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  • Your People. Your Direction. Your Growth.

    Practical HR expertise for growing businesses, without the cost of building a full-time HR department.

    25+ years

    Leading HR and change in growing organizations

    Named partner

    Damon or Maryam, not a rotating help desk

    Canada + US

    Employment law support on both sides of the border

    Advisor on a video call with a client

HR shouldn't be another thing
​on your to-do list.

Growing businesses often need experienced HR leadership long before they're ready, or able, to hire a full-time HR director. DM People Direction fills that gap. We give you flexible, experienced HR support so you can handle people challenges, build strong foundations and make confident decisions without the overhead.

Two colleagues reviewing plans together at a table

Before you're ready for in-house HR
​Expert support that scales with your business, not against your budget.

Navigating people complexity
​Employee relations, performance and transitions, handled with experience and care.

Building the right foundation
Policies, processes and practices that grow with your organization.

Fractional, advisory or project-based
​You choose how we work together.

What We Do

Fractional HR & Ongoing Support

Your dedicated HR partner on a retainer basis. Available when you need us, without the cost of a full-time hire.

HR Advisory & Employee Relations

Strategic guidance on complex people matters: terminations, conflicts, performance and sensitive situations.

Recruitment & Talent Acquisition

End-to-end hiring support, from job design to offer. Build the team your business needs to grow.

HR Setup & Optimization

Build HR infrastructure from the ground up, or audit and improve what you already have, in Canada and the US.

People & Performance

Performance frameworks, manager training, coaching and development practices that drive results without bureaucracy.

HR Projects & Consulting

Focused project work for larger organizations: HRIS setup, compensation review, org design, policy development and audits.

More than HR support. A partner in your growth.

Practical, business-focused advice

We speak business first, HR second. Our recommendations are grounded in what actually works.

Flexible support

Engage us the way that makes sense: a few hours a month, a specific project, or ongoing advisory.

Experienced HR expertise

Deep backgrounds in HR operations, recruitment, employee relations, change management and people strategy.

Built around your business

Your named partner learns how your business works, so the advice fits you, not a generic checklist.

Human approach

HR is about people. We bring empathy and good judgment to every situation.

Long-term partnership

We're invested in your success. Our goal is lasting relationships that grow with you.

Sound familiar? We solve these challenges every day.

Growing faster than your HR processes?

We'll set up simple processes that keep pace with your growth.


Need HR expertise but not ready for a full-time hire?

Fractional support gives you an experienced HR partner without the full-time cost.


Struggling with recruitment and finding the right people?

We help you design roles, run hiring and make confident offers.


Unsure how to handle a sensitive employee situation?

Get calm, experienced advice before you act.


Need to build HR policies and processes from scratch?

We build the policies and processes you need, in Canada and the US.


Want to improve your people practices and culture?

We help you shape performance, development and culture practices that fit your team.


How We Work

Step One: Talk

A 15-minute conversation about your business, your people and what you're trying to accomplish.

Step Two: Assess

We identify two or three specific gaps and understand your priorities.

Step Three: Build

We design and put in place the HR support, structures or solutions your business needs.

Step Four: Partner

We stay engaged as your HR partner: available, responsive and invested in your success.

Who We Are

Maryam Al-Dulaimi and Damon Isaacs, co-founders of DM People Direction

Maryam has built HR from the ground up more than once. At Grand Financial Management, she set up a new HR department with its policies, payroll and training. At REV Capital, she helped double the company's headcount in a year while keeping turnover under 5%, and she led the BambooHR rollout and compliance updates.

Damon has spent more than 25 years leading HR and organizational change in aerospace, energy, mining, healthcare, financial services and nonprofits. He has guided large HR system rollouts at Spirit AeroSystems, Baystate Health and Barrick Gold. He built REV Capital's first HR function across Canada and the US, and was founding COO of the Center for Contemporary Sciences.

We've been in the room. 
That's why this works.

DM People Direction was founded by two HR leaders, Damon Isaacs and Maryam Al-Dulaimi, with deep experience across HR operations, recruitment, employee relations, HRIS, payroll, performance management, change management and organizational development. We watched a growing company get the sequence wrong. Now we help small businesses in Canada and the United States get their people strategy right, before it costs them the way it cost us.

Ready to move your

people forward?