Core engagement
A Chief People Officer, embedded, without the full-time seat.
Who it is for
Built for three situations.
The first senior people leader
50 to 250 employees, an HR manager in place who is excellent at operations, and a CEO doing CPO work at night.
Post-acquisition integration
Two or more entities, mismatched pay and policies, and an integration deadline that is already moving.
Pre-exit professionalization
Twelve to twenty-four months from a process, with a board that wants leadership, compensation, and succession answered with data.
Five workstreams
What we own.
01
Executive partnership and org design
Sit beside the CEO on the decisions that move enterprise value, and shape the structure that carries the plan.
- Org design and span-of-control review
- Operating cadence for the leadership team
- Quarterly people plan tied to the value creation plan
02
Talent and workforce
Get the right people in the right seats on the timeline the plan assumes, at a cost the model supports.
- Workforce plan and hiring forecast
- Executive hiring scorecards and interview design
- Retention plan for business-critical roles
03
Compensation and pay equity
Build a pay structure that survives diligence and that managers can actually explain.
- Compensation philosophy and salary bands
- Benchmarking and pay equity review
- Incentive and equity design review
04
Performance, leadership, and culture
Make managers competent at managing, and make performance a repeatable process rather than an annual event.
- Performance and goal-setting framework
- Manager enablement and leadership development
- Engagement listening and action plan
05
People operations, data, and AI
Minimum effective process and clean data, so the numbers you report to the board can be trusted.
- HR technology review and selection
- People data model and reporting
- Policy and compliance baseline, AI use with data guardrails
First 90 days
The first 90 days, week by week.
Days 1 to 30
Listen and prioritize
Leadership interviews, employee listening, systems and data review, and a prioritized read on what is actually costing you money.
Days 31 to 60
Design and build
Org and comp design, the performance framework, and the people roadmap approved by the CEO and shared with the sponsor.
Days 61 to 90
Embed and measure
Manager enablement, the operating cadence running on its own, and the first monthly people scorecard delivered to the board.
What success looks like by month six.
- Regretted attrition in business-critical roles
- Time to fill for leadership seats
- Compensation bands in place and applied to every offer
- Manager capability, measured not assumed
- People data the board can rely on
- A named successor for every critical seat
Options and pricing
Three options. One recommendation on the call.
Fractional People Partner
$12,000/ month
40 hours per month
A first senior people leader alongside an existing HR manager.
- Weekly working session with the CEO
- Two workstreams owned
- Monthly people scorecard
Embedded Fractional CPO
$17,500/ month
60 hours per month
Integration, restructure, or a business moving fast on more than one front.
- Leadership team member, sponsor visibility
- All five workstreams owned
- Monthly scorecard and quarterly board update
Transformation Lead
$24,000/ month
85 hours per month
A live transformation: post-close integration, exit readiness, or a full org redesign.
- Near full-time senior leadership
- All five workstreams plus program management
- Onsite presence on an agreed cadence
Six-month term. Hours do not roll over. Travel at cost.
The scorecard
What your board will see every month.
People Scorecard
Delivered the 5th business day
| Metric | This month | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Regretted attrition, trailing 12 months | 9.4% | < 10% |
| Regretted attrition, business-critical roles | 4.1% | < 5% |
| Open leadership seats | 2 | 0 |
| Time to fill, leadership | 58 days | < 60 |
| Offers within band | 92% | 100% |
| Pay equity gap, adjusted | 1.8% | < 2% |
| Manager capability index | 3.4 / 5 | > 3.5 |
| Engagement, quarterly pulse | 72 | > 70 |
| Critical seats with a named successor | 64% | > 80% |
| Headcount vs. plan | -6 | ±5 |
Delivered on the fifth business day. One page, designed for the CEO and the board.
Why ScalePath
Operator credentials.
Board-level judgment
First Chief People Officer of a Blackstone-backed SaaS platform, at board level on EBITDA, enterprise value, M&A integration, and leadership development.
Strategy through implementation
The roadmap and the build. Bands get written, managers get trained, and the scorecard gets delivered on the fifth.
Minimum effective process
Enough structure to hold at scale and not one page more. You should be able to run it without us.
FAQ
Questions CEOs ask.
How is this different from an HR consultant?
A consultant hands you a recommendation. A fractional CPO sits on your leadership team, owns the outcome, and builds the thing. The deliverable is a working people function, not a deck.
What if we need more hours?
You move up an option, or we add a scoped project alongside the retainer. Hours are reviewed at the monthly scorecard, so the conversation happens before it becomes a problem.
Are you onsite?
Yes, on an agreed cadence, and always for the moments that need a room: leadership offsites, integration kickoffs, and restructures. The rest runs remotely.
What happens to my HR manager?
They usually get better. Most HR managers are excellent at operations and have never had a senior leader to learn strategy from. The engagement is designed to leave them stronger.
Can you help us hire a full-time CPO later?
That is often the goal. We define the role, build the scorecard, help run the search, and hand over a function that a new leader can step into.
How fast can you start?
Typically two to three weeks from a signed SOW, and faster when the situation is time-boxed by a close date.
Still not sure this is the right shape? Start with the 30-Day People Diagnostic and decide with data.
Thirty minutes. No pitch.
Tell Finesse what is going on. You will leave with a clear read on the situation and what she would do first, whether or not you work with ScalePath.