As a founder deeply entrenched in building a company, it can be hard to recognize when you’ve hit the “I need a People leader” moment. After all, founders wear many hats (likely more than they’re aware of) and are actively trying to build their companies every day across multiple dimensions.

There’s a tipping point on that scale when it’s time to strategically build out the People function of your organization. Typically, companies with 50 employees or less have recruiting and HR generalists, but somewhere between employee 50 and employee 300, it’s time to hire your first People leader.

Hiring the right People person for your stage of growth can feel like an overwhelming task. If you’re a Series A company, you likely don’t need the People leader who will take you public, but at the same time, you may have scaled beyond needing just recruiting help. If you’re a growth stage company (say, series C and beyond) that’s scaling well into the hundreds, you may need a quarterback to bring their experience and help you level up.

You hear it all the time - your people are your greatest asset. Finding the right People leader can ensure that you keep People and Talent as a top priority and set up your team for success in the long run. The operative word is “right.” “Right” for you as a founder and “right” for your company over the next couple years. Taking the time to do your research and define “right” will save you time and headaches down the line.

Our Field Guide to People Leaders allows you to explore common personas, calibrate on what you may need both now and in the future, and establish your approach to vetting candidates. We’ve seen firsthand the impact of hiring someone incredible in this function and hope our Field Guide can be a helpful step along your journey to find a great People leader.

Common People Personas

UP-AND-COMER PROFILE:

An up-and-comer is someone who has climbed the ranks through their respective function: Talent, Operations, Business Partner or even Chief of Staff. They have likely led large(r) organizations through growth (100-1000) within their specialty and are ready to take over as a first-time People leader.

Where they excel:

• Promise: They have talent, skill, knowledge and proven success in their craft, all of which suggests they’ll be successful in the future.
• Drive: They have the room to grow in their field and the grit and desire to prove themselves.
• High trajectory: They have continuously grown in their career and added more to their remit. They have previously operated outside of their scope and demonstrated their ability to continue on this track.
• Business orientation: They are able to think beyond their function and can tie company objectives back to various functions.

Areas to probe:

• Unproven: How have they navigated new responsibility for things they’ve never owned before? Look for the person with a reference who says “I just threw this at them, they didn’t know how to do it, and they figured it out.”
• Optimize: Target the profile arc based on your company’s needs.
  • If you are an early-stage company that is focused on hiring and setting the foundations for hyper-growth, you may want to hire someone coming from a Talent Acquisition background.
  • If you are thinking about succession planning and focused on building out the full People function, you may want to look at up-and-comers with a Business Partner background.

BEEN THERE, DONE THAT PROFILE:

These candidates have seen the show before. They know how to assemble the right team and have a track record of proven success at scale. People leaders often want multiple success stories under their belt before moving on to their next chapter. In other words, a sitting CPO that saw growth from 250 employees to 3,000 employees may want to do this again to prove multi-dimensional success before taking the next step in their career.

Where they excel:

• Building teams and attracting talent: How have they gone about this in the past? Have they been able to attract great talent, develop it and create followership?
• Hiring for gaps or blind spots: We all have them. Were they able to assemble a team of HR professionals around them to improve the business?
• Scalability: Have they guided the company through moments of transition and change?
• Influence: How have they influenced decisions within the organization or at the executive level?

Areas to probe:

• Motivation and energy: Do they have the right motivation and energy to give this another go? Dig even further if you are in hyper-growth mode.
• Adaptability: Can they iterate on their own playbook to meet the demands of a different business?
• IPO experience and board interactions: If an IPO is on the horizon, then evaluate their experience preparing for or navigating an IPO. If they will be tasked with boardroom interaction and presenting on behalf of the business, it’s important to assess their previous experience.

Seasoned Specialist Profile:

This persona has held the top job at a large institution or public company. Perhaps they were a Chief Talent Officer at a public company and they want to scale down to the CPO role at a growth stage company to experience a faster pace.

Where they excel:

• They’ve been part of companies you admire: If they are coming from a company you respect, they know what great looks like and can apply lessons learned and playbooks for a similar outcome.
• They’ve seen the road ahead: They have been where your company is trying to go and can help drive your business into the future based on previous success.
• Specific expertise: They are an expert in the strategic area of focus you are aiming to improve and can weave that into the overall people strategy.

Areas to probe:

• Building vs. optimizing: Are they as strong on building as they are on optimizing?
• The details: Are they able to get into the weeds as needed? In addition to the strategy work required, are they able to roll up their sleeves and execute work?
• Speed: How quickly do they move? If they are coming from a large organization, you should test their ability to adapt their timetables in order to execute with speed.
• Ambiguity: Can they thrive in a less structured environment with fewer resources? Ask questions to determine if ambiguity is exciting to them.

Business Transplant Profile:

These candidates typically rise through the ranks via management consulting or various business roles that are adjacent to People. They bring strong business acumen, good strategic chops, data fluency and are typically very polished.

Where they excel:

• Analytics and business acumen: They have seen snippets of several companies’ approaches to challenges and know where to apply what they’ve learned to your business.
• Comfortable with the uncomfortable: They identify challenges with ease, diving deep to understand the root cause(s), and proactively put forward solutions.
• Cross-functional expertise: Given their broad business background, they have the ability to “speak the language of the business” and build relationships with cross-functional executives.

Areas to probe:

• Motivation and energy: Do they have sufficient subject matter expertise? In which parts of the function have they spent the most time? Can they evaluate their own blind spots and hire to supplement?
• Building teams and attracting talent: Have they been able to attract great talent, develop it and create a followership?
• Ability to execute: Are they able to translate strategy into action and deliver results?