Who the retainer is for
Between 30 and 150 employees, most companies have an HR administrator who handles contracts, payroll and reference letters reliably. What is missing is someone executive management can call when the works council demands a works agreement, a line manager wants to part with an employee, or growth calls for a salary structure. An interim engagement would be too much for those questions; a fixed Fractional day each week is often too rigid, because the questions do not arrive on Tuesdays. Three situations where the retainer fits, in my experience:
No head of HR
The managing director handles HR on the side, the administration runs. For works council, employment law and leadership questions the experience is missing.
A thinly staffed HR team
One or two people in HR, good at administration, but without backing on difficult cases and without time for build-out work.
After an interim engagement
The full-time engagement has ended, a permanent hire does not yet pay off. The retainer keeps the level and the availability.
What the hours cover
The block covers six areas, and their weighting shifts from month to month. In a quiet month, quarterly planning dominates; in a month with two dismissals, employment law does.
- A fixed point of contactA weekly slot with executive management, phone and email in between. Response within one working day, same day where deadlines are involved.
- Works councilConsultations, works agreements, monthly meetings. Prepared, led, or supported from the background, depending on who in the company holds the relationship.
- Employment law in practiceWritten warnings, dismissals, settlement agreements, fixed-term contracts, parental leave, sickness. Cases prepared so that your law firm only reviews instead of reconstructing.
- Sparring for line managersFixed slots for managers with a case: performance issue, conflict, salary demand, resignation threat.
- Growing AI routinesReference letters, job ads, onboarding documents, employee questions: maintaining existing routines, introducing new ones, with the works agreement in view.
- Quarterly planningOnce a quarter, one plan: which roles, which projects, which risks. One page for executive management, not a strategy deck.
What a month looks like
A retainer month is not an open hours account; it has a rhythm. Without one, the block gets eaten by ad-hoc questions in week one and is missing in week four for what was actually planned.
Session with executive management: open cases, decisions ahead, works council dates, priorities for the month.
Line manager slots, case preparation, alignment with the law firm. The HR team executes, I stay in the loop.
The topic of the quarter: pay bands, the works agreement on AI, onboarding, HRIS. One topic, not five.
What is done, what moves to next month. The reserve absorbs what nobody planned: the resignation on Friday afternoon.
Retainer, Fractional or Interim?
All three models bring the same experience into the company; they differ in volume and rhythm. The question is not which model is better, but which situation you are in.
Compared with a permanent hire: Interim, Fractional or permanent hire. On fixed days: Fractional HR.
Growing AI routines
The retainer is the model in which AI in HR grows best, because it reserves time across months rather than on a single day. A routine for reference letters can be introduced in an afternoon, but it only sticks if someone checks after four weeks whether the team is using it, whether the wording matches German reference letter conventions, and whether the works council has had its questions answered. Part of the block is reserved for exactly that.
In my experience we start with a routine that hurts nobody: reference letters or job ads. Onboarding documents and answers to recurring employee questions follow. Personal data does not go into a language model; drafts work with placeholders, and whatever the works council co-determines is settled first. The building blocks are under AI for HR Teams, the template for the agreement under The Works Council AI Agreement.
Term and contract
The retainer runs six to twelve months, then it is cancellable monthly. The minimum term has a reason: in the first two months I get to know the line managers, the works council and the open cases; only after that does the block earn its value. Anyone who needs someone for a single quarter is better served by Fractional HR or an HR Project Sprint.
Contractually the retainer is a service contract (Dienstvertrag) with a fixed block of hours, not an employment relationship. To keep it that way, I work for several companies in parallel, with my own equipment and without being integrated into your organisation the way an employee would be. The block can be adjusted at the start of each quarter, up or down. The twelve checkpoints against false self-employment (Scheinselbständigkeit) are listed under Employment status for Fractional HR and apply to the retainer in the same way.
How the cost works
The retainer is agreed as a flat monthly fee, derived from the block of hours and an hourly rate. The hourly rate sits below what a single consulting day costs, because you are reserving time across months. The fee stays the same across the term, whether a month is quiet or full, and that is precisely the advantage for planning.
The meaningful comparison is a part-time head of HR as a permanent hire, with the search, employer contributions and notice period that come with it, or the law firm hours you are paying today for cases that would cost far less if they arrived prepared. The concrete block and fee are settled on the first call. The logic behind it, with a worked example, is under What Fractional HR costs.
Head of HR as a permanent employee, full time and on fixed days, for companies between 30 and 4,400 employees. More about me
Frequently asked questions about the HR retainer
How many hours a month make sense?
In my experience, 20 hours for companies up to about 80 employees in steady operation, 40 hours where works council topics or growth are ongoing, and 60 hours when a project such as a pay structure or an HRIS rollout is running alongside. The block can be adjusted at the start of each quarter.
What happens to unused hours?
Up to a quarter of the block carries over into the following month, so quiet and busy months balance out. Beyond that, hours lapse, and that is deliberate: a retainer reserves my time, it is not a bank of hours to stockpile.
How quickly do you respond?
On working days within one working day, on employment law deadlines the same day. A fixed weekly slot with executive management is part of the block; in between we work by phone and email.
Does the retainer replace an employment law firm?
No. I bring employment law as it is practised: which dismissal will hold, how a written warning is worded, when the works council must be heard. Legal advice in the strict sense stays with your law firm, with whom I work directly. That saves billable hours at the firm, because cases arrive prepared.
Can the retainer turn into an interim engagement?
Yes. If a restructuring or a build-out comes up that needs full attention, we switch to a full-time engagement for the duration of the project and back into the retainer afterwards. No restart, because by then I know the company.
Is the retainer compliant with German rules on false self-employment?
Yes, as a service contract with a fixed block of hours, several clients in parallel, my own equipment and no instructions on how I work. The twelve checkpoints are the same as for Fractional HR and are listed under Employment status for Fractional HR.