Kim Minnick
Fractional CHRO leader
Code Traveller HR
Episode 352
Fractional CHROs: The Secret to High-Impact HR Without the High Cost
Current chapter: Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built By PeopleJanuary 13, 2025 · 9:38
Thesis
“Fractional HR leaders provide essential strategic guidance and expertise at a fraction of the cost, empowering companies to optimize their people operations and achieve business goals by aligning HR initiatives with the organization's current stage and needs.”
Show notes
Kim Minnick describes herself as a traditional HR person. She went back for a master's degree in HR, spent a decade in rule-following corporate roles — and then moved to the Bay Area VC startup ecosystem and discovered that everything she thought was black and white was actually shades of gray. That discovery became the foundation of her fractional CHRO practice: the ability to operate without a playbook, read where a company actually is (not where it thinks it is), and build only what the business can actually use right now.
Kim's first question when she enters an engagement isn't about HR — it's about business. If the company is still searching for product-market fit, the last thing it needs is a sophisticated performance management system. The HRIS can wait. What it needs is someone who understands the sprint the company is running and builds people infrastructure that doesn't slow it down. That alignment between HR investment and organizational stage is what separates fractional leaders who add value from those who add overhead.
She operates, as she puts it, like a spearfisher: targeted, high-impact, strategic. And when the day-to-day tactical work starts to crowd out the strategic contributions, it's her job to name that and propose a solution — even if the solution means recommending the organization hire someone else for the execution layer.
- Aligning HR priorities to business stage — why building the wrong things at the wrong time is worse than building nothing
- Your HRIS as a strategic intelligence source — using tenure, compensation, and demographic data to tell the real story about your workforce
- The fractional CHRO value proposition — executive-level people strategy at a fraction of the cost, built for organizations not yet ready for a full-time hire
- Working through managers, not around them — how fractional leaders build organizational muscle by empowering internal leaders rather than owning execution
- Managing expectations and boundaries proactively — knowing when to escalate if tactical demands are crowding out strategic impact
What you'll take away
- 1Align HR priorities by deeply understanding core company goals; for example, avoid complex performance management if the business is still seeking product-market fit.
- 2Utilize your HRIS as a critical data source for understanding employee tenure, compensation trends, and how these metrics vary across demographics and departments.
- 3Fractional CHROs offer strategic HR leadership and high-impact value at a fraction of the cost, making them ideal for organizations not yet ready for a full-time executive.
- 4Fractional leaders often work by empowering internal managers and full-time leaders, ensuring they understand programs and drive adoption within their teams.
- 5It is a fractional leader's responsibility to communicate clearly about boundaries, manage client expectations, and advise when day-to-day tasks begin to overshadow strategic contributions, potentially suggesting additional support roles.
What most organizations get wrong
- •"I don't think there is consistent engagement, right?" (5:58) — Challenges the notion of continuous, uniform employee engagement, suggesting that a fractional leader's approach focuses on targeted, high-impact interventions and leveraging existing full-time leadership.
In Kim's words
“I am head over heels, a very traditional HR person. After a brief stint in hospitality, I went back to school for a master's degree in HR, thinking it was very black and white and rule following. About 10 years ago, I moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and started working in VC-funded tech startups where I realized there is no black or white, it is only shades of gray.”
Highlights the guest's career evolution and the shift in perspective from traditional HR to the nuanced realities of fast-paced tech environments.
“If the company goals are still trying to find product market fit, or you're still trying to get reliable revenue, maybe you're not trying to build the most extreme performance management process. Maybe you're just trying to get that V1 out the door. So my first step is really deeply understanding what the org, the whole business is rushing towards.”
Emphasizes the critical importance of aligning HR strategy and initiatives with the overarching business objectives and current organizational stage.
“your HRIS is where all of your stories are kept. It's just in a very cryptic, data-informed way.”
Underscores the value of an HRIS beyond basic record-keeping, positioning it as a powerful tool for deriving insights into organizational and employee experience.
“We're a powerhouse of a value-add at a fraction of the time and a fraction of the cost.”
A concise and impactful statement defining the core value proposition of fractional HR leadership for businesses seeking high-level expertise without full-time overhead.
“I'm coming in, I'm operating more like a spearfisher, right? Really trying to get in and fix things, build things, and make a high-level impact. What that means for the organization is I'm operating through managers a lot.”
Illustrates the strategic and collaborative operational model of a fractional CHRO, focusing on targeted impact and empowering internal leadership.
“If I can't help you with the strategic aspect of it because I'm so bogged down with the day-to-day, it's my job to come to you and say like, hey, now that I know so much about this organization, your revenue, uh, how much money you have, you— we might want to bring in an HR generalist or a recruiting coordinator or somebody to take that tactical day-to-day work and get some mentorship and get some growth.”
Demonstrates the responsible advisory role of a fractional leader, guiding clients to build out their internal HR team for optimal balance between strategy and operations.
The problems this episode addresses
- •Companies struggle to align HR initiatives directly with core business objectives, leading to wasted effort on irrelevant processes (e.g., complex performance management for early-stage startups).
- •Organizations are underutilizing their HRIS data, failing to extract meaningful insights about employee experience, tenure, compensation equity, and departmental performance.
- •Businesses need strategic HR leadership but lack the budget or consistent full-time requirement for a dedicated CHRO.
- •Strategic HR leaders, either fractional or internal, often get bogged down in day-to-day tactical operations, preventing them from focusing on high-level strategic impact and guidance.
- •Internal leadership teams may struggle to effectively drive adoption and engagement for HR programs without consistent, empowered support and clear talking points.
In this episode
Built by People podcast features insights from world's top HR leaders
Built by People
How do you prioritize and streamline HR operations to ensure they're aligned
How to Prioritize and Streamline HR Operations
What metrics can you use to assess HR performance and employee engagement
What are HR Metrics and How Do They Impact Decision-Making
Not every company needs a fractional head of HR or a CHRO
What fractional CHROs Bring Value to Organizations
How do you approach maintaining consistent employee engagement when working in fractional capacity
How to Establish and maintain consistent employee engagement
High-level strategy can be difficult to balance with day-to-day operations
How to Balance High-level Strategy and Day-to-Day
Kim, any parting advice you'd like to share with our audience related to fractional work
Fractional Work: A Great Option
Topics covered
Organizations and entities mentioned
Full transcript
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