A practical guide for founders building teams across temporary, fractional and permanent hiring

Let’s be honest, the best founders and leaders are pirates, the change-makers steering organisations into new markets, new opportunities, and new horizons. Early hiring is difficult, especially when you’re looking for a recruitment agency for founders who understand temporary, fractional and permanent hiring.

Pirate ship navigating choppy waters – metaphor for hiring strategy for founders

The founders who rewrite rules, build what didn’t exist yesterday, and create teams that most people can’t even imagine.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably one of them.

You move fast, take smart risks, and expect your people strategy to keep pace.

And that’s exactly why hiring feels so hard right now — whether you’re recruiting temporary staff, fractional specialists, or permanent leaders.

Because you’re not hiring to “fill roles.”

You’re hiring to accelerate your mission.

If you’re growing fast and looking for a scaling-focused recruitment agency, these steps matter

Why Founders Need a Recruitment Agency That Understands Their First Crew

1. You’re Going to Need to Give People a Map (Permanent, Temp or Fractional) 🗺️

Whether you’re hiring a temporary team member for immediate impact, a fractional expert for specialised capability, or a permanent leader to scale with the business – clarity is the foundation of great hiring. Working with a recruitment agency for founders will support your mission to really believe that people can only deliver if they understand:

• What success looks like

• What they’re accountable for

• How their role supports revenue, growth or stability

• What “treasure” means inside your business

Clarity isn’t optional.
Clarity is navigation.

Ambiguity is the biggest reason hires fail, especially in scaling organisations.

2. You’re Going to Need Co-Captains, Not Passengers (The First 5–10 Hires) ⚓

In the early journey of a company, every hire shapes the culture. Many founders work with a specialist recruitment partner because they are facing the same challenge of getting the profile right.

You’re not hiring for “help.”

You’re hiring for:

• Decision makers

• Activators

• Builders

• People who can operate without hand-holding

• People who lift pressure, not add to it

Whether they’re temporary, fractional, or full-time, your early team must think with you, not just work for you.

Shared mission beats comfort every time.

3. You’re Going to Need to Launch People Properly (Onboarding Strategy) 🪝

Onboarding is where most recruitment failures begin – not in the interview process. As a recruitment agency for founders, we see this pattern a lot.

A seamless onboarding experience creates:

• Speed

• Alignment

• Retention

• Productivity

• Confidence

This applies to temps, fractional specialists, and permanent hires.

People can only perform when they know the pace, rhythm, and expectations of the ship they’ve boarded.

Onboarding is your compass – not admin.

4. Your First Crew Sets the Code (Culture & Workforce Planning) 🚢

The first 3–5 hires determine:

• How decisions get made

• How fast things move

• The standards everyone else rises (or falls) to

• What behaviours are rewarded

• What the business feels like

Culture isn’t a slide deck.

Culture is the weather people walk into every day.

If you get your early hiring strategy wrong, you spend years bailing water.

Get it right – and good people start finding you.

5. You’re Going to Need Consistency, Not Cameos (Permanent vs Fractional) 🧭

Fractional and interim talent are brilliant for:

• Expertise

• Acceleration

• Transformation

• Plugging capability gaps

• Strategic leadership

But culture is shaped by people who show up every day.

That’s why an effective workforce planning strategy blends:

• Permanent hires for consistency

• Temporary hires for speed and elasticity

• Fractional hires for specialist capability

The mix matters.

The rhythm matters.

Consistency matters.

🏝️ The Outcome All Founders Want

When your hiring strategy, workforce planning, onboarding and clarity are aligned, everything changes.

You unlock the thing every founder craves:

The freedom to plan new adventures, not constantly patch holes below deck.

Strong hires don’t slow you down.

They make you unstoppable.

Looking for support with temporary hiring, fractional leaders or permanent recruitment?

At Yellow Bricks, were an expert recruitment agency for founders who want to build high-performing teams and future-ready workforce plans – including:

• Temporary staffing for immediate needs (YB Temps)

• Permanent recruitment for growth and scale roles

• Embedded Recruitment for expert-led momentum

• People strategy & workforce planning for scaling organisations

If you’re planning your next hire and want it to land well, send me a message to Abby@yellowbricks.co.uk and I will share what a strong hiring + onboarding map looks like for a founder at your stage.