How a Fractional VP People can support a Series A start-up

It’s usually around the time of a successful Series A raise. The company is growing, people issues are taking up more time, managers need more support, and there is a creeping sense that the informal, founder-led approach that worked reasonably well in the early days will not be enough for the next phase of growth.

At that point, many founders quite reasonably begin to think about hiring a full-time Head of People. In many cases, that is exactly the right move. A strong permanent People leader can play a very significant role in helping a business attract, retain, and set up for success the talent it needs, while bringing more consistency to leadership, onboarding, performance, employee experience, and the broader systems that underpin scale.

The difficulty is not usually understanding the broad value of that role – most founders can see that clearly enough. The more difficult question is often what shape that role should take in their specific business, how much investment they want to make in the People function, and what type of person is most likely to succeed in it.

That is where a fractional Head of People or VP of People can sometimes be a very useful precursor to a permanent hire. This is not because a permanent hire is the wrong answer – often it is the eventual answer. Rather, it is because many companies benefit from a period of diagnosis, prioritisation, and clearer thinking before committing to the long-term structure of the function.

Levelling 

The role of a dedicated People function can sit across quite a wide spectrum. At one end, it remains relatively reactive, administrative, and focused on handling issues as they arise. At the other, it can become something much broader and more strategic: part People operations, part leadership development, part culture and engagement, part employer branding, and in some cases an important strategic partner to the CEO and leadership team.

Most founders are instinctively drawn to the more ambitious version when they think about it in the abstract. In practice, however, the level of investment, time, challenge, and organisational readiness that this requires can take longer to work through. Before someone is in post, it is not always easy for a founder to know exactly where they want to land on that spectrum, and working with a fractional People consultant can help bring clarity to that question.

HR audit

One of the main benefits of the fractional route is that it gives the founder a chance to bring in an experienced People leader to assess what is currently in place and make recommendations based on the actual realities of the business, rather than assumptions made from a distance.

A strong fractional Head of People or VP of People should be able to audit the culture and employee engagement of the company, the sophistication of its HR processes and policies, the quality of leadership and management capability, the competitiveness of compensation and benefits, and the broader employee experience being created for current and prospective employees.

They can identify and address urgent issues that need resolving immediately, act as a sounding board for leaders dealing with complex people matters in their teams, and set out a broader roadmap of what the People agenda could look like over time.

In some cases, the brief begins with a specific problem or project. In others, it starts with a wider audit followed by prioritising the most important actions. From there, the relationship may continue on a more ad hoc basis, with the fractional consultant acting as an escalation point, adviser, or project lead where needed.

Another practical advantage of the fractional route is that many of the people doing this work are highly experienced – often more so than an early- or mid-stage company might realistically attract or need on a permanent basis. Because they are typically working across multiple businesses at once, and generally have tenured careers across many comparable businesses, they can also bring broader perspective on what strong People leadership and processes look like, as well as specific matters such as the competitiveness of compensation on offer. All of this benchmarking can be very useful for Founders finding their way leading a new company.

Gateway hire

That kind of work is useful in its own right, but it can also help the founder get much clearer on what the eventual permanent role should involve. A founder may go into the process assuming they need one type of hire and come out of it with a more refined understanding of the level, remit, and profile that would really work.

They may conclude that the company is ready for a permanent Head of People sooner than expected, or they may decide there is value in continuing with fractional support for a period while the business evolves further. Either way, the decision tends to become more informed.

That matters, because the first senior People hire can be quite sensitive. If a permanent Head of People or VP of People does not work out, it is not simply an expensive hiring mistake – it can also damage the credibility of the function internally, in part due to the fact that HR functions typically have to work that bit harder to establish internal credibility due to the historic perception of the function.

We have seen businesses go through multiple Heads of People in a relatively short period of time, and that can create a broader perception problem around HR, making it harder for a subsequent hire to come in and succeed. Trying to get that first permanent appointment right is therefore extremely valuable, and one of the ways of improving the odds is to spend time beforehand getting much clearer on what the business really needs.

Candor

Where clarity is needed, there can also be a benefit in the nature of the relationship itself. For a fractional Head of People being engaged as a Consultant, their external advisory role can make it easier for them to be candid about issues they are seeing, versus a permanent Head of People who likely reports to the CEO and may feel pressure to be more agreeable in their earlier days. This can be particularly true where the issues relate to the CEO’s leadership conduct, which can be more common among less-experienced leaders. 

We should stress that this is far from a universal rule, and many permanent Heads of People are very effective at giving honest feedback. Nonetheless, on occasion we have observed the external adviser dynamic create a little more space for directness early on with more forthright CEO’s, and that can be useful when a business is trying to understand itself more clearly.

An interim solution

At the same time, it is important not to overstate what fractional support can do. A fractional Head of People is not a permanent substitute for embedded leadership in a scaling business. There comes a point where the volume of People issues, the need for sustained leadership support, and the desire to be more deliberate about attracting, retaining, and developing talent all point clearly towards a full-time hire.

Once a company reaches a certain level of scale and complexity – and certainly when it is serious about building and executing a more ambitious People strategy – a permanent Head of People or VP of People often becomes the more appropriate model. That person can be fully immersed in the business, build deeper relationships internally, and operate with a level of continuity and ownership that a fractional consultant is unlikely to be able to replicate indefinitely.

Seen that way, the decision becomes less about choosing between two competing models and more about sequencing. A founder may know that a full-time Head of People is likely to be important in the medium term, while also recognising that bringing in a fractional consultant first could help them define the role more clearly, address a number of pressing issues, and improve the chances of getting the long-term hire right.

For founder CEOs who are beginning to feel the strain of growth, but are not yet fully certain what a permanent People leader should own, what level the role should be pitched at, or how ambitious they want the function to become, a Fractional People Consultant can be a valuable interim partner.

Hawkwood have successfully recruited fractional VP’s of People into countless technology startups across Europe and the USA. If you are interested in finding out more about how this solution could suit your company, you can inquire via our contact form.