need help coordinating the wider HR function, explore Comprehensive HR Support and the Avori Partner-Led Delivery Model.