Diagnose & Prioritize
Know what is working, what is missing and what needs attention first.
People Health Check · HR Compliance Audit
For growing organizationsExplore the People Health Check
Practical HR for organizations that have outgrown winging it.
Your organization has grown. The way you manage people needs to grow with it. We build practical HR systems, strengthen managers and help you handle people issues with clarity, consistency and confidence.
A short discovery call. No pitch. No obligation.
Newfoundland and Labrador and Atlantic Canada. Virtual work across Canada.
How it happens
Nobody plans to run without HR systems. You grow into the gap.
The team grows. New managers are added. Funding creates new roles. Policies get borrowed, written after something goes wrong, or read differently depending on who is deciding.
Eventually too much important knowledge lives in a few people's heads, and one person becomes the answer to every hard question.
You did not create these problems on purpose. Growth created complexity. Now the systems need to catch up.
Sound familiar?
Has your organization reached this point?
- Your managers handle the same situation three different ways.
- Every difficult employee issue ends up with the Executive Director or owner.
- Performance problems drag on because managers are unsure what to say, document or do next.
- Your policies exist, but actual practice does not always match them.
- Hiring and onboarding depend on who happens to be involved.
- The informal systems that worked at 12 people are breaking at 40.
- You are not sure where your biggest HR risks actually are.
- You know things need to improve, but not what to tackle first.
Your organization should not need a crisis before its people systems improve.
Start where the pressure is
You don't need a massive HR overhaul.
You don't need to know what kind of HR support you need before you call. Tell us what's happening. We'll help you figure out what deserves attention first, and what can wait.
A typical path
- 1A short discovery call about what's going on
- 2A People Health Check or Compliance Audit, if it helps
- 3A prioritized roadmap you can act on yourself
- 4Our help building the top priorities, only if you want it
The easiest place to start
The People Health Check
Know what's working, what's missing and what needs attention next.
A practical look across hiring, onboarding, policies, performance, attendance, accommodation, manager practice, pay and exits. You get a clear picture and a 90-day plan. Implement it yourself or ask us to help. There is no pressure to do more.
You leave with
- People systems assessment
- Risk and gap summary
- Priority recommendations
- Leadership discussion
- 90-day people action plan
What we do
Four ways we help.
Build Better People Systems
Turn informal practices into systems your organization can rely on.
Policies and manager guidance · Hiring and onboarding · Performance, attendance and accommodation processes
Equip Managers to Manage
Give managers the tools and confidence to handle people issues well.
Training on your own policies · Realistic scenarios · Performance conversations
Strategic People Support
Deeper work once the foundations are in place.
Structure and role design · People metrics and reporting · HR technology and AI enablement
How we work
Diagnose. Build. Enable. Embed.
- 01
Diagnose
Understand what is actually happening, and what to fix now versus later.
- 02
Build
Create the policies, processes and tools around how you really operate.
- 03
Enable
Train managers and leadership to use them with confidence.
- 04
Embed
Check the systems work in practice and refine what does not.
We don't build HR documents for the shelf. We build systems people actually use.
Why Plainspoken HR
What makes us different.
Systems, not just documents
A policy by itself does not fix a workplace. We connect policy, process, manager behaviour and documentation.
Practical over theoretical
You leave knowing what to do on Monday, not holding a report.
Founder-led
You work directly with David and Lydia. No hand-off to a junior team.
We tell you when to stop
If you are ready to run something yourself, we will say so.
David + Lydia
Better workplaces need good systems and good human judgment.
David approaches workplace problems through systems, policy, research and organizational design. Lydia brings people strategy, facilitation and the ability to build trust quickly in difficult rooms. Together we can design the system and understand the people expected to use it.
Experience behind the advice
Plainspoken HR is new. Our experience is not.
Before starting Plainspoken HR, David and Lydia spent years doing this work inside organizations: leading HR, supervising in unionized environments and sitting in the difficult conversations.
- HR leadership
- Employee and labour relations
- Policy and people-system development
- Supervisory leadership in unionized healthcare
- Accessibility and accommodation
- Compensation and labour-market research
- Manager support and facilitation
- Organizational technology management
David Button, MER, MTM, BTech · Lydia Dagogo-Jack, MER, CHRP
Who we serve
Organizations that have outgrown informal HR.
Growing organizations where the mission or business has moved faster than the people infrastructure behind it. Often 15 to 75 employees, though that is a guide, not a rule.
Organizations
- Nonprofits and charities
- Community organizations
- Social enterprises
- Values-driven small and mid-sized businesses
Who's doing HR now
- An Executive Director or owner
- An operations manager
- An administrator or HR coordinator
- An outsourced provider
Not sure what kind of HR support you need? That's okay.
Start with what's creating the most pressure. We'll help you work out what comes first, including when the answer is less consulting, not more.
A short discovery call. No pitch. No obligation.