Most workplace problems aren't HR problems.
They're a conversation nobody had six months ago.
Welcome to HFI Consulting. We help business owners and managers across WA have the conversation they've been avoiding. Properly, once, so it doesn't come back.
It's not that HR is hard. It can just be uncomfortable.
We take the discomfort out of it for you.
HR rules are not the hard part. Saying the first sentence is.
Most people who ring me already know what needs to happen. They've just been putting off the conversation, sometimes for months, hoping it sorts itself out.
So we start there. How you open it, what you say when they push back, and where the legal line sits. Then you have the conversation, and ring me after to tell me how it went.
None of that means you're bad at your job. It usually means nobody ever taught you this bit.
Does this sound familiar?
FA complaint has landed on your desk. Someone already tried to deal with it and it didn't work. Now it's your problem to solve.
You know what needs to happen. You just don't know how to open the sentence.
You're worried that saying the wrong thing turns a people problem into a legal one.
You've got contracts you copied from somewhere and you're not sure they'd hold up when tested.
You keep hoping problems settle down on their own. But they haven’t yet.
Your not sure if you’re even compliant.
What I believe
Most workplace problems are communication problems wearing a policy costume. By the time something looks like an HR crisis, it's usually a conversation that didn't happen months earlier.
Leadership is learned, not switched on. Nobody is born knowing how to tell someone their performance isn't good enough. You get better by doing it, badly at first, with someone in your corner.
Meet people in the middle before you force anything on them. Understanding earns cooperation. Policy on its own doesn't.
Nobody should end up in the too-hard basket. It's not a business's job to fill someone's whole cup. It is the job to not let a person become the file nobody opens.
Nobody should trade their years and their health to prove loyalty to a system. Work matters. But it isn't supposed to swallow a person whole.
What I actually do
Start with the conversation. Not the paperwork.
Work out the real problem.
This is usually a phone call. Half the time it isn't the thing you rang about. The hygiene complaint about a staff member is really "I'm one wrong move from a claim."
Give you the words.
How to open the conversation, what to say when they push back, and where the legal line actually sits.
Cover the business.
Contracts, policies, records, a trail that holds up if it's ever tested. Legal protection matters. It's the seatbelt, not the destination.
Teach your managers to do it without me.
Most managers get promoted because they were good at the actual job, then discover the people part is a completely different skill nobody taught them. So I work with them directly, on their real situations, not hypotheticals. The underperformer they've been avoiding. The one who's brilliant but corrosive. The team member half their age who they can't seem to reach. It's less a course and more someone in your corner while they learn.
What it looks like when it works
“A manager called me about an employee who “just wasn’t working out.”
By the time we spoke, the frustration had been building for months. There had been conversations, but nothing was documented. Expectations had shifted. The employee thought they were doing fine. The manager was ready to terminate.
That’s usually where HR gets called.
We slowed it down just enough to work out what the actual problem was, what had been communicated, what hadn’t, what was reasonable to expect, and what needed to happen next.
Then we gave the manager a plan.
Not a 14-page process. Not a script that sounded like it had been written by a lawyer.
A clear conversation. Clear expectations. A timeframe. And an understanding of what would happen if things didn’t improve.
The manager had the conversation.
The employee finally understood how serious the concerns were. The manager stopped avoiding the issue. And the rest of the team saw that poor performance wasn’t going to be ignored.
Sometimes the employee turns it around. Sometimes they don’t.
Good HR isn’t about engineering a particular outcome.
It’s about making sure the right conversation happens; early, clearly and fairly.
That’s the job.
What I won’t do
I won't let a real problem sit in the too-hard basket because it's easier to ignore than face.
I won't reach for the legal letter as a first move when a phone call would do.
I won't do the fluff: the politics, the gossip, the time people burn avoiding the honest thing.
I won't treat someone having a hard time as a he-said-she-said file.
And I won't pretend that policy-first leadership is the same thing as good leadership. It isn't. It's usually just fear, dressed up in a process.
Who I am
HFI Consulting is founded by Rysha Masters, based in the Perth Hills.
I've spent my career in HR leadership, most of it at Chief Human Resources Officer level in transport. My track record is in blue collar, high turnover, genuinely hard industries. I’ve dealt with recruitment, performance management, disciplinary process, acquisition, change, employment law, and a team of six I managed myself. So when I say I've done people management, I mean really done it.
That matters because most of what gets sold as HR advice is written by people who've never had to deliver the bad news themselves. I have. I know what it costs, and I know what it sounds like when it's done properly.
I take a small number of clients at a time so the ones I have get a real answer, not a queue. If I can't give your problem the time it deserves, I'll tell you upfront.
Who is this for?
You're a business owner or manager who knows something's broken, whether that's culture, communication, or one specific relationship, and you don't quite know how to fix it.
You're open to feedback about yourself, not just your business.
You want to learn how to do this better, not just make the immediate fire go away.
You're not looking for a policy to hide behind. You're ready to be a bit braver.
If what you want is a document emailed to you and nothing else, I'm probably not your person, and I'll happily point you to someone who is.
Let’s Work Together
Fifteen minutes on the phone. No charge, no pitch. Tell me what's landed on your desk and I'll tell you straight whether I can help.
Don't keep me in suspense. Just reach out.
·0428 324 509 · hficonsultingaus@gmail.com
