Journey Digital's Sarah Ritchie on outsourcing employment law and when learning and development needs an external facilitator
For solo HR practitioners, knowing when to bring in outside expertise is not a weakness – it is risk management. That is the view of Sarah Ritchie, head of people and culture at Auckland-based Journey Digital, who runs HR single-handedly for a workforce split across two countries and two sets of employment law.
Journey Digital, a digital development and transformation firm, has operated for 25 years and employs about 32 people between Auckland and London, where its team was set up five years ago. As the company's only HR professional, Ritchie covers everything from social events to disciplinary processes.
"I'm good cop and bad cop all in one," she told HRD.
Ritchie moved into HR five and a half years ago from a training and facilitation background. She said generalists in small companies need to be honest about where their gaps lie.
"HR is this umbrella under which so many different pillars sit. And you can't be expected to be an expert in all of those pillars," she said.
"I knew when I started, because I was not a career HR person... that employment law was going to be my weak pillar, if you like."
Her solution was to put employment law specialists on retainer in both New Zealand and the United Kingdom. In New Zealand, employment relationships are governed chiefly by the Employment Relations Act 2000, while London-based staff fall under a separate UK framework.
"So we can tap in, tap out when we need it," Ritchie said.
She described that external support as vital, because mistakes in employment law are far harder to recover from than errors elsewhere in HR.
"If you mess up with employment law, it can cost you tens of thousands or more," she said. "You don't want to stuff up tax and tax law. You don't want to stuff up employment law."
Ritchie likens the approach to how a sole business owner builds a support network. "If you are an entrepreneur in business and you are the solo person in your business, you want to surround yourself with very smart people, right? A lawyer, an accountant, a business consultant, whatever it is. And I think I approach HR in exactly the same way."
She added that as her experience has grown, she leans less heavily on consultants than she did five years ago.
Artificial intelligence (AI) has also filled part of the gap. "When you're that solo person, there's no one to bounce thoughts off," Ritchie said, adding that treating AI "like a thought partner" helps – up to the point where its suggestions touch on employment law, when expert advice is needed.
How should HR deliver learning and development?
Training is the second area where Ritchie sees a clear case for outside expertise – even for practitioners who are skilled trainers themselves.
"Because I'm an internal trainer, does the staff take the training as seriously as they would if an external person had come in and delivered exactly the same message? I don't know, never done a survey on that," she said.
HRD put that question to its LinkedIn audience, asking whether learning and development (L&D) initiatives are more effective run internally or whether an external facilitator carries more authority. Only 8 per cent of respondents backed internal delivery and 9 per cent external delivery. The clear majority rejected a binary choice: 43 per cent said a mix of both works best, and 40 per cent said it depends on the topic.
Crystal Wigfall, founder of Dear HR Rep, explained her vote for a blended approach in the comments. "Effectiveness isn't only determined by who facilitates; it's determined by what the organisation is trying to change. Internal leaders bring context. External facilitators can bring objectivity, challenge assumptions, and create space for conversations the organisation may struggle to have internally," she wrote.
"The real question is: what outcome are we trying to create, and who is best positioned to get us there?"
Budget is often what decides it. Ritchie said training "is the first to get cut if budgets get tight", and Journey Digital rarely brings in outside trainers.
"The reality, even at my company, is that we very, very rarely use them, unless there is a specialised subject or unless we feel like, for whatever reason, the internal training is not landing."
She has tried using AI to produce training materials faster. "Not working at the moment," she said, though she expects the tools to keep improving.
As learning and development becomes a strategic priority in the AI era, Ritchie is also weighing a larger question about development pathways. While recruiting an assistant accountant whose brief included automating finance processes, Journey Digital converted the role from permanent to fixed-term, recognising that success could make the job redundant.
"We're always going to need senior accountants or finance directors," she said. "But where's the pathway going to come from?"
The concern mirrors wider data on how young New Zealanders are being shut out as entry-level jobs shrink, with Stats NZ reporting unemployment among 15–24-year-olds rose to 15.2 per cent in the September 2025 quarter. It also reinforces the case for L&D programs focused on human-centred skills such as critical thinking and decision-making, which Ritchie fears junior staff will miss out on.
For Ritchie, leaning on experts is also about avoiding isolation.
"HR is a very lonely job," she said. "In the smaller companies, if you've only got one person... the networking, it's really vital because... you need to be able to feel that you're not alone, that's for sure."
