Why VP of People Searches Are Underinvested
The VP of People is frequently one of the last executive hires that high-growth companies make — and frequently the hire that should have been made earlier. By the time a company decides to hire a VP of People, the engineering team has 40 people and an ad-hoc hiring process, compensation bands have never been formally set, and the culture the founders built is starting to fragment as the team scales past the point where everyone knows everyone. The VP of People who joins at this moment inherits a complex environment and is expected to fix it quickly.
Majhi Group places VP of People and Chief People Officers at high-growth companies from Series B through pre-IPO. Every search begins with an honest assessment of the company's people function maturity and what the incoming leader will actually need to build — not just manage.
VP of People Profile Considerations
What the VP of People Owns
VP of People Assessment Dimensions
Business partner orientation vs. HR function orientation
The VP of People who thinks of their role as a business partner — as integral to commercial outcomes as the VP of Sales or VP of Engineering — is a different profile from one who thinks of their role as running the HR function. The company's culture and CEO operating style determine which profile fits better.
Hiring infrastructure building
At Series B, the VP of People often needs to build the hiring process from ad-hoc to structured — ATS implementation, interview process standardisation, recruiter hiring, and hiring manager training. This is a different mandate from managing an established talent acquisition team, and the candidate profile for each is different.
Compensation and equity expertise
VP of People candidates who have not built compensation bands, benchmarked against market data, or managed equity programmes often underestimate how much of their first year is consumed by compensation infrastructure. Assessment includes explicit profiling of compensation programme experience.
Difficult conversation capability
The VP of People is the executive who delivers performance improvement plans, manages terminations, and navigates workplace conflicts. Assessment includes explicit exploration of how candidates have managed these situations — because the quality of their judgment here directly affects legal risk and culture.
"The VP of People who treats their role as an HR administrator is not the same as one who treats it as a growth function. At Series B, the people function is one of the primary levers of company velocity — and the right VP of People acts accordingly."
Majhi Group VP of People Search Track Record
Majhi Group closes VP of People searches in 30–45 days. The 90-day replacement guarantee reflects our confidence in the assessment process and the alignment built between candidate and company before any offer is extended.