Chief Human Resources Officer

Description

Top Notch Distributors Job Description            

Title: Chief Human Resources Officer

Department: Management

Pay Status: Exempt

Reports To: CEO

JOB SUMMARY

The Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) is a strategic executive responsible for ensuring the organization has leadership, talent, culture, organizational capabilities, and people practices necessary to achieve its long-term business objectives. As a leader within a family and ESOP owned organization, the CHRO also serves as a steward of the company's culture, values, ownership philosophy and family legacy while helping prepare the organization for continued growth and future generations. This role provides objective counsel to the CEO, executive leadership team, and, as appropriate, the Board of Directors on organizational effectiveness, leadership, succession, talent, culture, compensation, and significant people-related risks. The CHRO balances respect for the company's history and family ownership with the need for accountability, professional management practices, organizational growth, and continued evolution of the business. 

OUR VALUES ARE KEY

• Integrity is key – We are reliable with our words, responsible for our actions and lead with humility.
• Team, Team, Team – Create a safe, supportive and respectful team atmosphere that generates collaboration, transparency and opportunity for all.
• Customer Connection – We take pride in being the most knowledgeable in the industry. We strive to deliver dependable and trustworthy results in every aspect of the customer experience.
• Take The Long View – As individuals and a team we make strategic choices that support the long-term health of our company, our families and our community.
• Celebrate The Day! – We celebrate the wins each day. We acknowledge each other’s successes.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Excellent interpersonal and conflict resolution skills.
• Excellent organizational skills and attention to detail.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Strong supervisory and leadership skills.
• Thorough knowledge of employment-related laws and regulations.
• Knowledge of and experience with varied human resource information systems.
• Proficient with Microsoft Office Suite or related software.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Strategic Leadership & Organizational Effectiveness

• Partner with the CEO and Senior Leadership Team to align people, organizational, and talent strategies with the company’s business strategy and long-term ownership objectives.
• Responsibility includes locations across multiple states and locations with a workforce that spans corporate, sales, and distribution center populations, both salaried and hourly. 
• Building consistent compliant and locally credible people practices across a geographically distributed workforce is a priority in this role. 
• Assess organizational structure, workforce capabilities, leadership capacity, and talent needs to support current and future growth.

Culture and Values Stewardship

• Serve as a steward of the company’s culture, values, history, family legacy, and ESOP ownership philosophy.
• Diagnose the drivers of organizational performance and lead the transition from a stable, high loyalty culture to one characterized by high performance, high accountability, and high drive while preserving the trust, care and long term orientation that define Top Notch. 
• Lead enterprise change management in an environment with long tenure, deep institutional loyalty, and historically low tolerance for change, building the vase for change and the capability to sustain it. 
• Raise the performance bar across the organization, including evolving performance management, establishing clear expectations and consequences and addressing sustained underperformance directly and fairly. 
• Build and continually upgrade leadership bench strength, ensuring the organization has the leadership capacity required for our next phase of growth. 
• Build and initiate actions that support leadership contingency planning and succession. 

Leadership, Talent and Succession

• Understand and effectively navigate the unique dynamics associated with a company owned by both family shareholders and an ESOP.
• Support an environment in which decisions appropriately balance the interests of the business, family ownership, ESOP participants, and the long-term sustainability of the organization.
• Partner with the Board and appropriate committees on executive succession, compensation, leadership development, culture, organizational health, employee ownership, and human capital risk.
• Support ESOP education, communication, and engagement efforts in partnership with appropriate internal and external advisors. 

Total Rewards, Performance & Employee Experience

• Oversee the company’s compensation, incentive, benefits, recognition, and performance management strategies, including alignment with the company’s ESOP and long-term ownership philosophy.
• Ensure total rewards programs are competitive, equitable, financially responsible, and aligned with business performance and long-term value creation.
• Establish performance management practices that create clear expectations, meaningful feedback, development, and accountability.
• Own employment law compliance across all operating locations, including wage and hour, worker classification, leave administration, and multi-state employment practices and establish the audit and monitoring cadence to identify and remediate exposure proactively. 
• Own the integrity of the company’s concern and investigation infrastructure, ensuring all employee have accessible avenues to raise issues, that matters are investigated objectively and promptly and that material matters are documented and escalated appropriately. 

Mergers & Acquisitions:

• Lead people, culture, leadership bench and organizational due diligence on prospective acquisitions and translate findings into valuation, risk and integration implications for the CEO and Board. 
• Design and execute retention strategies for leadership and key talent acquired companies. 
• Own cultural integration planning and execution, including assessment of cultural fit and gaps, integration sequencing, employee education and buy in and leadership alignment. 
• Lead the integration and harmonization of compensation, benefits, HRIS and people programs across acquired entities.

HR Leadership & Operational Excellence

• Lead, develop, and mentor the Human Resources team, ensuring the function has the appropriate structure, capabilities, resources, and expertise to effectively support the organization’s current and future needs. 
• Provide leadership and oversight to the HR team, which includes the Director of Human Resources, HR Generalist, and Communications & Culture Specialist, while fostering collaboration, professional development, accountability, and strong partnership across the business.
• Establish meaningful human capital metrics and regularly communicate trends, risks, and opportunities to leadership and the Board.
• Ensure strong execution of core HR responsibilities while continuing to evolve the function to meet future business and ownership needs.

Board Partnership: The CHRO participates in Human Capital Committee meetings as a non voting advisor and serves as management’s principal partner to the Committee, carrying the preparatory and analytical work required for the Committee to fulfill its charter, including executive compensation, succession planning, leadership development, culture and organizational health reporting and human capital risk. 

Requirements

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business, Organizational Development, or a related discipline; advanced degree preferred.
• A minimum of 8 years of progressive HR leadership including CHRO, SVP HR or equivalent top HR role. 
• Enterprise responsibility for an organization of at least 500 employees across multiple states. 
• End to end ownership of total rewards including design, not just administration. 
• Direct experience presenting recommendations to a board or board committee on their own authority. 
• Led the people and culture workstream on at least one completed acquisition. 
• Experience leading organizations through growth, leadership transitions, organizational change, or professionalization.
• Experience within a family-owned, privately held, ESOP, founder-led, or similarly complex ownership environment strongly preferred.
• SHRM-SCP, SPHR, or comparable professional certification preferred.