Fractional HR Executive Support
Founder-led and family-owned companies rarely realize they've outgrown the way they manage people until it starts costing them — in time, money, risk, or momentum. I bring executive-level judgment and an operator's perspective to help owners build the organization their business needs.
What I Do
17 years of operator experience
I work across the organization — structure, workforce planning, talent strategy, roles and accountability, leadership, compensation, performance, systems, compliance, and the way work gets done.
Your business doesn't have to be big for people decisions to matter.
Where I Step In
Executive-level HR leadership and judgment, embedded in the business on a cadence that matches the business.
Identify vulnerabilities, strengthen controls, and build the infrastructure to protect the business as it grows.
Build the workforce around what the business needs — the right structure, roles, capacity, benefits, and cost.
Build managers who can actually manage — with clear expectations, accountability, and the systems to drive performance.
Build smarter, more efficient ways of working using the right combination of technology, AI, automation, and process design.
Why Fractional Works
A senior HR leader can cost $180K–$250K plus benefits before they've solved a single problem. Most growing businesses aren't ready for that investment — but they're well past the point where an office manager and a payroll provider are enough.
Fractional closes that gap.
I understand how decisions about people, structure, and leadership affect the broader business — and bring that perspective to every decision and recommendation.
You get the expertise, judgment, and experience of a senior HR executive — with a partner who stays alongside leadership to implement the changes and evolve the organization as the business grows.
The goal is a stronger organization — clearer accountability, more effective leadership, better operating discipline, and a workforce aligned around business priorities.
You Need Me When…
You've grown quickly, but nothing about how you manage people has evolved with the business.
You're the final stop for every people decision, and it's eating the time you should be spending on the business.
Turnover is high enough that you've stopped being surprised by it — and started budgeting for it.
You have a family member or long-tenured employee in a role the business has outgrown.
Someone told you your workers may be classified wrong, and you don't know how exposed you are.
You're planning a sale, leadership transition, or bringing in the next generation — and the organization isn't ready for what's next.
You've promoted your best people into management and watched them struggle without the support or tools to lead.
Labor is one of your largest expenses, but you don't have a clear view of whether you have the right people, in the right roles, doing the right work.
Or, Get It Right From the Start
For founders building from the ground up, the earliest decisions about people and structure often become the hardest ones to unwind later.
Who owns what. Who reports to whom. What gets hired now versus later. Where decision-making sits. How leaders operate together. How performance is managed. What systems and processes need to exist from day one — and what can wait.
The goal isn't to overbuild HR before you need it.
It's to build the right things, in the right sequence, so the organization can scale without having to undo what was created in a hurry.
How I Lead
I ask the questions others may avoid, challenge the thinking in the room, and bring issues into the open so we can actually solve them.
I don't overengineer solutions or introduce process for the sake of process. I build solutions that are fit for purpose, scalable, and designed to work in practice.
I don't look at people decisions in isolation. I consider the operational, financial, and human impact — and make the tradeoffs visible.
The work can be serious without making every interaction heavy. I bring candor, perspective, and enough humor to make hard things easier to work through.
Who I Am
Alicia Catatao
Founder, Align360 Consulting
I've spent more than seventeen years operating inside businesses — not advising from the outside, but accountable for outcomes. I've worked across multi-site operations, hourly workforces, high-growth environments, transformations and turnarounds where organizational challenges and business performance were inseparable.
I see the bigger picture—understanding complex business problems, identifying opportunities for growth, navigating competing priorities, and making difficult decisions. I don't just develop strategies; I know how to translate them into action, align people around a common direction, and move organizations through growth and change.
Proof
Rhodium
Cresco Labs
"Rhodium can be called two things. RBA or RAA. Rhodium Before Alicia or Rhodium After Alicia."
— CEO, RhodiumLet's talk about what's happening in the business, where performance is being constrained, and whether Align360 can help.