Our company has grown from twenty to eighty employees, and our Head of HR has done a great job, but her seat now requires enterprise-level compliance and multi-state payroll experience that she simply does not possess. She wants to scale with us, but she has hit her personal ceiling. How do we restructure the seat on our Accountability Chart while honoring her contribution?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

As your business grows from twenty to eighty people, the complexity of your operations increases exponentially. The HR seat that once required basic recruiting and holiday tracking now requires strategic compliance, organizational development, and scaling culture across multiple states. If your Head of HR has hit her personal ceiling, you must address this seat on your Accountability Chart immediately.

You must separate the person from the seat. First, define what the ideal HR seat looks like for a company of eighty people aiming for a clean exit. Write down the five major roles for this seat, such as strategic recruiting, compliance management, and culture preservation. Once the seat is designed, run the GWC™ tool on your current Head of HR. If she does not have the capacity to manage these complex roles, she cannot remain in that seat.

However, because she is a great culture fit, you should look for a way to keep her in the organization. You might restructure the department on your Accountability Chart, hiring an experienced VP of HR to sit in the leadership seat, and placing your current Head of HR in an HR Manager or recruiting specialist seat reporting to them. If she GWCs this new, focused seat, you preserve her tribal knowledge and loyalty while getting the leadership capacity your business desperately needs to scale.