Top 10 HR Consulting Firms in Brisbane
Brisbane businesses are scaling quickly. And that growth comes increasingly complex HR challenges.
More hiring activity means more pressure on onboarding, manager capability, payroll accuracy, and workplace compliance.
Brisbane City Council’s economic facts note the city’s labour force was over 825,000 people as of June 2025. This is a clear indicator of the volume of talent moving through local organizations.
When your headcount grows, informal HR habits usually stop working.
That’s where HR consulting can help. They put repeatable systems in place so leaders aren’t reinventing the wheel every time a role changes, a complaint lands, or a policy needs an update.
This guide breaks down 10 HR consulting firms that businesses commonly consider in Brisbane.
Each offers a different service model, from embedded support to risk-first advisory to systems-led process clean-up. Our goal is to help you shortlist providers that match how your business actually runs.
TL;DR Top 5 HR Consulting Firms in Brisbane
Alpha Apex Group: Built for teams that need culture and leadership to scale without breaking execution. Known for Culture Performance Intelligence™, 72-hour candidate shortlists, and leadership recruiting that runs alongside HR consulting.
Mapien: A multi-disciplinary option when workplace decisions involve overlapping HR, IR, and behavioural factors. Best suited for employers that want structured guidance backed by workplace strategy and psychology capability under one umbrella.
Harrisons: A practical choice for businesses that want structured HR support without hiring a large internal team. Strong on implementation, documented frameworks, and flexible delivery when you need day-to-day HR coverage that can expand with growth.
Bramwell Partners: Designed for SMEs that want repeatable HR foundations and clear documentation that managers will actually use. Well-suited to businesses that need compliance-focused structure without overbuilding the HR function.
HumanX HR: A good fit for teams that want HR decisions supported by measurable inputs, with the ability to plug consultants into day-to-day operations. Works well when you need additional capacity plus benchmarking to track progress over time.
What HR Consulting Firms Do (And why It Matters)
HR consulting firms step in when the “people side” of the business starts costing real time or creating avoidable risk. That can mean unclear manager practices, inconsistent documentation, a hiring process that stalls, or workplace complaints that don’t have a clean response path.
From what we’ve seen working with growing teams, these issues rarely appear all at once. They build quietly, until leadership time gets pulled into firefighting instead of running the business.
A good HR consulting engagement usually follows a simple pattern: diagnose what’s happening, prioritise what to fix first, then help implement the changes so they actually work.
This usually includes tightening workflows, clarifying decision rights, and building manager capability so the business isn’t dependent on one person knowing “how it’s always been done.”
It matters because people issues rarely stay contained. They spill into payroll exposure, claims, turnover, and leadership bandwidth.
HR consulting helps replace reactive fixes with repeatable systems, which makes outcomes more predictable and easier to manage.
And because most workplaces can’t afford to pause operations while they rebuild their HR foundations, external specialists can accelerate the work without derailing the day-to-day.
For more details about HR consulting, check out the video below:
Benefits of Partnering with an HR Consulting Firm in Brisbane
Partnering with an HR consulting firm in Brisbane gives you access to specialist capability without building a large internal team.
The right partner helps you move from reactive fixes to repeatable systems that reduce risk, free up leadership time, and support better decisions across the business.
The benefits below highlight where that support tends to have the biggest impact.
1. Lower the Odds of Costly Underpayment Clean-ups
In 2024–25, the Fair Work Ombudsman reported recovering more than $358 million in unpaid wages for more than 249,000 workers.
HR consultants typically start by tightening payroll governance and documentation so small errors don’t compound across months or sites. This can also include reviewing award interpretation, classification decisions, and approval controls so issues are caught internally before regulators or employees raise them.
2. Reduce Downtime Linked to Psychosocial Injury Claims
Safe Work Australia’s statistics show that, for serious claims in 2022–23, the median time lost for workers with a mental health condition was 35.7 working weeks. By comparison, the median time lost across all serious claims was 7.4 weeks.
The median compensation paid also differed significantly, at $67,400 for mental health claims versus $16,300 overall.
These figures highlight how long and costly psychosocial injuries can be compared with other workplace injuries. From what we’ve seen, the impact mostly extends beyond the individual claim; it affects team morale, manager capacity, and operational continuity.
That’s why many HR consulting engagements focus on practical, early-intervention practices. This can include clarifying workloads, equipping managers with consistent routines, and putting early support processes in place instead of relying solely on policy wording.
3. Improve Profitability by Lifting Engagement
Gallup’s meta-analysis reports teams in the top quartile of engagement achieve 23% higher profitability than those in the bottom quartile.
We’ve observed that this difference is rarely about motivation alone. It usually comes down to whether managers have clear expectations, consistent routines, and the confidence to lead day to day.
HR consulting helps turn engagement from a vague concept into something operational. By aligning engagement efforts with specific manager behaviours and follow-through, businesses can improve retention, productivity, and output consistency.
This reduces avoidable friction and rework, which directly supports stronger financial performance.
4. Fill Vacancies Faster by Removing Recruitment Bottlenecks
SmartRecruiters’ Australia benchmarks report a 32-day median time to hire.
When your cycle time runs longer, HR consultants typically map where approvals, screening, or scheduling slows down, then simplify the workflow so roles don’t sit open unnecessarily.
This can reduce the operational strain on teams covering gaps and limit the risk of candidate drop-off in a competitive hiring market.
5. Strengthen Prevention and Response to Workplace Sexual Harassment
The Australian Human Rights Commission reported one in three workers experienced workplace sexual harassment over the past five years, while reporting remained low at 18%.
In such cases, HR consultants help by tightening reporting pathways, response consistency, and manager capability so issues are handled early and credibly.
6. Give Leaders Back Time by Cutting Administrative Drag
ServiceNow reported Australian managers spend 14 hours per week on administrative tasks on average, and 36% spend three days or more each week on administration.
Streamlining HR workflows and systems can move that time back into coaching, performance conversations, and planning. Over time, that shift improves decision quality and reduces burnout at the leadership level.
Top 10 HR Consulting Firms in Brisbane
Here are the top 10 HR consulting firms that operate in Brisbane. The sections that follow outline what each firm does and how their approach differs, so you can compare options side by side.
1. Alpha Apex Group
Alpha Apex Group focuses on HR consulting for fast-growing teams that need culture to stay consistent as headcount, priorities, and leadership layers shift.
Our work is built around Culture Performance Intelligence™, which combines culture audits, leadership interviews, and predictive analytics to identify where friction is forming and what to change first.
Here’s the practical upside. When you can pinpoint the exact point of breakdown, like unclear decision rights or inconsistent manager habits, you can fix execution problems without launching a broad “culture program” that nobody owns.
We also support executive recruiting, which helps keep change initiatives moving when a key role is missing. Recruiting specialists deliver qualified leadership shortlists up to 60% faster than the U.S. average, so new operating models don’t stall while teams wait on hiring.
Across our talent initiatives, we report an 80% success rate, which supports teams that want fewer repeat searches during a period of change.
Key Services:
Culture audits and engagement diagnostics
Post-merger culture integration roadmaps
HRIS consulting, customization, and implementation
Leadership development and manager capability building
Executive search and interim leadership with 72-hour candidate shortlists
Workforce optimization and retention analytics
Why work with Alpha Apex Group?
When timing matters, Alpha Apex delivers a candidate shortlist within 72 hours, which helps keep role gaps from slowing rollout plans. The model is also designed for teams that want culture work and talent delivery to run in parallel, not as separate workstreams managed by different vendors.
2. Mapien
Mapien positions itself around a practical “workplace strategist” approach, where the goal is to map out people problems clearly before action is taken.
Instead of relying on generic frameworks, it describes using experience, technical capability, data, and behavioural science to work through workplace challenges in a structured way.
This matters because when leaders can see the decision points upfront, it’s easier to reduce rework and manage risk as issues move from discussion to documentation and implementation.
For Brisbane employers, that style of HR consulting can be useful when the pressure is on to make decisions quickly but still keep them defensible.
Mapien was created in 2018 through the merger of Livingstones and SHR. This brings together almost 40 years of history and a national footprint, including an office in Brisbane.
Key Services:
Industrial relations advice and support
Workplace psychology services
Immigration support (via Mapien’s immigration offering)
Why work with Mapien?
If you want access to a broad bench without needing to coordinate multiple vendors, Mapien’s collaborative partnership model is set up for that. It’s a practical fit when you need coordinated input from different specialists while keeping a single point of accountability.
3. Harrisons
Harrisons focuses on being a practical “workplace strategist” for growing Australian businesses that need HR consulting support without building a large internal HR function.
Their process starts with understanding your current state and desired future state, then mapping HR activity back to business drivers so the work stays tied to operational goals.
They also emphasise implementation, including using frameworks and templates they create with clients, rather than leaving recommendations sitting on a shelf.
The firm describes a model that can flex with business needs and notes that its templates, policies, procedures, and forms have been developed by lawyers. Harrisons is Brisbane-based and has supported Australian businesses for over 15 years.
Key Services:
HR strategy sessions to clarify priorities and scope next steps
HR audits with documented recommendations for people, culture, and WHS practices
Short or long term HR consulting support to fill capability and capacity gaps
Outsourced HR support through an “HR Team” model, including a dedicated HR Manager working on-site or remotely (often 2 to 3 days per week)
Development and rollout of compliant HR templates and documentation packs
HRIS and LMS design and implementation support
Why work with Harrisons?
Harrisons is may be a fit if you want structured HR support that can flex as your business grows, particularly when you need documented frameworks and an outsourced HR presence without hiring internally. This approach works well for establishing consistency and compliance.
By comparison, Alpha Apex Group is mostly chosen when organisations want to go a step further. They focus on tightly linking HR execution to measurable business outcomes and leadership accountability, rather than primarily relying on frameworks and templates.
4. Bramwell Partners
Bramwell Partners sits in the overlap between workplace compliance and day to day people operations, with a clear focus on small to medium, often family-run businesses. Their messaging puts systemization and documentation at the centre, so decisions aren’t made ad hoc when pressure hits.
When roles, responsibilities, and expectations are written down in a way managers can actually use, it becomes easier to act consistently and reduce avoidable disputes. This makes their HR consulting positioning feel geared toward putting foundations in place, then tightening them as the business grows.
The firm presents itself as a partnership led by Tameka and Wayne Bramwell. They describe starting out together in a family transport business, before building Bramwell Partners around what they observed many SMEs consistently missing.
Their work is also framed around helping businesses stay within budgetary constraints, which is relevant if you need outside support but can’t justify a full internal HR hire.
Key Services:
HR support for small business, including review and guidance across employee relationship management
HR consulting services focused on establishing and refining workplace frameworks as the business grows
Workplace compliance support aligned to workplace rules, regulations, awards, and agreements
HR document development, including HR policies and employment and contractor agreements
Remuneration review and salary benchmarking in line with Modern Awards
Why work with Bramwell Partners?
If you want a team that prioritises written systems and repeatable processes, their approach is designed around that. It can also suit smaller operators who need structured support that’s mindful of budget and capacity constraints.
5. HumanX HR
HumanX HR leans into a measurement-first style of HR consulting, where they push to show impact instead of relying on gut feel. On their Brisbane page, they describe using data to demonstrate value and guide what happens next, which matters when leaders need to justify people decisions with something more concrete than opinion.
They talk about gathering structured input through surveys and feedback, then using that information to set benchmarks so progress can be checked over time.
HumanX also positions itself as a hands-on partner that can integrate into the day-to-day environment of a business, rather than operating at arm’s length.
Their team includes 25+ HR experts located across Australia, which signals access to a broader bench when you need extra capacity or specialist coverage.
If you’re weighing options, this “plug-in HR team” structure is different from Alpha Apex Group approach. Alpha Apex Group si typically positioned around a tighter, consultant-led engagement team that runs diagnosis and implementation with fewer handoffs between specialists.
Key Services:
HR strategy programs and planning support
Employee engagement initiatives
Employee retention support
Employee value proposition development
Organisation design support
Workplace culture projects
Employee relations support, including performance management, redundancy, and terminations
Why work with HumanX HR?
HumanX HR suits teams that want clear evidence behind people decisions. Their data-led approach and ability to work inside the business make it easier to track progress and adjust course as conditions change.
6. Savvy Human Resources
Savvy Human Resources works in organizational effectiveness, especially where strategy isn’t translating into consistent performance across teams.
The work is framed around aligning the operating system around people, culture, and structure so execution becomes easier to manage. When decision rights, accountabilities, and ways of working line up, leaders spend less time correcting avoidable missteps and more time improving delivery.
A direct advisory style is part of the positioning, which can suit teams that want clear calls during change rather than cautious language. Established in 2004, the business has been operating for more than two decades, which signals a long-running practice rather than a newly launched consultancy.
Key Services:
Organizational design to align structure and accountability to strategic intent
Change management support from planning through implementation
Culture alignment work that links behaviours to performance outcomes
Outsourced HR support for businesses needing an external HR function
Workplace investigations, including site-based investigations
Employee relations support for performance issues, grievances, and IR obligations
Why work with Savvy Human Resources?
This is a fit if you want a system-level view that connects structure, culture, and execution without overcomplicating the work. AgileSHIFT capability can also help when you need change to stick across teams, not just at leadership level.
7. Exant HR & IR Consulting
Exant HR & IR Consulting concentrates on helping employers make people decisions that hold up when matters get sensitive or contested. The approach is framed around being fair, comprehensive, and defensible, with explicit attention to what counts as reasonable management action in modern workplaces.
They use a HR Risk Check which is a short survey designed to flag common HR legal compliance risk areas and give immediate feedback on how an organization is tracking.
The practice also operates as a division of Exant Advisory. Its consultant mix spans both human resources and industrial relations, with registered psychologists also noted within the team.
While Exant’s model is well-suited to risk triage and defensible decision-making, Alpha Apex Group is a better fit when the priority is building HR systems that improve execution day to day. This includes tightening role design, hiring throughput, and building leadership routines so fewer issues reach a “contested” stage in the first place.
Key Services:
Enterprise bargaining support
Employment contracts and contractor agreements
HR policies and procedures development and implementation support
HR health assessments and audits
Performance management and development support
Outsourced HR support through its “Your HR” offering
Why work with Exant HR & IR Consulting?
If you want a partner that can support managers with capability uplift as well as advice, the training catalogue provides a practical way to standardise how leaders handle difficult situations. This can be useful for Brisbane teams that need consistent manager practice across sites and levels.
8. HR Tactics
HR Tactics stands out for turning HR support into defined products rather than open-ended advisory. The firm structures its work around clear starting points, such as diagnostics and short scoping sessions, so employers can understand their exposure before committing to larger pieces of work.
This approach is particularly useful for business owners who want to prioritise issues logically, instead of reacting to problems as they surface. It also helps translate HR consulting into concrete decisions, with an emphasis on what needs attention now versus later.
The business is led by Jackie Strachan, who is listed as CEO and Human Resources Strategist, and the operating model reflects long-term employer-side experience. HR Tactics states it has been operating for more than 20 years, which shows up in the way services are packaged and delivered.
Rather than custom-building everything from scratch, the firm focuses on repeatable pathways, subscription-style advice, and practical tools designed to reduce uncertainty and improve consistency over time.
Key Services:
Off-site HR management support delivered virtually or on-site
HR consulting support across recruitment and selection, onboarding, and training facilitation
Employee engagement survey measurement support
Psychometric assessments
Wellbeing and safety support, including psychosocial safety risk work
Employer advisory support through HR Now
Why work with HR Tactics?
If you want a mix of ongoing support and self-serve resources, there’s a clear pathway that ranges from tools like the Red Flag Check through to higher-touch advisory. Their “HR Strategy RoadMap” is also a structured way to scope what support actually fits before committing to a larger program.
9. Shilo People
Shilo People’s niche is its on-demand model that gives businesses access to vetted HR capability when workloads spike or a project needs extra hands.
Instead of pushing a fixed retainer, the emphasis is on matching the right consultant to the brief. They work as an extension of your team, with a mix of consulting expertise and real-world operational experience.
This format can suit leaders who need momentum without the drag of a long hiring cycle, particularly when the work has a clear deadline and multiple stakeholders.
The business was founded by Ilona Charles and Sharna Peters, with an origin story tied to lifting the credibility and perception of human resources through pragmatic delivery. A “community of HR professionals” is part of the stated philosophy, including supporting consultants so they can deliver consistently across different client environments.
Key Services:
On-demand HR talent to provide short-term capacity and specialist expertise
Interim HR management and executive People placements
Organization design and development consulting
Remuneration and reward support
Employee relations support for complex workplace matters
Why work with Shilo People?
Shilo People is a practical choice when you need extra HR capacity quickly and you want that support to plug into your team with minimal ramp-up. ENABLE. by shilo. also suits situations where HRIS work needs HR context and delivery support, not just a software setup.
However, Alpha Apex Group is typically a better fit when you’re looking for a longer-horizon partner to redesign and run the people operating system end to end, rather than adding short-term capability on demand.
10. Human Outsource
Human Outsource promotes its portal-led approach to keeping HR documentation current and usable, rather than treating policies as static files that only get reviewed after something goes wrong.
The HR Compliance Portal is described as a centralized system for policies, procedures, contracts, and training materials, with automatic updates as workplace laws change. It also supports employee logins and digital acknowledgements, creating an auditable record that people have read key documents.
This matters because many disputes turn on what was communicated, when it was communicated, and whether there’s evidence to back it up.
The broader positioning leans preventative, with a focus on reducing issues before they escalate into formal claims or disruptive conflict. The model is also framed as giving smaller employers access to structured HR consulting support similar to larger organizations, without needing to build a full in-house function.
Key Services:
HR Compliance Portal access with automatically updated documentation
Managed HR for small business through subscription-style support
HR Fundamentals package for reviewing and tightening HR foundations
Workplace investigations and incident reviews
Workplace training programs
Payroll services support
Why work with Human Outsource?
If you want a provider that’s explicit about being AI-enabled while still focusing on human judgement for sensitive situations, the positioning is clear. This can suit teams that want practical support for difficult conversations and decisions, not just templates and reminders.
What Really Matters When Choosing an HR Consulting Firm in Brisbane
Choosing the right partner is about whether the firm can deliver outcomes in the conditions you’re operating in. Brisbane is growing quickly, skills are tight in several sectors, and compliance expectations aren’t getting simpler.
From what we’ve obeserved working with expanding teams, the real test is whether their Human Resource Consulting approach fits your operating rhythm, your leaders, and the pace of change you’re dealing with.
Sector-Fit That Matches Brisbane’s Growth Mix
Look for providers that understand the workforce patterns in industries driving local demand. This includes how talent constraints interact with day-to-day operations like supply chains and service delivery.
Brisbane’s economy hit $201 billion in 2024, and employment increased by 274,000 from 2020 to 2024, which is a lot of movement in a short window.
In our experience, this kind of growth rewards firms that can support workforce planning and talent management in ways that match your actual hiring market.
HR Tech and Analytics That Actually Get Used
Most teams already have some mix of systems and paperwork. The question is whether the partner can turn that into practical HR solutions. This includes clean handling of employee records, employee files, and the touchpoints across the employment cycle like employee induction and performance appraisals.
From what we’ve seen, technology only adds value when it fits how teams already work.
In 2025, Australian organizations are expected to spend nearly $26.6 billion on public cloud services, up 18.9% from 2024, based on a Gartner forecast. This level of spend is a reminder that cloud adoption is no longer a “future project” for many businesses.
A credible provider should be able to deliver usable HR services inside your existing stack, not create extra administration.
A Service Model That Scales Up and Down
Brisbane has a huge spread of business sizes, so flexibility matters. Small businesses made up 97.3% of all Australian businesses in June 2025, using the ABS definition of under 20 employees.
Therefore, it’s worth prioritizing firms that can shift between project work and HR outsourcing services, with clearly scoped HR consultancy services that don’t force you into an oversized package.
This is where comparing delivery models across HR firms, and even broader business consulting providers, can be especially useful.
Change Leadership That Prevents “Shelfware”
Remember that even strong design work fails if leaders don’t adopt it. You want a firm that builds adoption into the delivery plan through manager enablement, communications, and reinforcement that improves leadership capability in a practical way.
Prosci reports that with excellent change management, a project is about seven times more likely to meet objectives than with poor change management.
We suggest asking how they’ll drive implementation, instead of just what they’ll recommend. It’s also worth understanding how their business consultants will support your managers week to week.
Compliance Rigor That Treats Risk as Dollars and Decisions
Brisbane employers sit under national workplace laws plus Queensland’s safety enforcement environment.
The stakes can be high. For example, Queensland’s industrial manslaughter offence carries a maximum penalty of $10 million for a body corporate and 20 years imprisonment for an individual.
The right partner should build risk mitigation into how managers handle sensitive issues. This includes how sensitive issues are handled, how investigations are run, and the standards applied to documentation. It also helps if they can guide escalation choices when a matter could end up in the Fair Work Commission.
Turn HR Strategy Into a Competitive Edge with Alpha Apex Group
Remember that choosing an HR consulting firm is all abput finding a partner that can remove friction from hiring, manager decisions, compliance, and day-to-day people issues without creating more complexity.
The best fit will align with your business size, your industry realities, and how much hands-on support you actually need.
Use this list to narrow the field, then shortlist two or three firms and ask direct questions about delivery, timelines, and what implementation support looks like after the recommendations are made.
If you want a partner that can quickly diagnose challenges and turn strategy into focused execution, Alpha Apex Group is ready to step in. We bring clarity to complex issues and help you prioritize what will drive the greatest impact first.
Schedule a conversation with our team today and walk away with a practical, results-driven roadmap tailored to your goals.
Frequently Asked Questions
What services do HR consulting firms in Brisbane typically provide?
Most cover core HR consulting work like reviewing policies and compliance practices, improving hiring and onboarding workflows, and strengthening performance management so managers handle issues consistently. Many also support implementation so the new processes don’t sit unused.
How long does an HR consulting engagement usually last?
Short, targeted projects can run a few weeks to a couple of months, while broader change programs often take several months depending on rollout and adoption. The best engagements set milestones early so the work stays measurable.
What should I look for when choosing an HR consulting partner?
Prioritise sector fit, delivery capability, and clarity on who does the work. Ask what deliverables you’ll receive, how implementation is handled, and how the firm will measure progress so you’re not left with recommendations only.
What makes Alpha Apex Group’s approach to HR consulting different from traditional firms?
At Alpha Apex Group, we combine HR consulting, management consulting, and executive search, so our recommendations align with business priorities and the talent needed to deliver them. We frame our work around assessment plus implementation support, with an emphasis on building scalable HR infrastructure rather than leaving you with a report you can’t action.
Does Alpha Apex Group provide ongoing support after HR recommendations are implemented?
Yes. We provide ongoing support as part of our model, including continuous advisory guidance, periodic audits, and training so HR practices stay aligned as needs and regulations change.
