EXECUTIVE ADVISORY
A senior HR leader in the CPO seat — near full-time, for a defined transitional period — when your Chief People Officer has departed and the seat cannot sit empty. An Interim CPO leads the function as its head so the organization keeps moving, and hands it off cleanly when your permanent CPO arrives.
An empty CPO seat is not a problem you can pause
When a Chief People Officer leaves, the work does not leave with them. The HR team still needs a leader. The compliance calendar does not wait. The in-flight initiatives stall without someone to own them. The executive team loses its people voice in the room. And a permanent search takes months — often six or more. Organizations that try to ride out the gap with a vacant seat, or by spreading the CPO’s responsibilities across people who already have full-time jobs, usually discover the same thing: the function drifts, the team gets anxious, good people start to look around, and the permanent CPO inherits a mess that takes a year to clean up. An interim leader in the seat is how you keep that from happening.
Who This Is For
- Organizations whose CPO or top HR executive has just departed — or is leaving soon — with no permanent successor yet in place
- Companies running a permanent CPO search that will take months, who need the seat led in the meantime
- Organizations navigating a leave of absence at the top of the HR function
- Companies that have outgrown their current HR leadership and need a capable interim while they define and recruit the permanent role
- PE portfolio companies in transition where the people function cannot afford a leaderless stretch
- Boards and CEOs who want continuity, a steady HR team, and a clean handover — not a gap
Interim CPO Is Not a Fractional CPO
These two services are routinely confused, and the difference matters. A Fractional CPO is a part-time, ongoing strategic advisor who works alongside your existing leadership — the right choice when you need senior HR strategy but cannot justify a full-time executive. An Interim CPO is the near-full-time, temporary head of the HR function — the right choice when the CPO seat is actually empty and the function needs someone to lead it now.
The simplest way to tell which you need: do you have a CPO? If the seat is filled and you want strategic depth alongside your existing leader, that is a Fractional CPO & HR Advisory engagement. If the seat is empty, or emptying, and the function needs a leader, that is an Interim CPO. We will help you place that line clearly in a discovery call.
Our Approach
An Interim CPO engagement is built on a simple idea: the interim leader occupies the seat fully, but leads as a steward. They make the decisions the role requires, keep the function strong, and — where the engagement calls for it — improve it. But they do all of this in a way that sets up a permanent successor, rather than building the function around themselves.
Every engagement runs the same four-phase arc: a fast mobilization into the seat, a phase to stabilize the function and assess where it stands, the core period of leading the function, and a deliberate transition and handover. The engagement begins fast because the seat is empty now, it is led rather than minded, and it always ends with a clean handover — because an interim engagement is interim by definition, and how it ends determines much of its value.
One Service, Three Scope Points
Interim CPO is a single service offered at three points along a scope ladder. What moves an engagement up the ladder is how much of the full CPO role the interim is asked to carry. We will recommend the right scope point in a discovery and scoping conversation.
Standard Interim Coverage — $20,000/month
Near-full-time occupation of the CPO seat — steady, capable leadership of the existing HR function through the transition. Best for organizations whose HR function is fundamentally sound and needs continuity, not a turnaround.
What you get: HR leadership and decision-making as the head of the function, operational continuity across the recurring HR cycles and compliance obligations, ownership of the in-flight HR initiatives, day-to-day oversight of the existing HR team, and representation of HR on the executive team — plus an orientation assessment of the function and a clean handover to your permanent CPO.
Engagement: Near full-time, 3–6 months typical, with a defined end. Billed monthly, with a minimum term set in the engagement letter.
Coverage + Active Improvement — $24,000/month
Everything in Standard Interim Coverage, plus a defined mandate to materially improve the HR function during the interim period. Best for organizations that want the interim to leave the function stronger than they found it — in specific, agreed ways — and not simply hold the seat.
What you get: Everything in Standard Interim Coverage, plus a structured assessment of the HR function, a defined and bounded improvement mandate agreed at the outset, delivery of that mandate alongside running the function, and a handover that documents what was improved and what remains for the permanent CPO.
Engagement: Near full-time, 3–6 months typical. The improvement mandate is specific and bounded — named in the engagement letter, not open-ended.
Full Interim CPO — $28,000/month
Everything in Coverage + Active Improvement, plus the two elements that make the interim a complete stand-in for a permanent CPO: direct leadership of the HR team, and board-facing work. Best for organizations that need the interim to carry the entire CPO role for the transitional period.
What you get: Everything in Coverage + Active Improvement, plus direct people-leadership of the HR team — performance, development, and coaching — and board-facing work, including board attendance and the preparation of board materials on people matters. At this scope point the interim carries full CPO executive authority for the duration of the engagement.
Engagement: Near full-time, 3–6 months typical. The interim leads the team they inherit; permanent restructuring and permanent hiring decisions remain with the incoming CPO.
How It Works
Discovery Call
A free 30-minute conversation to understand your situation — why the seat is open, where you are in the transition, what the HR function needs, and how soon. We will confirm that an Interim CPO is the right service, and recommend the scope point that fits.
Mobilize & Take the Seat
We confirm scope and — critically — the interim’s decision authority, then move fast. An interim engagement exists because the seat is empty now, so the interim is operational within days: information transferred, authority established, and a deliberate entry that steadies the HR team.
Stabilize, Assess & Lead
The interim takes genuine command of the function, steadies the team, and builds an honest read of where the function stands. Then they lead it — running HR to a full professional standard and, where scoped, delivering the defined improvement mandate.
Transition & Hand Off
Because an interim engagement always ends, the handover is part of the engagement from day one. We prepare a complete handover package, brief and onboard your permanent CPO, transfer the function and the team cleanly, and step back — so the organization absorbs one transition, not two.
Frequently Combined With
An Interim CPO sits in the seat and sees the whole function — so an engagement often surfaces other needs. These are genuinely separate engagements, scoped on their own terms:
- CPO/CHRO Selection Support — The search for your permanent CPO is a distinct body of work, and the most natural companion to an interim engagement. While the interim leads the function, this service helps you define, source, and assess candidates for the permanent role.
- Organizational Design & Restructuring — When the transition surfaces the need for a structural redesign of the HR function or the wider organization, that design work is a separate engagement.
- Fractional CPO & HR Advisory — Once your permanent CPO is established, ongoing part-time advisory support for the new leader is a Fractional CPO retainer — a different arrangement from interim seat coverage.
[Placeholder: Add a testimonial from an Interim CPO engagement. Focus on continuity through the transition — a steady HR team, a function that kept running, and a clean handover to the permanent CPO.]
Common Questions
How is an Interim CPO different from a Fractional CPO?
A Fractional CPO is a part-time, ongoing strategic advisor who works alongside your existing leadership — the right choice when you need senior HR strategy but cannot justify a full-time executive. An Interim CPO is the near-full-time, temporary head of the function — the right choice when the CPO seat is empty and the function needs a leader now. The test is simple: do you have a CPO? If the seat is filled, you likely want fractional advisory; if it is empty, you want an interim leader.
How long does an Interim CPO engagement last?
Three to six months is typical — long enough to provide genuine continuity through a leadership transition, short enough to remain a true interim arrangement. The engagement has a defined end: it concludes when a permanent CPO is in place, or when the transition being covered is complete. An interim engagement with no anticipated end is a different arrangement, and we will say so if that is what the situation actually calls for.
Will the interim make major changes our permanent CPO should be making?
No — and this is a discipline we take seriously. An interim leads the function fully, but as a steward. They make the decisions the role requires and keep the function strong, but they protect the permanent CPO’s mandate: long-horizon commitments and the decisions that belong to the permanent leader are flagged and framed for them, not pre-empted. At the Full Interim CPO scope point the interim leads the HR team, but permanent restructuring and permanent hiring decisions remain with the incoming CPO.
Can the interim also run the search for our permanent CPO?
The search is a separate engagement — CPO/CHRO Selection Support — rather than part of the interim engagement itself. That said, the two work well together: the interim, who is leading the function and knows exactly what it needs, is well placed to inform the search. Many organizations run both, and we will be candid about whether you need search support or already have it well in hand.
What happens to our HR team during the interim period?
Steadying the HR team is one of the interim’s first jobs. A team whose leader has just departed is unsettled, and until they have a leader they trust, the team is tentative. The interim leads the team genuinely — giving direction, supporting them, and being honest about the interim horizon — and prepares them for the handover to the permanent CPO. At the Full Interim CPO scope point this extends to full people-leadership of the team for the engagement period.