Startup CXO

Chapter 41CEO‐to‐CEO Advice About the People/HR Role

Matt Blumberg

What comes before a full‐fledged Chief People Officer? In most startups, the HR function starts out as tactical—you have to get people hired and paid—and frequently outsourced to a PEO. As the company grows, it probably in‐sources payroll and benefits, hires a recruiter, and maybe has an HR Manager who handles the function.

Signs It's Time to Hire Your First Chief People Officer

You know it's time to hire a Chief People Officer when:

• You wake up in the middle of the night convinced that you're the only person in the company who cares about your core values.
• You are spending too much of your own time training managers and leaders, or working on interpersonal dynamics on your leadership team.
• Your Board asks you what your talent strategy is with respect to improving diversity, retention, and engagement metrics, while simultaneously decreasing average employee salary, and you don't have a great answer and aren't sure how to get one.

When a Fractional Chief People Officer Might Be Enough

A fractional Chief People Officer may be the way to go:

• If you have a very competent HR manager or director who has strategic inclinations but not enough experience operating as a strategic executive and who just needs a little more supervision in order to “level up.”
• If you need someone to play more of a consigliere or team coach role to your executive team but don't want to engage a coach—and your day‐to‐day HR leader is ...