How to Hire a Chief People Officer

The Chief People Officer title has moved quickly up the UK executive agenda. Not long ago it was unusual outside technology firms. Today it appears across scaling businesses, PE-backed portfolio companies, professional services firms and a growing number of mid-market retailers and manufacturers. The role exists because scaling firms have concluded that the traditional HR director model — a function-focused, policy-oriented role, often reporting to the CFO — is not adequate for the people challenges they now face. They need someone at the top table who thinks commercially about talent, culture and organisational design, and who can build a people function at the same pace the business is growing. For short-notice HR leadership, an interim HR Director can step in.

This guide explains what a Chief People Officer actually does, how the role differs from a Chief Human Resources Officer, when a firm should hire one, what the candidate profile looks like, how to run the search and what shapes the package. It is written from the perspective of UK executive search, drawing on the work Exec Capital does on Chief People Officer appointments across scale-ups and PE-backed businesses.

If your firm is a large, listed or regulated organisation with a mature HR infrastructure, our companion guide on how to hire a CHRO may be more relevant. The CPO and CHRO are not the same role, and the distinction matters for how you write the brief, where you look for candidates and what you offer them. This guide stays focused on the Chief People Officer in a scaling business.

CPO vs CHRO: Why the Title Distinction Matters

The Chief People Officer and the Chief Human Resources Officer are genuinely different roles, even though both sit at the top of the people function. Understanding the distinction is the starting point for any CPO search, because conflating the two produces a poorly constructed brief that attracts the wrong candidates and puts off the right ones.

The CHRO title is most common at large, established firms — FTSE 350 companies, major financial services institutions, large professional services partnerships and multinationals with UK operations. The CHRO typically operates within mature HR infrastructure: established reward frameworks, graduate recruitment pipelines, structured succession planning, a substantial HR team and often significant share-scheme or pensions complexity. The CHRO’s mandate is largely about optimising a function that already exists at scale.

The CPO title signals something different. It emerged from the technology sector, where firms growing quickly from a few dozen people to several hundred, and then to thousands, needed someone who could build the people function as the business grew rather than run one that was already built. The CPO’s mandate is constructive rather than operational. They are usually one of the founding members of a senior leadership team, working directly with the CEO and CFO, and their remit covers not just HR as a function but the broader question of how the organisation is designed, how culture is shaped and how the talent strategy connects to the commercial plan.

In practice, the difference shows up in five ways.

Commercial orientation. A CPO at a scaling firm is expected to have a clear point of view on the link between people decisions and business outcomes. Headcount planning, productivity, the cost of attrition and organisational leverage are part of their vocabulary. A CHRO at an established firm may have a more function-centric view, focused on HR service delivery, policy and the employment framework.
Build vs operate. CPOs build. They hire the first HR business partners, implement the first performance management framework, set up the first learning and development offer and often run leadership hiring themselves in the early stages. An established-firm CHRO inherits a function and optimises it.
Reporting line and seniority. CPOs nearly always report directly to the CEO. They are peers of the CFO, CMO and COO — participants in strategic decisions, not a function head brought in once decisions are made. Some CHRO roles at large firms report to the COO or into a group HR structure, which can dilute strategic influence.
Team size. A CPO may join a business of a couple of hundred people with one or two HR coordinators and build from there. A CHRO at a major listed firm may inherit a large team with an HR shared services function and regional teams across several countries.
Equity and founding-team dynamics. CPO appointments at scaling firms often come with meaningful equity — options, growth shares or participation in a management incentive plan. This is a standard part of the package in a way that it typically is not for CHRO appointments at listed firms, where long-term incentives follow a set plan.

None of this means one role is superior to the other. It means they require different candidate profiles, different search approaches and different offer structures. A firm that advertises for a CPO but actually wants a CHRO will attract the wrong talent, and the reverse is equally true. Where the real question is whether you need a board-level people leader at all, our guide to the difference between an HR Director and a CHRO sets out the options below the CPO level. Exec Capital runs both mandates through its CHRO and senior people leadership practice, and we keep the two briefs separate for exactly these reasons.

What a Chief People Officer Actually Does

The CPO role varies considerably with the size and stage of the firm, but there is a consistent core. A Chief People Officer at a UK scaling business will typically own or directly shape the following.

People strategy and workforce planning. The CPO translates the business plan into a headcount plan. They model where the organisation needs to grow, where it can be lean and where it is currently misaligned. This is not an administrative task — it requires financial literacy and a commercial understanding of the business model, because every hiring decision in a scale-up is also a cash decision.
Culture and employee experience. Culture is not a poster on the wall. The CPO is responsible for understanding which behaviours and values actually drive performance in the business, articulating them clearly, embedding them in processes (hiring, promotion, recognition, performance management) and checking whether they are holding as the firm grows and new people arrive faster than the original team can absorb them.
Leadership hiring and senior team design. At a scaling firm, the CPO is often the architect of the senior team — defining which roles are needed, setting the standard for leadership quality, and running or closely overseeing searches for director-level and C-suite appointments. A strong CPO brings consistency to those appointments, so that the leadership team is assembled against a common standard rather than a series of one-off decisions.
Compensation and reward. The CPO at a PE-backed or venture-backed business needs to understand equity mechanics — EMI options, growth shares, unapproved options — as well as cash pay and the total reward proposition. They typically own the annual pay review and work closely with the CFO on affordability, and they are increasingly asked to explain pay structures clearly to employees and to the board.
Performance management and learning. The CPO sets the framework for how performance is assessed and managed — calibration, feedback, underperformance and succession readiness. In most scaling firms this also includes learning and development, though the scope and investment depend on stage and budget.
People operations and compliance. Employment law, HR systems, payroll oversight, data protection in the employment context and diversity reporting all sit with the CPO. Even where day-to-day management sits below them, the CPO is ultimately accountable for compliance across the people function — a responsibility that has grown with the Employment Rights Act 2025, covered below.
Board-level people reporting. At PE-backed firms and listed companies, the CPO will typically present to the board on retention, engagement, capability gaps, succession readiness and inclusion. The ability to communicate people strategy credibly at board level is a prerequisite for the role, not a skill to be developed once in post.

The Employment Rights Act and the CPO Brief

The Employment Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent in December 2025, and its measures are being brought in over 2026 and 2027. For a scaling business, this is one of the most practical reasons to make sure the people function is led by someone senior enough to plan for it, rather than reacting to each change as it lands.

The changes Acas highlights include unfair dismissal protection after six months’ employment rather than two years, statutory sick pay from the first day of illness, paternity leave as a day-one right, new limits on dismissal and re-engagement, guaranteed-hours rights for zero-hours workers, a proactive duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment, and new rules on trade union access. The government publishes and updates the commencement dates in its implementation timeline for the Employment Rights Act, and some measures remain subject to secondary legislation and consultation, so dates should be checked against that page rather than assumed.

For a CPO in a scale-up, the practical effects are significant:

• Probation and early-tenure management. A shorter qualifying period for unfair dismissal means hiring quality, onboarding and probation reviews matter more. Scale-ups that hire quickly and correct mistakes later will need a more disciplined process.
• Workforce models. Businesses that rely on flexible or variable-hours staff — common in hospitality, retail, logistics and some services — will need to review contracts and scheduling practices.
• Policies and manager capability. Harassment prevention, family leave and sickness absence policies will need updating, and line managers will need to apply them consistently.
• Restructuring. Any reorganisation that touches terms and conditions will need more careful planning, which matters for PE-backed businesses running value-creation plans.

None of this requires the CPO to be an employment lawyer, and most scaling businesses will rely on external employment counsel for the detail. It does mean the brief should ask for a candidate who can turn legal change into workable policy, explain it to the CEO and board in commercial terms, and build manager capability so the business stays compliant as it grows. A candidate who treats compliance as somebody else’s problem is not the right CPO for a scaling business today.

When Is the Right Time to Hire a Chief People Officer?

Most firms hire a CPO too late. The people function is typically under-invested at the stage when it matters most — the transition from early growth to scale — and by the time the need is obvious, damage has been done. Culture has fragmented, senior attrition has picked up and the leadership team has been assembled without consistent standards.

There are four situations that typically mark the right moment for a CPO hire.

The founder can no longer carry the culture alone. In a small business, the CEO can hold much of the culture and people leadership personally. As headcount grows past the point where the CEO knows everyone, and as new managers are appointed who were not part of the original team, that becomes impossible. In our experience the right moment is when the business is approaching that point, not after it has passed it. A CPO hired early can shape the function before problems compound; one hired late spends their first year on repair work.
The pace of leadership hiring is accelerating. If a firm is planning a run of director-level and senior hires over the next year or two, it needs someone who owns the quality of those appointments end to end. Placing each search with a different agency without central coordination produces inconsistent hiring standards and a senior team that does not cohere.
Private equity investment or a major funding round. PE houses and institutional investors usually look at people leadership closely after investment, and firms without a credible people leader at completion often find the board pushes for the hire soon afterwards. It is usually better to hire before investment than after, so the CPO has context and credibility by the time institutional scrutiny begins.
Senior attrition or culture deterioration. If the firm is losing senior leaders faster than expected, or engagement surveys show clear deterioration, a CPO mandate has often already been created by the problem even if the role has not been approved. In these situations the hire is frequently urgent, which compresses the search and narrows the candidate pool. Firms that build ahead of this need are in a stronger position. Where the need is real but the business is not ready for a full-time board appointment, a part-time CPO working two or three days a week can set the framework and prepare the ground for a permanent hire.

The Chief People Officer Candidate Profile

The CPO candidate market in the UK is narrower than most hiring firms expect. The combination of commercial orientation, board-level credibility, people function expertise and build-rather-than-operate experience is not common. Understanding what the profile looks like — and what it does not look like — is essential before the brief is written.

Commercial acumen is non-negotiable. The most common disappointment in CPO searches is an appointment that looks right on paper — strong HR credentials, pleasant interpersonal style, solid references — but cannot hold their own in commercial conversations. The CPO needs to engage with the CEO, CFO and investors as a peer. That requires fluency in the financial model of the business, an understanding of how headcount drives unit economics, and the ability to challenge decisions on people grounds with commercial evidence rather than HR instinct.
Stage experience matters more than sector experience. A CPO who has built people functions at several scaling businesses in different sectors is usually preferable to one who has spent a long career at a large, established firm in the same sector. The mechanics of building — implementing an HR system, hiring the first HR business partners, designing the first pay bands, setting the first performance cycle — transfer across sectors more readily than across firm stages. Many PE houses now weight stage fit above sector fit in CPO searches for this reason.
CEOs and CPOs need to work together. The CPO–CEO relationship is the most important relationship in any people function. A CPO with excellent functional credentials who does not connect with the CEO will struggle to deliver. Equally, a CEO who does not genuinely value the people function will undermine a CPO who has the right instincts. The search needs to test this relationship directly — not just through interviews but through working sessions and reference discussions that explore how the candidate has handled founder or CEO relationships in previous roles.
Equity and incentive design experience. At scaling and PE-backed firms, the CPO needs to be confident with equity. They do not need to be a tax specialist — that sits with the CFO and advisers — but they do need to understand EMI option schemes, growth shares, leaver provisions and the total reward proposition well enough to design and explain it to candidates and employees. CPOs who have only worked in listed environments with set long-term incentive plans often find this transition harder than expected.
Credibility on inclusion and fairness. Scaling firms face increasing board and investor interest in inclusion, pay fairness and belonging — not as a compliance exercise but as a talent and culture priority. The CPO needs a considered approach to inclusive hiring, equitable pay practices and fair promotion that goes beyond policy documents. Candidates who have done this thoughtfully in previous roles, and can show outcomes rather than intentions, are significantly more valuable than those who have implemented off-the-shelf frameworks.
What to avoid. Several candidate types look attractive but underdeliver in scaling-firm CPO roles. The generalist HR director with no C-suite exposure will struggle with board-level scrutiny. The specialist with deep expertise in one area — reward or learning, for example — may lack the breadth for the full mandate. The candidate from a very large corporate who has always operated with extensive support infrastructure may find the autonomy of a scale-up disorienting rather than energising. And the candidate who interviews well but whose references reveal a poor record of building trust with business leaders will rarely succeed. Reference work for CPO appointments needs to go beyond the formal: structured conversations with former CEOs and CFOs who worked closely with the candidate are the most valuable input into the decision.

Where CPO Talent Comes From

The UK CPO candidate pool draws from several overlapping sources, each with different strengths and risks.

Senior people leaders at scaling firms. The most direct source is senior HR professionals who have operated in scaling environments — typically as the most senior people leader at a venture-backed technology firm, a mid-market PE-backed business or a fast-growing professional services firm. These candidates understand the build mandate and have usually been through at least one major scaling inflection. The challenge is that they may not yet have operated at full CPO scope, particularly around board relationships and equity design.
CHRO-to-CPO transitions from established firms. Some strong CPO candidates come from CHRO roles at FTSE 250 or large private firms and want the scope and entrepreneurial energy of a scaling mandate. They bring breadth and functional credibility but need careful assessment of their appetite for ambiguity and their commercial instincts. The best transitions work when the candidate has actively sought the scaling context, not simply been attracted by equity.
HR directors stepping up. An experienced HR director from a larger business, who has worked closely with a strong CPO or CHRO and had exposure to the board, can make an excellent first-time CPO in a scale-up. The assessment question is whether they have owned strategy or only delivered it.
Non-HR routes into the CPO role. A smaller number of CPO appointments come from outside traditional HR careers — former management consultants who specialised in organisational effectiveness, operators who have run large frontline teams and built deep people intuition, or commercial leaders who have moved into the people space. These candidates can bring exceptional commercial credibility but need careful assessment for functional depth, and they usually need a strong head of people operations beneath them.
US returnees and international talent. US technology firms have been building CPO functions for many years, and there is a pool of UK-educated or UK-resident talent who have held CPO or VP People roles at US-headquartered businesses. These candidates are often sophisticated on equity, culture-building and rapid scaling, but may need orientation on UK employment law — TUPE, redundancy consultation, union recognition, data protection in employment and the Employment Rights Act changes — which have no direct US equivalent.
Interim CPOs as an entry point. For firms not yet certain about the permanent hire, or facing an urgent need while the permanent search runs, an interim CPO can stabilise the function and inform the permanent specification. This is particularly useful at PE-backed firms after a senior departure, where the interim provides continuity during a period of change and can hand over a clear diagnosis to the permanent appointment.

Running the CPO Search

A CPO search run well looks different from most executive searches. The functional complexity, the weight placed on chemistry and the importance of equity alignment all shape how the process should be structured.

Brief construction. The role specification for a CPO needs to address the stage of the firm, the size and current capability of the people team, the board and investor dynamics, and the organisational ambition for the next three to five years. A brief that simply lists HR responsibilities will not attract the right candidates — they will read it as an HR director role, not a CPO mandate. The word “Chief” needs to be substantiated by the brief: board participation, a peer relationship with the CEO, equity participation and genuine ownership of people as a business-critical lever.
Stakeholder alignment before the search opens. CPO searches frequently stall mid-process because the CEO, CFO and board do not share a common view of the role. The CEO may want a culture champion; the CFO may want headcount control; investors may want a talent acquisition engine. None of these is wrong, but disagreement needs to surface before candidates are engaged, not during offer negotiations. A good search partner will run an alignment process at the brief stage to surface and resolve these tensions.
Confidentiality. Many CPO searches are confidential — either because an incumbent in a related role is affected, or because the firm does not want to signal an organisational change publicly. Confidential searches rely on targeted direct approaches rather than advertising, which underlines the value of a search partner with established relationships across the people leadership market.
Assessment framework. A CPO process should include, at minimum, a structured interview focused on past examples of building a people function, a commercial case study or presentation to the senior leadership team, a conversation with the chair or a board member to test credibility at that level, and structured reference conversations with former CEO and CFO principals. Psychometric tools can be a useful supplementary input but should not replace the direct evidence gathered through a structured process.
Timeline. A well-run CPO search takes longer than most firms expect, and should be planned in months rather than weeks. It runs longer where the role needs specific sector experience, where stakeholder alignment is complex or where confidentiality limits outreach. Firms that try to compress the process often end up with a compromise appointment or lose their preferred candidates to faster-moving competitors. If the business genuinely cannot wait, it is usually better to put an interim in place than to rush the permanent decision.

Chief People Officer Compensation: What Drives the Package

CPO packages in the UK vary widely, and published salary surveys often blur CPO, CHRO and HR director roles together. Rather than quoting a range that may not fit your business, it is more useful to understand what drives the package, and to benchmark against current, comparable searches when the brief is written. Listed-firm CHRO reward operates on a different basis and is covered in the companion CHRO guide.

Size, stage and funding. The single biggest driver is the scale and maturity of the business: headcount, revenue, international footprint and whether the firm is venture-backed, PE-owned or founder-owned. A CPO joining a business that has just closed a growth round is being paid for a different job from one joining a mature PE portfolio company preparing for exit.
Scope of the role. A CPO who also owns talent acquisition, internal communications, workplace and facilities, or a large shared-services function will command a stronger package than one with a narrower remit. Board membership, or regular attendance at board meetings, also moves the number.
Candidate background. Candidates moving from listed companies or from US-headquartered technology firms often have expectations calibrated to larger cash packages or dollar-denominated equity, which need careful management. Candidates stepping up into their first CPO role will usually trade some cash for scope and equity.
Bonus structure. PE-backed firms commonly structure bonuses partly against personal objectives and partly against EBITDA or cash targets, which the CPO needs to understand and be comfortable with. Venture-backed firms may place less weight on annual bonus and more on equity.
Equity. Equity is the most significant variable. In a venture-backed business it will usually take the form of share options; in a PE-backed business, participation in a management incentive plan or sweet equity. Qualifying companies can grant Enterprise Management Incentive options, which carry tax advantages; GOV.UK sets out the current limits, which were raised from April 2026 to cover companies with gross assets of up to £120 million and fewer than 500 full-time employees, with options of up to £250,000 per employee over a three-year period. Candidates who have not held equity before often underestimate both its value and its complexity, and our executive equity incentives guide is useful context for both sides of the negotiation.
Benefits and flexibility. Private medical cover, life assurance, income protection and a competitive employer pension contribution are expected at this level. CPO candidates from larger firms often look closely at parental leave, sabbaticals and flexible working — and, unsurprisingly, a candidate for a people role will judge the business on whether its own policies match what it says about culture.

Onboarding Your Chief People Officer

A CPO without a well-structured onboarding plan will spend their first three months building a picture of the organisation that should have been given to them. That costs time the business does not have, particularly in a scale-up where the people agenda is usually already behind.

The first 30 days should be built around listening and mapping: one-to-ones with every member of the senior leadership team, structured conversations with a sample of employees at every level, and a full audit of the existing people function — what exists, what works and what does not. The audit should include contracts, policies and processes against the Employment Rights Act changes. The CPO should not be expected to have a strategy by the end of month one, but they should have a clear picture of where the opportunities and risks lie.

Days 30 to 60 should move towards diagnosis and prioritisation. The CPO presents their assessment to the CEO and, where relevant, the board — not a final plan, but a structured view of the most significant people challenges and where they intend to focus. This conversation also tests strategic alignment: does the CEO share the diagnosis? Where the CPO’s assessment differs from the CEO’s assumptions, how will those differences be resolved?

Days 60 to 90 should produce a concrete 12-month people plan, with clear priorities, a team-building plan, a budget proposal and an agreed reporting framework. The CPO should be presenting to the board by the end of the first quarter — both to build their own credibility and to show board-level stakeholders the value of the function.

The CEO has a part to play too. The new CPO needs early access to the financial model, the investor plan and the board pack, and an honest account of the people issues the CEO already knows about. Withholding the difficult issues until the CPO discovers them is one of the quickest ways to damage the relationship.

Common Mistakes When Hiring a Chief People Officer

CPO searches go wrong in identifiable ways. These are the five mistakes we see most often in UK scale-ups and PE-backed businesses.

1. Hiring an HR director and calling them a CPO. This is the title inflation problem. The firm approves a CPO headcount but then runs a process designed for an HR director — a brief that lists functional responsibilities, a package below the CPO market and board involvement limited to a final interview. CPO-calibre candidates withdraw, and the firm appoints a capable HR professional who struggles with the strategic scope the business actually needs. The fix is to align the brief, budget and process before the search opens, not after.
2. Under-investing in reference work. References matter more for the CPO than for almost any other C-suite role, because the CPO’s effectiveness depends heavily on relationships. A candidate who presents brilliantly but has a record of failing to build trust with commercial leaders will underdeliver. Formal references from line managers are a starting point; the most valuable conversations are with former CEOs and CFOs who can speak to the candidate’s commercial influence and relationship quality. These take time and should be structured.
3. Failing to align the CEO and board before the offer. The CPO sits between the CEO and the board in a way that creates complexity if the two have different expectations. The CEO may want a trusted operational partner; the board may want a succession planning engine and stronger people reporting. Where these are not reconciled before the appointment, the new CPO faces conflicting mandates from day one, which undermines effectiveness and increases the risk of an early exit. The most effective CPO searches include a structured board briefing on the role before candidates are engaged.
4. Rushing the timeline at the wrong moment. A CPO search started in response to a crisis — a sudden departure, a culture failure, an investor ultimatum — is almost always run too quickly. A wrong appointment in the CPO role is more expensive than most, because it erodes trust across the people function and the senior team. When time pressure is real, an interim appointment while the permanent search runs properly is usually the better option.
5. Neglecting equity alignment. At scaling and PE-backed firms, equity is often the most complex part of the negotiation. Firms that offer equity without transparency on the mechanics, the valuation basis and the likely route to liquidity find that candidates accept in good faith and become disillusioned later. Transparent, well-documented equity offers — with clear vesting, leaver provisions and a credible exit narrative — attract better candidates and reduce early attrition.

How Exec Capital Approaches Chief People Officer Appointments

Exec Capital works on CPO and senior people leadership appointments for scale-ups, PE-backed businesses and mid-market companies going through leadership change. Our CPO mandates are typically retained searches, run by our specialist team with Adrian Lawrence FCA overseeing each mandate, and they draw on the C-suite and board network shared across the FD Capital Group.

We begin every CPO search by aligning stakeholders — usually a structured conversation with the CEO, CFO and relevant board members — so the brief reflects a shared understanding of the mandate before candidates are approached. It is the most effective investment a firm can make in a CPO search, because it prevents the mid-process realignments that cost time and candidates.

Our assessment combines a commercial review alongside the functional one, because a CPO who cannot engage commercially cannot deliver in a scaling business. We hold structured reference conversations with former principals for shortlisted candidates, and we support offer negotiation, including equity, where relevant.

For firms still deciding whether a permanent CPO is right at this stage, or whether a part-time or interim arrangement makes more sense in the near term, we are happy to have that conversation before any search begins. The answer is not always a permanent hire, and an honest view at the start saves time later.

CPO appointments sit within our wider people leadership and CHRO recruitment practice, alongside CHRO and HR director searches. We keep a clear distinction between those mandates, because we have consistently seen that the distinction produces better appointments.

Further Reading and Authoritative Sources

For research on the people function, the CIPD’s strategic HRM factsheet is a useful foundation for understanding how senior people leadership connects HR practice to business strategy, and the CIPD publishes wider guidance on workforce planning, reward and the HR profession.

On employment law, Acas provides authoritative guidance on employment rights and contractual obligations, including its summary of the changes in the Employment Rights Act 2025. Commencement dates are maintained on GOV.UK in the government’s implementation timeline, which is updated as each measure is confirmed.

On equity, GOV.UK sets out the eligibility rules and limits for Enterprise Management Incentives, which most venture-backed scale-ups will consider when structuring a CPO offer. Specialist tax and legal advice is still needed for the scheme itself, but the CPO should understand the principles well enough to explain them.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a Chief People Officer and an HR Director?

An HR director usually leads the HR function and delivers the people agenda set by the leadership team. A Chief People Officer sits on that leadership team, reports to the CEO and shapes the agenda — organisation design, culture, leadership hiring and reward — as well as running the function.

When does a scale-up need a Chief People Officer?

Usually when the founder can no longer carry the culture personally, when a run of senior hires is coming, or around a funding round or PE investment. Hiring slightly early is generally better than hiring once problems have already set in.

Can we hire a part-time or interim CPO first?

Yes. A part-time CPO can build the framework in a business that is not yet ready for a full-time board appointment, and an interim CPO can stabilise the function after a departure or while the permanent search runs.

How long does a CPO search take?

Plan in months rather than weeks. Stakeholder alignment, confidentiality and thorough referencing all add time, but cutting them out is the most common cause of a poor appointment.

Does a CPO need to be an employment law expert?

No, but they need to understand the Employment Rights Act 2025 changes well enough to plan for them, turn them into policy and explain the commercial impact to the CEO and board. Detailed legal advice will normally come from external counsel.