Chief people officer
Also called: CPO, VP people, head of people, CHRO
What sits under a CPO
A full people function:
- Talent acquisition (recruiting, employer brand) — usually a head of talent reporting in.
- People operations (HRIS, onboarding, payroll coordination).
- Total rewards (compensation, benefits, equity).
- Learning and development (training, career frameworks).
- DEI (programs, reporting, hiring-pipeline interventions).
- Employee relations (performance, terminations, escalations).
- Culture (rituals, values, engagement).
At SMB scale, several of these are one person or unstaffed.
CPO vs. head of people vs. VP people vs. CHRO
The titles are mostly interchangeable; what differs is company size and traditional sector.
- Head of people: typical at 50-200 employees. Often the first dedicated people leader.
- VP people: typical at 200-500 employees. Reports to founder or COO.
- CPO (chief people officer): typical at 300-1000 employees. Reports to CEO; sits on the exec team.
- CHRO (chief human resources officer): same role as CPO, traditional industry framing. Common in manufacturing, finance, retail.
When the title changes, the work doesn’t change much — the org around it does.
When SMBs hire a CPO
Triggers:
- 200+ employees, sustained hiring.
- Founder no longer the bottleneck on hiring quality alone — needs the operating layer too.
- A specific moment: post-Series B, post-acquisition, geographic expansion.
Before that, the head of HR or COO holds the function.
Where Join fits
Join gives the CPO the cross-team hiring dashboard their head of talent operates daily — funnel health, time-to-hire, cost-per-hire by team and channel. See the features page.
