With people powering businesses of all sizes, Chief People Officers have long been important. Now more than ever they are valuable in creating and building foundations for growth – and this is as true for mid-market businesses as it is for larger companies.
Top-quartile UK portfolio companies are twice as likely to have a Chief People Officer (CPeO) as bottom quartile companies – underlining just how pivotal this role has become. To explore what makes a great CPeO, Freddy West from Inflexion’s talent team spoke with Paul Whitney of pwHR-Consult at Inflexion’s recent People Leaders’ Exchange. Paul brings decades of experience from Silicon Valley, having helped grow four category-defining tech companies from early stages to billion-dollar valuations, including Databricks.
Freddy: When you first join a company, how do you define what needs doing?
Paul: The first 90 to 100 days are vital. Initially, there’s a lot of absorption – understanding the company’s real business objectives, beyond what might have been said during interviews. Often, resources can take time to manifest, so it’s about diagnosing the reality.
When approaching the diagnosis, I think of it as a triangle: the base is basic HR functionality – getting people paid, basic compliance – you don’t need an A grade here, but you do need a passing grade. The middle I think of as operational HR. This is where, in my opinion, most of the time should be spent, especially in early-stage or growth businesses – designing hiring, compensation, and performance management systems for example. The apex is strategic HR: things like values, culture, and D&I. These are critical but should not dominate your time early on unless there’s a real leadership or cultural crisis.
Freddy: What’s the typical time split between strategic, operational, and foundational work?
Paul: In a company of a few hundred to a few thousand employees, about 80% of your time should be foundational and operational, and only 10-15% strategic. If you’re spending significant time on culture early on, something’s wrong.
Freddy: In a PE-backed business, what’s the single most important lever?
Paul: Talent strategy. In growth companies, recruiting is often the critical issue. For example, at one company (not backed by Inflexion), we initially focused on hiring at all costs so my focus was on building and running high impact, high volume recruiting processes. When the market shifted, we pivoted to hiring in lower-cost locations like Serbia and Spain and shifted the process accordingly. It’s about aligning your talent strategy to the business’s real-time needs, and ensuring leadership is fully behind it.
Freddy: How do you build relationships with strong personalities like founders and CEOs?
Paul: Many founders have often built something against all odds; they think differently and so are accustomed to facing opposition to their point of view. This is how start-ups are born and it takes a great amount of self belief.
Founders have a fundamental interest in all aspects of their business and actively seek to involve themselves sometimes in great detail, and this can seem like micro management. It’s not, it’s just their deep level of concern for the best interests of the company which is difficult for anyone but a founder to feel. But they are also human, and will have perspectives that you – and perhaps others on your exec team – may not always agree with. Before you rush to get them to change, I recommend you start with empathy: understand where they’re coming from first. Ask lots of questions and make sure they feel heard before proposing alternatives. If you start by trying to tell them they are wrong, no matter how nicely you put it, this typically will not be a constructive approach.
When I have found myself at odds with a CEO, I remind myself that there are two ways to look at things – either you are opposing them (like an opponent in a tennis match, you are on the other side of the net) or you are their partner and on the same side of the net. Mentally put yourself on their side of the net if you want to build the best relationships.
And don't forget that they are very data-driven – if you bring solid data to the conversation, you can engage more constructively. Done well, you can become a safe sounding board as you build trust, and this is a vital role for a CPeO. To do this, you also need to have “operational courage”.
Freddy: What is meant by “operational courage”?
Paul: Driving change takes courage. Everything HR does imposes a ‘tax’ on the business – new processes, new behaviours – and people resist. Operational courage means pushing through when you know something is right for the company, even if it’s hard, slow, or unpopular. It’s about having the debates, standing your ground, and committing to real change that matters. It’s also about knowing when to graciously admit defeat and that the company may not be ready for what you are proposing – so move on!
Freddy: How can a Chief People Officer best demonstrate their impact to a board?
Paul: Use data to drive clarity and perspective around business issues – avoid the generic read out of people stats that they see in every board meeting (such as attrition, DEI representation).
It’s much better to create your own hypotheses and test them. For example, on remote work, we analysed attrition rates based on distance from office – and found those more than 60km away had twice the attrition rate than those closer to their nearest office. That’s actionable. We can then dig in through more rigorous analysis of exit interviews and other means to find out why, which we can then use to build countering strategies on retention. Boards don’t want HR metrics for their own sake; they want to know if what you’re doing is making the business more successful.
Freddy: Finally, what advice would you give CPeOs facing time and resource pressure?
Paul: Prioritise ruthlessly. Build an agenda around what the business truly needs now – not what sounds interesting. For instance, if your company always hires externally, don’t spend months building leadership development programmes. Focus on recruiting first. You need to be clear-eyed about what moves the needle today. Strategic patience is key: you can build the bells and whistles later when the business is ready.
Inflexion focuses on helping portfolio companies design stronger organisations, build better boards and management teams, create effective performance management and incentives, and improve overall organisational health. Each investment, regardless of size or stake, has full access to Inflexion’s value acceleration support which includes international expansion, M&A, digital enhancement, talent management, commercial effectiveness and ESG strategy.
