People and Talent - The Functions journey through growth

Understanding what the composition, size and speciality of your People and Talent function as you grow should look like isn’t a one size fits all approach. There is no universally accepted playbook, rather, it’s a decision covered in nuance and complexity which Founders often need to navigate alone.

However, there are some guiding principles to consider as you choose the optimal path forwards. I’ll use some generic benchmarks for what each funding stage tends to signify from a company development perspective (assuming you’ve used funding, if not, the phases should still resonate).

Scale/Series A

At this stage you’ve won your first customers, you have a small, core team in place (likely with significant equity plays) and you need to ramp up your team and execute on your product roadmap/GTM strategy. Your Culture is starting to form, largely driven by your mindset and ways of working.

Where does People and Talent fit into this?

At this point, Recruitment/Talent Acquisition is the number one, but not exclusive, focus. You need the right people, fast. This stage reminds me of the project management adage that you can pick two of Fast, Good or Cheap. Companies often choose quality and speed - an expensive route that sees them rely on external Recruitment agencies - often reducing their critical run rate without the guarantee of success. It can form part of your strategy but it results in an expensive TA strategy without the fundamental building blocks being built to set you up for scale or with that internal champion that really gets your business. This is where a Founding Recruiter can really help.

With the focus on hiring, the People expertise is also neglected here, often at your peril. Building a winning culture with a high performing, engaged workforce is critical to most businesses at this stage but largely an afterthought in terms of investment. Turning this round or building it at Series B or beyond with established ways of working and mindsets within your critical team is time consuming and challenging - much better to set the foundations around the core People strategy at the start. This is where an experienced Fractional People professional comes in.

Recommendation: Hands on Founding Recruiter with a trusted external Partner + Fractional experienced People professional

Establish/Series B

At this stage, you’re probably at ~50-75 people, you have your Product Roadmap in place for the next 1-2 years and you’ve got 2-3 people in a lot of core Departments (Sales, Customer Success). Now the game is velocity and scale - in execution, development, sales, hiring - it’s time to ramp up. You’re potentially going international, opening a second office, your company rituals are formed and anything neglected at the earlier stages will start to rear their head.

Where does People and Talent fit into this?

At this point, securing the right talent is critical. It’s a very similar context to Series A but multiplied. If you’re agency dependent, costs will spiral. If you’re hiring the wrong people, the repercussions are magnified. If you’ve not built the infrastructure for scale, it’s going to get messy. We’re at the early stages of Employer Branding benefits. This is why getting it right early is useful, but its rectifiable. At this point, your next move is context dependent. If you’ve followed my recommendation to this point, then it’s time to bring in 2-3 Recruiters around your Founding Recruiter (who progresses at this point). The key here is to ensure flexibility - don’t over hire the team because hiring always plateaus. Build an established core group and give them the budget/capability to scale up and down as needed.

A lot of your People specific building blocks need to be built here too - you’ll start to see some company routines forming - mature onboarding processes, performance frameworks, engagement surveys, comp & bens build outs, global compliance. I think we’re still pre Chief People Officer here but a hungry, sharp, automation focused Head of People style role with mentorship from the Fractional People Leader would be invaluable. This is a critical individual and can shape how the People function is perceived within your organisation over the coming growth.

Recommendation: Bring in a few key Recruiters alongside Founding Recruiter, Head of People with Fractional People mentorship

Futureproof/Series C

At this stage, you’re probably at ~150-200 people and you’ve made significant inroads. The P&E team is operating at velocity with a clear roadmap, your customer base is growing, processes and teams are scaling well. Things are as good as they’ve ever been but - so are the challenges! Now the focus is on winning the market, increasing market share, changing the world - everything you’ve been trying to do at Series A and B is looking more achievable but it’s still at such a critical junction.

Where does People and Talent fit into this?

At this point we need to be entering with an established core team of ~5-8 people across People and Talent, a fully automated and integrated People and Talent infrastructure that's fit for scale and the building block rituals in place for the company. This is where the function goes from good to great and there should be some high impact, visible projects. Naturally you also need to scale proportionately to your goals (primarily headcount as this drives Recruitment efforts and ‘Number of Employees per People Partner for example).

It’s also the time to start investing in what I call advanced People functions - Employer Branding and People Analytics to name two. We’ve likely entered Series C with a great Talent team, a few People Partners and, depending on your remote/hybrid/office strategy, an Office Manager. They likely have a cost efficient, impact driven and automation first focus - but now, with a bit of investment, can really drive you forward and maintain People and Talent as a strategic business partner.

It's also the time to take a 3-5 year viewpoint on the function - Workforce Planning, Organisation Design, a coherent roadmap with exec buy in. If you don't have a Chief People Officer then it's time to start filling that gap and giving them a seat at the table asap.

Recommendation: People Leadership Team in place with an established team and the emergence of advanced people function specialists.

So, there you have it. There’s a lot of nuance, assumptions and generality here but as a starting point should help you know how the Function should be shaping up and what you can expect from it.

If you’d like to discuss further, or how we can help you, get in touch with the team.