Right-sizing for success: How a Sports Business Scaled Headcount 50% While Cutting Recruitment Costs 35%

Fast growth is great but without the right structure, it can lead to issues. When expanding sports hospitality business Corinthian realised their success was causing growth problems, they called in a people expert to help unblock the path ahead.

 

The Company

Founded in 2010, Corinthian is a successful hospitality business founded by Mark Hoskins and Gavin O’Callaghan. Starting from their rugby backgrounds, they built their flagship offering, Pegasus Lounge, into a successful VIP sports and events hospitality business operating across Manchester, Glasgow, and London and have experienced rapid growth.

The Challenge

Like many successful start-ups, Corinthian had grown organically over the years. The founders had done what many entrepreneurs do – hired friends, family, and loyal team members, creating roles as they needed them and rewarding people based on loyalty rather than structured planning.

While this approach had served them well commercially, especially through the challenging COVID period (where they managed to keep all staff without using furlough), they found they had reached a crossroads. With around 40 employees across three locations, the founders knew they needed to grow but wanted to do it the right way, keeping their people first while setting up the business for further scaling and new opportunities.

The main challenges were:

• No proper HR structure or sufficient expertise in-house
• Leadership team was larger than expected for the size of business, delaying quick decision-making
• Outdated processes for a direct sales business
• Heavy reliance on expensive external recruiters
• Lack of fit-for-purpose HR policies, systems, and compliance
• No clear management structure or development pathway
• Inconsistent data management across multiple locations

Building a roadmap to drive the business forward

Corinthian engaged People Puzzles People Director Divya Kanani-Jones as fractional HR Director to transform the business infrastructure. What started as one day per week quickly became eight days per month due to the scale of work needed.

Organisation Design and Leadership Restructure

“Reviewing the structure of a business is almost always the first place I start,” says Divya. “It’s important to review and ask the leaders where they want to go, and whether the structure of the business fits that goal – it’s so important to get that fundamental structure in place.”

The first priority was creating a clearer structure for the leadership team. The large leadership team was restructured to include five key roles, comprising a newly defined Managing Director role, filled by founder Mark Hoskins, a full time Finance Director, Sales Director, HR Director (initially Divya, later replaced by a permanent Head of HR) and a Head of Operations.

Having a more streamlined structure meant decisions weren’t slowed down and accountability was more clearly defined across the team.

In-house HR capability and structure

Divya focused on building a comprehensive HR infrastructure in line with the current size of the business, capable of coping with the projected scale of growth. This included:

• Implementation of Breathe HR system for data management and compliance
• Complete redraft of all HR policies and employee handbook
• Creation of comprehensive job descriptions for all roles, including redefining roles to meet the needs of the business.
• New employee onboarding processes to help all new starters get off to a better start, and identify and develop new talent early
• Monthly employee surveys (ENPS) to gather feedback and sense check engagement and satisfaction
• Consistent, compliant data management and HR reporting
• Proactively handled all employee relations challenges, winning the confidence of the wider team early

Recruitment transformation

One of the biggest cost savings came from bringing recruitment in-house. Previously, the company was spending heavily on external recruiters for their high-turnover direct sales roles. By hiring a part-time talent manager, they reduced recruitment costs by approximately 35%.

Management Development

Recognising that middle managers weren’t always given adequate preparation to succeed in their roles, Divya focused on development to make sure every manager felt confident in leading teams and had the processes and resources to do it effectively. She also introduced monthly management team updates were introduced to enhance management capabilities throughout the business at all levels.

Executive Coaching

A key element was providing executive coaching to the Managing Director and other leaders to support them through the transition and help develop their leadership skills.

“Executive coaching is a great way to help leaders to really develop into their strengths; coaching Mark throughout the restructure into his new role as MD was incredibly rewarding and helped him define and live up to the kind of leader he wanted to be,” says Divya.

Developing the Employer Brand

Every growing business needs to be able to attract, develop and keep the best talent. Under Divya’s guidance, Corinthian developed its presence at careers fairs to help position itself as an employer of choice, and defined its employee value proposition clearly to attract and keep people longer.

The Results

Over 18 months, the transformation was comprehensive:

• Headcount growth: From 40 to 60 employees while maintaining efficiency
• Cost reduction: 35% reduction in recruitment costs through in-house hiring
• Leadership clarity: Leadership team streamlined to more effective structure of five core roles
• Operational efficiency: Proper HR systems and processes across all three locations
• Management capability: Enhanced management skills throughout the organisation
• Compliance: Full HR policy compliance and proper data management
• Employee engagement: Regular feedback mechanisms and improved onboarding

The business now operates with strong foundations, proper structure, and clear processes that support continued growth, and a fit-for-future employer brand to help attract and retain the best people. The HR function was successfully established as a key part of the business and properly equipped with a permanent Head of HR to maintain the day-to-day operations, with strategic guidance always available on a fractional basis to supplement and develop the team’s capabilities.

The Key Success Factors

The transformation worked because:

• Leadership buy-in: The founders were genuinely committed to doing things “the right way”
• Comprehensive approach: Rather than piecemeal fixes, the entire HR infrastructure was rebuilt
• Practical focus: Solutions were designed for the reality of a direct sales business
• Coaching support: Executive coaching helped leaders navigate the significant changes
• Proper planning: Clear organization design principles guided all decisions

Divya says, “The MD was so open-minded and accepting of the value of HR – he recognised the need for a more strategic people function and showed great leadership by investing in their people in this way.”

“We found Divya’s perspective invaluable; having that external viewpoint has really helped embed great leadership structure and practices. She has created a really strong HR capability to help the business be self-sustaining as we go forward. On a personal note, I have really valued the help and clarity that her executive coaching has provided.” Co-founder and Managing Director Mark Hoskins

This case demonstrates how the right fractional HR partnership can transform a business’s operational foundations, creating the structure needed for sustainable growth while maintaining the entrepreneurial spirit that made the company successful in the first place.

Mark adds, “We are in a much stronger position to support future growth and our recruitment costs have been massively reduced. Divya’s guidance has helped put us in a great place – we have definitely benefited from having her with us in the team.”

Divya Kanani-Jones, People Director