Fractional CPO
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What is a Fractional CPO?
To put it simply, a Chief People Officer or CPO grows your workforce. The CPO develops your People Plan and ensures the people set up of your business drives your strategy and commercial outcomes. A CPO defines and oversees:
- Recruiting practices
- Talent acquisition pipeline
- Compensation and benefits
- Organisational culture
- Training and professional development
- Organisational KPIs and OKRs
- Performance evaluation and feedback
And much more!
What Does “Fractional” Mean in Fractional CPO?
What’s the Difference Between a CPO and a CHRO?
CPO and Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) refer to the same role in an organisation even though there can be some differences between the two. What’s more important to consider is how the role is approached. Some CPOs are more concerned with keeping everyone happy and making them feel included, heard and appreciated. And while that is important, it is not what creates value in a company. When you work with Loop Business Consulting as your Fractional CPO we’re 100% focused on driving productivity and performance. By managing your workforce the right way we drive noticeable improvements to your bottom line.
Who Needs a Fractional CPO?
If you’re a founder, you don’t know what you don’t know. And first-time founders and entrepreneurs don’t know how to hire people and keep them happy. They’re typically visionaries or salesmen who can get people to buy into their vision. That might be enough to recruit the core team but it’s not enough to grow and retain a workforce. You need a specialist that understands recruitment & retention and how to set up the systems you need to manage your people. The thing is, you might not have the budget or the size for a full-time CPO or CHRO.
That’s where a fractional CPO like Loop Business Consulting can help. You get the expertise and experience of a C-Level exec without the significant added overhead (recruitment costs, salary, insurance, benefits.) And as consultants who’ve worked with several clients, we bring insight as to what’s working right now in people management.
If you’re the CEO or CHRO at a mid-to-large company and you’re going through a turbulent period, you might need additional support on strategy and execution. During mergers & acquisitions, expansion into new markets, downsizing, rapid growth and other chaotic situations, it can help to have a trusted advisor outside your organisation who isn’t involved in day-to-day operations and can maintain objectivity. You’ll also benefit from our experience working with many organisations across different industries. Whatever you’re going through, we’ve seen it before.
If you’re a HR Executive and you’re looking to develop and implement new initiatives at your company, a fractional CPO like Loop Business Consulting means you have an outside champion in your corner, advocating on your behalf. Our expertise and many years of experience will add authority and credibility to your projects, and make it much more likely that you’ll get buy-in from your leadership team. We can also take all the work off your plate, saving you time and allowing you to focus on the big picture.
Responsibilities of a Skilled CPO
A skilled CPO sources top talent and is instrumental in shaping the company culture. They need to identify critical positions, ensuring timely engagement, while also prioritising existing employee satisfaction and building strong relationships and networks for those positions in the pipeline. They also understand how best to structure an organisation for maximum effectiveness and to best achieve desired goals. This includes budgeting and forecasting to best deploy available resources.
Additionally, a good CPO is always one step ahead of industry trends, regulatory developments, and technological changes that affect the operation of the company and how employees work. They’re also an effective manager and successfully lead the HR team’s work on recruitment, business partnering, performance reviews, employee engagement, training and leadership development, conflict mediation, crisis management and more.
How Much Does a CPO/CHRO Make?
Since this is a C-Level position, total yearly compensation for a full-time CPO or CHRO is around A$350,000-A$450,000+. Not to mention the cost of recruitment and time spent finding the right person for your company. Or worse, the cost of hiring the wrong person. A fractional CPO gives you all of the skills, experience and outcomes with none of the hassle at a fraction of the cost.
What Experience Does a CPO Need?
Job descriptions will tell you a CPO needs an MBA and 5 to 10 years of experience in an executive HR role. They’ll need experience in leading and managing teams, as well as a deep understanding of employment law, familiarity with the issues faced by companies in their industry, as well as experience leading a complex organisation.
Put aside the “on-paper” qualifications and what you’re really looking for is whether or not they’ve built/grown an engaged, fulfilled, productive workforce before. Can they do the thing you want them to do? How successful were they? Did they do it once or do they have a repeated track record of success?
That’s why working with a Fractional CPO like Loop Business Consulting can be so profitable. Because we’ve helped so many of our clients get results, you can be confident in our track record of success. And you won’t have to worry about whether you hired a lemon.
How Do You Measure a CPO’s Success?
There are a number of industry-standard metrics you can use to measure our success when working together. Here are a few:
- 12-month retention
- 12-month voluntary turnover
- 12-month Performance Success Rate
- 12-month Engagement Score
Diversity, Equity, Inclusion percentages (e.g. women in company, women in leadership) - And others
Next Steps
Whenever you’re ready, here are three ways we can help:
- Contact us for a free consultation
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