Evelyn Harris Advisory works with founders, CEOs and leadership teams to fix talent acquisition functions that are underperforming, inconsistently run, or unable to scale. Senior leadership capability, without the permanent headcount cost.
Reduction in cost per hire, PE-backed tech business
Days cut from average time to hire
Hires delivered in a single year
Countries operated across in TA leadership roles
Most talent acquisition problems share a common root: the function was built reactively, not by design. Whether through embedded fractional leadership or focused advisory, every engagement is oriented toward the same outcome: a hiring function that performs under pressure and stands up to scrutiny.
Senior TA leadership, embedded inside the organisation over an agreed period. Operating with full accountability for outcomes, not recommendations delivered from a distance. The hiring strategy is owned, executed and reported on at board level.
The commercial case is straightforward: a senior TA Director costs £120k–£160k permanently, plus recruitment fees, on-costs and notice periods. Fractional engagement delivers the same leadership capability at a fraction of the cost, available immediately, with no long-term commitment required.
Well suited to organisations scaling rapidly, undergoing transformation, preparing for investment, or carrying a leadership gap they cannot afford to fill permanently at pace.
For organisations whose TA function is underperforming, inconsistent, or built on reactive habits. A structured audit identifies the systemic gaps, and a clear operating model is designed: one that can be defended to leadership, to regulators, and to candidates.
Also available to organisations building a formal TA capability for the first time, providing the operating model, processes, governance and tooling to go from zero to operationally sound.
Advisory clients receive access to the full toolkit and systems used in fractional engagements, including process documentation, governance templates and hiring manager frameworks.
Reduction in cost per hire
PE-backed technology businessAgency spend reduction across European operations
Global engineering organisationAverage time to hire, reduced in under 12 months
PE-backed technology businessMathew Harris is the founder and principal of Evelyn Harris Advisory. His background spans over a decade of senior HR and talent acquisition leadership across global organisations, including a multinational industrial group operating in more than 60 countries and a PE-backed technology business operating at scale.
The common thread across those environments was complexity: geographically distributed workforces, high-pressure hiring cycles, underperforming TA functions, and the requirement to build systems that could operate without constant senior intervention.
That experience now informs the advisory practice, focused on one thing: building talent acquisition functions that are well-designed, well-governed, and able to perform when it matters.
Work with MathewTalent Acquisition leadership, function remediation, and defensible hiring system design. Particular depth in high-volume, cross-border, and regulated hiring environments.
12 years in HR and TA leadership roles across global businesses, operating at Head of TA level and equivalent across multiple sectors and geographies, including the UK, Europe and international markets.
Sector-agnostic. Previous mandates span engineering, technology, financial services, professional services and consumer.
Every engagement begins with an honest assessment of the current state. Recommendations are specific, implementable, and tied to outcomes the business can measure.
TA problems are rarely one-off events. They are symptoms of a function that was not designed to scale. The work here addresses root causes, not surface issues.
A structured review of the current TA function: process, governance, tooling, team capability and hiring manager behaviours. We identify where performance is lost and why.
A clear operating model for the function, with processes that are defensible, systems that are fit for purpose, and a governance structure that holds up under scrutiny.
Implementation: ATS selection and rollout, RFP management, hiring manager programmes, team training, and the documentation that makes the system transferable.
Handover or continuation. The function should operate without permanent external dependency. Where fractional leadership continues, it does so against clear milestones.
Engagements across PE-backed technology, engineering, and global HR functions.
We needed to scale hiring quickly but our TA function was not set up to deliver. Mathew reset the structure, capability and strategy, introducing a disciplined, compliant approach that brought control back into the business. Within a few months hiring volume increased, agency reliance dropped, and TA costs decreased materially.
Before Mathew came in, TA was struggling to keep pace with the business. He diagnosed the issues quickly, reset the strategy and built a function capable of delivering at scale, with a level of structure and discipline that had not existed before. Hiring became faster, more consistent and far more effective. What stood out was his ability to take a reactive, transactional team and turn it into a forward-thinking recruitment operation.
When Mathew arrived, our TA team were functioning as administrators. Hiring managers were bypassing them entirely, the SLT had no confidence in the function, and we had no way to explain to the business why certain candidates had been selected. He reviewed the team, the processes, the approval chains and the governance, and rebuilt almost everything within six months. The transformation was significant. I would recommend him without hesitation for any TA engagement, including problems you do not yet know you have.
Mathew reduced our agency spend in Europe from EUR 8m to EUR 3m. He upskilled our TA teams, trained our hiring managers on how to engage TA effectively, how to plan for skills gaps, and how to interview consistently. Brilliant to work with and a consummate professional.
A suite of standalone tools and documented systems built from the same frameworks used in advisory and fractional engagements. Available to TA leaders and HR teams who want to improve their function without a full consulting engagement.
Launching shortly. Register below to be notified when products go live.
Hiring System
The Defensible Hiring System™
Diagnostic Tool
TA Health Diagnostic
Training Programme
Hiring Manager Capability Programme
Selection Guide
Tech Stack Selection & RFP Guide
If you are dealing with a TA function that is not performing, building one from scratch, or carrying a leadership gap at pace, this is worth a conversation. All enquiries are treated with discretion.