Game Set Match Consulting | The Advantage is Yours

Sound Familiar?

Good Firms Lose Good People for Preventable Reasons

Three departures in eight months. A high performer who left for a competitor. A team lead who gave two weeks with no warning. Leadership treats each exit as an individual problem. But they are usually telling a single, consistent story.

The Revenue Drain

Every unfilled seat is lost billing capacity. Every bad hire costs 1.5x their salary to replace. Turnover is not an HR problem. It is a margin problem.

The Founder Trap

The owner is still approving every exception. Still the only one who can make decisions. Growth stalls because the business cannot run without them.

The Succession Gap

Critical knowledge lives in one or two heads. Client relationships have no backup. When a key person leaves, the firm scrambles. The time to plan was two years ago.

How We Work

The Three-Step Infrastructure Roadmap

We move firms from reactive to resilient. A clear methodology built on 15+ years of enterprise experience, right-sized for your firm.

Diagnostic

The Resiliency Audit

A structured review of your people operations across the full employee lifecycle. We identify hidden risks, benchmark against your sector, and deliver a prioritized action plan.

Activation

Retained Advisory

A working partnership where we sit alongside your leadership team to drive execution. Not advice from the sidelines. Real implementation. Real results.

Transition

Legacy & Succession

A structured roadmap that ensures your firm's reputation and operations outlast the current leadership. Protect the asset you have built.

The Work

Client Scenarios

Representative engagements. Anonymized to protect confidentiality.

Creative & Media

Scaling Past Startup-Mode

The Situation: A fast-scaling creative firm operating across multiple time zones had outgrown its informal systems. No formal onboarding. Compliance gaps across PTO, personnel files, and employment documentation. The team was growing, but the infrastructure underneath was breaking.

The Approach: GSM partnered with leadership to build a full people operations foundation: WA-compliant policies, structured onboarding, HR system architecture, worker classification review, and communication standards designed for distributed work.

The Outcome: The firm now has its first documented people operations infrastructure, a compliant policy framework, and a scalable onboarding system designed to support its next phase of growth.

Architecture, Engineering & Construction

Building the Foundation Before the Next Hire

The Situation: A construction company preparing to scale had no career framework, no formal job levels, and ad hoc benefits programs. Compliance gaps created risk that would compound with every new hire.

The Approach: GSM designed a 7-level career architecture with role-specific competency frameworks, structured onboarding, benefits program strategy, and the compliance infrastructure needed to scale confidently.

The Outcome: The firm now operates with a clear advancement framework, formalized job architecture, and the compliance foundation to hire its next wave of talent without exposure.

Professional Services

The Compensation Reckoning

The Situation: A professional services firm hadn't reviewed compensation in over two years. Market drift had created pay gaps across key roles. Two high performers flagged flight risk. The managing partner had no data and no framework to respond.

The Approach: GSM conducted market benchmarking across all roles, built a compensation framework with defined bands and progression criteria, and facilitated direct conversations with at-risk staff before departures became decisions.

The Outcome: At-risk employees retained. The firm implemented its first annual compensation review cycle and a governance process to prevent future drift. Zero pay-related departures in the following year.

About

Jason Smith

15+ years building people operations for firms like yours. Enterprise-trained. Small business tested.

I have led people functions inside global creative agencies, professional services consultancies, healthcare organizations, and enterprise technology companies. I have built HR infrastructure from scratch, coached executives through leadership transitions, led people-side execution through multiple acquisitions, and helped founders move from operator to strategic CEO.

I started Game Set Match Consulting to bring that experience directly to the firms that need it most: professional services organizations where your people are your product and losing the wrong person changes everything.

Prior to GSM, I led people operations teams of 7 to 41 across organizations ranging from 30 to 12,500 employees, spanning creative agencies, professional services, healthcare, technology, and financial services across North America, EMEA, APAC, and LATAM.

Sectors

Accounting & Financial Services, Architecture Engineering & Construction, Creative & Media, Healthcare, Law, Nonprofit

Scale

35+ organizations advised. Teams led from 7 to 41. Organizations supported from 30 to 12,500 employees.

Strategic

Workforce Planning, Succession Architecture, Org Design, M&A Integration, Change Management

Operational

Compliance & Risk, Total Rewards, Retention Architecture, Recruiting Systems, Manager Development

Community

Board Director, Transitional Resources. 2026 WSBA RPPT Midyear Conference presenter. SLMCC Workforce Development Grant recipient.

Based in Seattle. Tennis metaphors are mandatory.

Your Best People Shouldn't Be Your Biggest Risk.