We are scaling our services business from thirty to eighty employees over the next two years. Currently, HR tasks are split between our finance seat and a third-party payroll processor. When and how do we build out a dedicated People seat on our Accountability Chart?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

Scaling from thirty to eighty employees is a major organizational transition. At thirty employees, human resources is typically an administrative function focused on payroll and benefits, which is why it often sits under the Finance seat. However, as you scale toward eighty, HR must shift from administrative compliance to strategic talent acquisition and culture management.

You should create a dedicated People seat on your Accountability Chart when recruitment, onboarding, performance management, and cultural alignment become major bottlenecks to your growth. If your Integrator or Finance lead is spending more than twenty percent of their week dealing with employee relations or recruiting, you have reached that tipping point.

Structurally, this new People seat should report directly to the Integrator, not to the Finance seat. Talent is your most valuable asset, and the person running your people strategy needs a direct line to operational leadership to align headcount with your business strategy.

The five roles for this seat should include talent acquisition, employee onboarding and training, culture and core values preservation, compliance and benefits administration, and performance management systems. Building this seat today ensures you have the talent infrastructure to support your scaling operations without breaking your culture.