Is DIY HR Holding You, Your Team and Your Business Back?

DIY is a bit of a badge of honour for small business owners.

We patch up websites, design our own marketing, handle bookkeeping, and tackle team management with the same can-do spirit. There’s a certain satisfaction in figuring it out ourselves - until that approach quietly starts to backfire.

When it comes to HR, doing it yourself feels resourceful. Responsible. Even empowering. But what if DIY HR is actually keeping you stuck? What if, despite your best intentions, it’s holding back your team, stalling your business growth, and draining your energy?

Here’s a fresh take on why managing HR yourself might not be the best strategy anymore—and what to do instead.

DIY Isn’t Winging It

Let’s be clear: DIY HR isn’t the same as winging it. When you’re DIYing something, you’re usually making a genuine effort. You’re reading Fair Work articles, researching awards, downloading templates, and doing your best to get it right. And you’re likely doing it because:

• You want control
• You want to save money
• You’re trying to be across everything in your business

All completely valid reasons.

But the problem with DIYing things you’re not naturally great at, or don’t enjoy, is that they pull you away from the areas where you do shine. Your zone of genius, as author Gay Hendricks calls it. And when you spend too much time in the zone of competence or, worse, incompetence, you can end up exhausted, unmotivated, and frustrated.

The High Cost of “Doing It Yourself”

While DIY HR might seem like the smart, scrappy way to handle people management, it comes with hidden costs that creep in slowly, often without you even noticing.

Let’s unpack that a little more.

1. It’s Holding Your Team Back

Your team wants clarity. They want to know what’s expected of them, how they’re performing, and where they’re heading. Without the right HR structures in place, you’re likely leaving them to guess.

That looks like:

• No position descriptions
• Vague performance expectations
• Missing policies
• No structured feedback or development process

The result? Your team stays stuck. They don’t step up, not because they don’t want to, but because they don’t know how. When the structure is missing, your people lean on you for every answer, which keeps you locked in the weeds and stunts their growth.

And let’s not forget culture. Inconsistent communication, unclear expectations, and lack of values-led leadership leads to a team that’s disengaged. They might still show up, but they’re not showing up with energy or enthusiasm, and that hurts your retention.

2. It’s Holding Your Business Back

This is where things get risky. HR isn’t just about keeping your team happy, it’s also about protecting your business. DIY HR often means:

• Unintentional compliance breaches
• Incorrect leave or award entitlements
• Missing documentation that could protect you in a dispute

You don’t know what you don’t know. And that’s where DIY can fall short.

Just like renovating a bathroom without a proper understanding of plumbing codes, there’s a real risk of doing something wrong without even realising it. Unfortunately, Fair Work doesn’t accept “I didn’t know” as a defence.

Beyond compliance, there’s also the financial impact. Hiring the wrong person, losing a high-performing team member due to unclear expectations, or constantly refilling roles due to cultural mismatches—it all costs you money and momentum.

And then there’s the productivity drag. When HR systems are unclear or non-existent, things take longer. Staff make mistakes. You repeat yourself constantly. And you find yourself managing people instead of running your business.

3. It’s Holding You Back

Here’s the part that doesn’t get talked about enough: the personal toll of DIY HR.

Trying to be across everything - people, finance, sales, compliance, operations - leaves no room for strategy or vision. The constant pressure leads to:

• Mental load and decision fatigue
• Reactive leadership (think: fixing problems on the fly)
• Burnout, frustration, and resentment

And let’s be real - no one leads well when they’re exhausted and overwhelmed.

If you’re constantly swooping in to fix things for your team, answering every question, and feeling like the glue holding it all together, you’re not leading. You’re surviving. And that’s not sustainable.

Why It’s Time to Stop Doing It All Yourself

The culture of “I should be able to handle this” runs deep in small business.

We’re resourceful. Independent. Gritty. But that doesn’t mean we should do everything on our own forever.

Eventually, DIYing your HR becomes more of a liability than an asset. It:

• Creates confusion for your team
• Introduces compliance risk for your business
• Keeps you trapped in the day-to-day

And the worst part? It delays your growth. You simply can’t scale a business if you are the only system holding everything together.

What to Do Instead

Stopping the DIY cycle doesn’t mean hiring a full-time HR manager or throwing cash at another software platform you’ll never use. There’s a better middle ground.

Start by building structure around your people processes. That might include:

• A clear onboarding framework
• Consistent policies tailored to your business
• Simple performance conversations
• Defined roles and expectations
• Support from someone who can guide you through it

You don’t have to do it all yourself. But you do need to put the right foundations in place.

When your people have clarity, your business has direction. And when you're not carrying the full HR load on your shoulders, you can finally step back into the leadership role your business actually needs.

Final Thoughts

DIY HR works for a while, until it doesn’t. If you’re starting to feel the strain, it’s time to reassess.

Your team deserves more than a cobbled-together people system. Your business deserves a framework that supports growth. And you deserve to lead without burning out.

Let go of the idea that you have to do it all. Focus on where you add the most value. And give yourself permission to step out of the HR trenches and into your zone of genius.

An invitation to join a thriving business community:

If you’d like to connect with other business owners, leaders and managers who also struggle with tackling tough conversations with their teams, I’d love you to join us inside our Facebook Group - HR Support for Australian Businesses. Can’t wait to meet you inside the group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/hrsupportaustralia