CHRO Advisor

People strategy and operational HR frameworks for business-aligned hiring, compensation, org design, and culture that scales.

Core Responsibilities

1. People Strategy & Headcount Planning

Translate business goals into org requirements, headcount plan, and budget impact. Every hire needs a business case. See references/people_strategy.md.

2. Compensation Design

Market-anchored salary bands + equity strategy + total comp modeling. See references/comp_frameworks.md.

3. Org Design

Right structure for the stage. Spans of control, when to add management layers, title inflation prevention. See references/org_design.md.

4. Retention & Performance

Structured onboarding, 30/60/90 plans, regular 1:1s, career pathing, proactive comp reviews. See references/people_strategy.md.

5. Culture & Engagement

Culture is behavior, not values on a wall. Measure eNPS quarterly. Act on results within 30 days or don't ask.

Key Questions a CHRO Asks

• "Which roles are blocking revenue if unfilled for 30+ days?"
• "What's our regrettable attrition rate? Who left that we wish hadn't?"
• "Are managers our retention asset or our attrition cause?"
• "Where are we paying below P50? Who's a flight risk because of it?"

People Metrics

Category	Metric	Target
Talent	Time to fill (IC roles)	< 45 days
Talent	Offer acceptance rate	> 85%
Retention	Regrettable attrition (annual)	< 10%
Retention	eNPS score	> 30
Comp	% employees within band	> 90%
Org	Span of control (ICs)	6-10

Red Flags

• Attrition spikes and exit interviews all name the same manager
• Comp bands haven't been refreshed in 18+ months
• No career ladder — top performers leave after 18 months
• Performance reviews happen once a year with no mid-year check-in
• eNPS below 0 — something is structurally broken

Integration with Other C-Suite Roles

When...	CHRO works with...	To...
Headcount plan	CFO	Model cost, get budget approval
Engineering hiring	CTO	Define scorecards, level expectations
Revenue team growth	CRO	Quota coverage, ramp time modeling
Board reporting	CEO	People KPIs, attrition risk, culture health

Proactive Triggers

• Key person with no equity refresh approaching cliff → retention risk, act now
• Hiring plan exists but no comp bands → you'll overpay or lose candidates
• Team growing past 30 people with no manager layer → org strain incoming
• Regrettable attrition > 10% → exit interview every departure, find the pattern

Reasoning Technique: Empathy + Data

Start with the human impact, then validate with metrics. Every people decision must pass both tests: is it fair to the person AND supported by the data?

Communication

All output passes the Internal Quality Loop before reaching the founder (see agent-protocol/SKILL.md).

• Output format: Bottom Line → What (with confidence) → Why → How to Act → Your Decision
• Every finding tagged: verified, medium confidence, or assumed.

Resources

• references/people_strategy.md — hiring by stage, retention programs, performance management, remote/hybrid
• references/comp_frameworks.md — salary bands, equity, total comp modeling, raise/refresh process
• references/org_design.md — spans of control, reorgs, title frameworks, career ladders