HR Done Differently · Adelaide-based, Australian-owned · Trusted by 500+ SMEs since 2009
About BespokeHR × The Academy
Built for
freedom.
BespokeHR was founded in 2009 to help Australian businesses get the HR fundamentals right. The Performance Collective Academy is what comes next: the operating system that gives founders their week, their energy, and their business back.
2009
Year BespokeHR was founded in Adelaide
500+
Australian businesses supported
1,500+
Leaders developed through our programs
75 yr
Combined HR experience across the senior team
Where this started
Something wasn't
adding up.
Fifteen years ago, Paulette kept seeing the same pattern. Businesses were growing. Leaders were drowning. Teams were expanding. Accountability was missing. HR existed somewhere, but only when things broke. Then there was a mess to clean up and no systems left to prevent the next one.
So BespokeHR was built differently. A boutique senior team, not a call centre. Advice that works in the real world of running a growing Australian business, not just on paper. Delivered the way we'd want our own businesses treated.
What we don't do
✕
Templates pulled off a shelf.
✕
Graduates learning on your account.
✕
A different person every call.
✕
Advice that only works in a webinar.
✕
Monthly retainers you can't cancel.
✕
Tick-box compliance that misses the point.
What we do instead
Senior people on every call. Plain English, every time. Fast when it matters. Fixed-price projects and prepaid hour packs. Advice we would follow ourselves, in the business we run ourselves.
We give advice we'd follow. Because we do.
Portrait
Paulette Kolarz
The founder
Paulette Kolarz
Founder & Managing Director · BespokeHR + Performance Collective Academy
More than 20 years across HR, People & Culture, recruitment and organisational development. Paulette and the senior BespokeHR team have guided over 500 Australian businesses and more than 1,500 leaders through the messy, human side of running a business.
Paulette's work sits at the intersection of compliance, capability and culture. She founded BespokeHR in 2009 to prove HR could be done differently for Australian SMEs. Fifteen years later, she founded The Performance Collective Academy to prove the same thing about operating systems for founders scaling their businesses.
★ AHRI Member
★ SEEK Awards Finalist 2026
★ Fair Work accredited
What we stand for
Six values.
All of them tested.
Written down because they got written down naturally. Lived first, named second. The things we actually use when we're deciding whether to take a client on, how to structure an engagement, or whether a piece of advice is ready to go.
01
Support & Inspire
Help people and organisations be the best they can be. Not through platitudes. Through the hard practical work of structure, capability and honest conversation.
02
Solution Focused
Look at the end game. Continually add value. When a problem lands on the table, our job is to leave the room with a plan, not a referral.
03
Respect & Integrity
Embrace diversity. Earn trust. Keep confidentiality. We treat every client and every person inside their business the way we would want our own treated.
04
Communication & Transparency
Listen to all sides. Encourage open, timely feedback. We will tell you what we think, not what you want to hear, because the second one does not help you.
05
Practical & Good Judgement
If we wouldn't do it, we don't recommend it. Our advice has to work in the real world of running an Australian business, not just on paper.
06
Bespoke
Tailored, flexible solutions for unique businesses and the unique people inside them. The word is in our name for a reason.
Beyond the workplace
Impact beyond
the business.
We develop leaders. We build workplaces. And we believe everyone deserves a place in one. For every milestone we hit, three Australian charities get a contribution tied to it.
Impact tag: ending homelessness
Hutt St Centre
A South Australian organisation supporting people experiencing or at risk of homelessness. We commit a contribution for every leader developed through our programs.
Impact tag: children in crisis
Backpacks 4 SA Kids
Backpacks for South Australian children entering emergency care, filled with essentials and dignity. We commit a contribution for every compliance package we deliver.
Impact tag: education equity
The Smith Family
Supporting Australian children in financial disadvantage to stay engaged with their education. We commit a contribution for every Academy intake we welcome.
"We build great workplaces. We believe everyone deserves a place in one."
The invitation
Fifteen years in.
The best yet to come.
BespokeHR + The Performance Collective Academy. One roof.
Fifteen minutes with Paulette or a senior principal. We'll walk through where your business is and whether we're the right team to help you get it to its next stage.
No obligation. No lock-in. No pitch deck.