Morning!
Overall a good consultant for an HR Department of One, like yourself, should act as a partner or advisor. There are times when the approach they bring actually adds value, especially when you may not have the capacity or deep expertise in certain areas.
They can help you at times better evaluate what is best inside your company and the industry you are tied to, possibly help you to better automate administrative tasks or developing scalable processes to free you up for priority or more high-level work.
Some will use their peers, like you are doing now, or other departments in their company to help benchmark. There are those that will leverage their local chamber of commerce's as a resource.
One of the best ways is to find out who may be in a similar situation as you and see what they have done. However, and honestly, once you have that it is still going to based on your need and budget that will determine what and who you will use!
 

If you have a need or just want to talk to explore more, with no pressure...
feel free to reach out or schedule time to talk (link) https://tinyurl.com/FOCUS-VConnect

FOCUS Consulting, with 20 years of HR. Leadership Training, and Organizational Development, has worked with organizations across a number of industries from Financial Services, Education, Healthcare, Startup, Military Defense, Manufacturing as well as nonprofit, private and public sectors (Municipal, Gov't, etc.). 

We focus and specialize in 5 Key areas:
🟩HR Practices & Strategy,
🟩Strategic Planning and Execution,
🟩Organizational Consulting,
🟩Leadership Development, Training and Coaching.
🟩 Workforce Insights & AI in HR practice.

Look forward to connecting!  
LINKEDIN - FOCUS Consulting

Hi - we are fractional HR consultants. I completely agree that your consultant needs to understand your business, your industry, and most importantly your values. The first step in our process is to complete an HR assessment with you - it's essentially an interview where we work to understand what you are currently doing, where the gaps are, and where the opportunities are. While we bring best practices, our solutions are always customized to our clients. Happy to talk to discuss your needs and how we can help. Feel free to reach out to me at rkutay@mybusinessresource.com.

Hello!  I am a department of one turned consultant.  I would love to chat about your needs.  And best way to find a consultant partner - referrals.  I can provide those in spades.  
Living in the Gray – In HR, as in life, nothing is black and white. Welcome to the gray.
Email: christieengler@gmail.com

Good Saturday morning!

HR Partners has been providing HR consulting on a retainer, project, or interim basis for more than 30 years. We also have facilitated monthly certified HR Roundtables for more than 20 of those years - 3 in-person groups and 3 virtual groups. Several of our members are departments of one, looking for consistent advice and support as well as potential consulting needs. A true consultant will help you assess your needs, your own personal HR strengths and preferences, and suggest / provide complementary options for exactly what you need. If you'd like to talk more, let me know. Everything is held in utmost confidence. Shoot me your email if you'd like - I can also send you information on our monthly HR Roundtables, which earn 1.5 SHRM/HRCI credits each month as well. darlene@HRPIInc.com Darlene Mack, CEO & Managing Partner, HR Partners Intl Inc.

Hi! You're obviously seeing a lot of consultants reply, including this response as I represent Clark Schaefer Strategic HR, https://strategichrinc.com/business-owner/. Please check us out amongst some of the other recommendations as we have a flexible approach that can support tactical through strategic HR work.

I also recommend using your LinkedIn network to cherry pick a few peers. If you do have conversations with consultants we are more than willing to provide references which can accomplish the same objective.

You can reach me directly at jajohnson@strategichrinc.com or on LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/julieajohnsonphr/