C4C People Partner: Case Study
How a growing SME built its people foundations before scaling.
Most SMEs bring in HR support when something has already gone wrong. HTMS chose to do things differently.
An ambitious engineering business with ten employees, HTMS made a deliberate decision to invest in people and culture from the outset, treating it as part of their business strategy, not an afterthought.
The result is a joined-up partnership that combines practical HR support, coaching and long-term people strategy, built to grow with the business.
Where it started
The relationship began through C4C Founder, Linda Butler, who had worked with Danilo, the CEO at HTMS, as his coach during his MBA at Warwick Business School. Over the years, they stayed in touch. When Danilo started thinking seriously about the people side of scaling HTMS, it was a natural next step to pick up that conversation with Linda.
Rather than a list of HR problems to fix, he came with a vision to build something intentional. A culture and a way of working that reflected his values and that could support the business as it grew.
The challenges
The business was performing well technically, but some of the people challenges that come with growth were starting to show:
- No formal HR infrastructure including contracts and policies
- People management was informal and inconsistent
- A leadership team that needed support to think and work together more intentionally
At the same time, the business had real ambition. HTMS is preparing to scale significantly, and Danilo recognised the importance of putting strong people foundations in place early, before growth made them more difficult to establish. Getting this right mattered, not just for culture, but for the business’s future investment readiness.
The approach
C4C introduced Elaine, an associate with a background spanning L&D, HR and coaching, who began working alongside the business on a part-time basis from January 2026. A second associate, Michael, supported the initial HR compliance work, reviewing contracts, policies and existing processes, before Elaine took the lead on the longer-term people strategy.
What made this engagement different was the deliberate combination of practical support and coaching. HTMS had specifically asked for someone who could do both, roll their sleeves up on the operational side of things, and bring a coaching lens to how the leadership team thought and worked together.
The work has covered:
- Auditing existing HR provision and ensuring compliance with contracts, policies and employment basics
- Developing a people strategy aligned to the business’s growth priorities
- Building a leadership competency framework, with the whole team assessed against it and individual development actions identified
- Facilitating senior team coaching sessions
- Running a growth mindset session for the whole team
- Supporting recruitment planning and hiring
- Introducing HR systems (Zoho) to make people data scalable
- Rolling out a fully updated handbook compliant with the Employment Rights Act 2026
- Beginning work on culture, values and building a feedback culture
What’s been most valuable
The leadership competency framework has been one of the most tangible early wins. Rather than starting from scratch, Elaine adapted an existing framework to fit the business, something that would have taken months in a larger organisation, but was agreed and implemented within weeks. Every member of the leadership team has now been assessed against it, with clear development priorities identified.
The team coaching is still early, but it’s already beginning to open up conversations that weren’t happening before. In a fast-growing SME, that kind of space, to step back, reflect and think about how the team is working together, is often the first thing to disappear. Creating it deliberately is part of what makes this approach different.
Perhaps most importantly, the organisation has moved from reacting to people challenges to planning for them.
What’s next
The next phase of the partnership focuses on embedding and building:
- Recruitment and hiring plans to support the growth roadmap
- Full implementation of HR systems and people data infrastructure
- Defining and embedding company values
- Continued leadership development and performance frameworks
- Building a stronger feedback culture across the team
Team coaching will continue throughout, supporting trust, communication and collaboration as the business scales.
A note on how this works
This partnership came about through an existing relationship, a reminder that the best people support is often built on trust that develops over time, not a formal brief.
It also shows what a People Partner approach can look like in practice. Not a fixed package or a one-size solution, but a flexible way of working that brings the right support at the right time, practical when it needs to be, and more strategic as the business grows.
“I’m delighted to work with Linda and the C4C team. Having known Linda for over a decade, I know how passionate and skilled she is on people’s development. For a scale up growing rapidly, pace is crucial – The C4C team responded to our requirements quickly and efficiently and we were ready to go with a couple of days. The input that Elaine and Michael have on our business is profound and matches the culture of HTMS, where we value highly our staff. Thank you, Linda!”
Danilo Di Salvo, Chief Executive Officer
Interested in how People Partner could work for your business? Get in touch.