Recently a client asked my firm whether his growing organization warranted a Director or VP level in Human Resources. I asked the experts this specific question and turned to The Austin HR Roundtable that was established in 2013 with approximately (25) Directors and VP HR leaders.

Here were three robust responses:

  • “Director—primarily a department leader, fully competent in HR and in executing HR activities and initiatives. VP—should be a business person who happens to have expertise in HR. Operates as a peer to other business leaders responsible for other aspects of the business but working together as a team to represent and run the entire business.”
  • “VP reports directly to the CEO, most of the time a Director does not.”
  • “If I wanted HR to have a seat at the table to help strategize the future of leading people at the organization then I would say you want a VP. They need to have the same “title” respect as other top leaders in the organization. If the CEO just wants someone to run HR from a very tactical/old school/administrative role, then you can get by with a Director level. My feeling is that organizations now more than ever need a position at the table that has employees’ interests from how the work gets down, where the work gets done, attraction and retention in a different world. The VP position is also expected to guide the leaders and make sure they don’t go down a road that is difficult to defend or from a marketing perspective, causes unintended consequences. The HR world has become very legal and compliance oriented and it can be difficult to manage both sides and be employee friendly.”

Our advice to the client: if you have the need for a strategic business leader who is expert in HR, fully understands your business model in our changing world, operates as a peer to executive team members and reports directly to the CEO, the VP level is most likely the way you want to go. This decision also needs to consider internal equity title considerations within the rest of the organization to make a sound decision.