Chief People Officer

The Opportunity: Vaco has partnered with a client who has an urgent and high priority need for a new HR executive to join their team to focus on improving hiring practices, employee onboarding, and employee retention. The Chief People Officer will diagnose the root causes, fix the selection and early experience problems systematically, and build the people infrastructure that allows the company to scale without sacrificing quality. Work Environment: This company is based in Rossville, IN. As a member of the Executive team, a consistent onsite presence is required. Key Responsibilities: Redesign the first two weeks of field crew employment as a low-cost reality filter before vehicles and equipment are assigned. Structured pre-hire job previews, reality-based first-week experiences, and criteria tied to engagement not just elapsed time. Build structured, quality-over-quantity hiring practices for field crews and sales advisors. Design a 30-60-90 day onboarding program with clear milestones, early warning signals, and manager accountability. Introduce exit interview processes to capture retention data we don't yet have. Build a demand model that translates lead volume, new market openings, and revenue targets into specific hiring needs Recruiting team leadership-Lead and provide strategic direction to the two existing recruiters. Shift the team's orientation from activity metrics to pipeline quality and retention outcomes. Oversee multi-state employment compliance, benefits coordination (in partnership with our external payroll provider), workers compensation, and people analytics infrastructure. Required Qualifications: 15+ years in talent acquisition, people operations, or HR leadership with demonstrated ownership of hiring outcomes Demonstrated ability to redesign hiring processes including pre-hire assessment and realistic job preview design that measurably improve quality of hire and reduce early attrition in field or hourly workforces. Proven, documented track record of reducing early attrition in a high-volume hourly or field workforce Experience redesigning early employment to reduce capital-at-risk during the highest-attrition window Experience building structured onboarding programs with documented retention impact at scale. Ability to build forward-looking hiring models tied to business growth projections and manage recruiting activity to pipeline benchmarks. Able to build and use people analytics to diagnose problems, measure progress, and make decisions. Has built people infrastructure from early stages before. Does not require a fully developed system to be effective. Preferred experience: Blue-collar, trades, or service industry background field crew and sales recruiting is fundamentally different from corporate hiring Organizational Change Management experience and training Determining compensation for this role (and others) at Vaco/Highspring depends upon a wide array of factors including but not limited to the individual's skill sets, experience and training, licensure and certifications, office location and other geographic considerations, as well as other business and organizational needs. With that said, as required by local law in geographies that require salary range disclosure, Vaco/Highspring notes the salary range for the role is noted in this job posting. The individual may also be eligible for discretionary bonuses, and can participate in medical, dental, and vision benefits as well as the company's 401(k) retirement plan. Additional disclaimer: Unless otherwise noted in the job description, the position Vaco/Highspring is filing for is occupied. Please note, however, that Vaco/Highspring is regularly asked to provide talent to other organizations. By submitting to this position, you are agreeing to be included in our talent pool for future hiring for similarly qualified positions. Submissions to this position are subject to the use of AI to perform preliminary candidate screenings, focused on ensuring minimum job requirements noted in the position are satisfied. Further assessment of candidates beyond this initial phase within Vaco/Highspring will be otherwise assessed by recruiters and hiring managers. Vaco/Highspring does not have knowledge of the tools used by its clients in making final hiring decisions and cannot opine on their use of AI products.