| Detail | For this role |
|---|---|
| Department | Human Resources |
| Level | Senior management |
| Reports to | Chief Human Resources Officer |
| Direct reports | AVP HR, General Manager HR, Head of Talent Acquisition, Head of Compensation and Benefits |
| Experience | 18 to 22 years in HR, with 5 or more years leading HR for a business spread across regions or plants |
Vice President HR job description template
Copy this job description, replace the text in square brackets and post it on your careers page or a job portal.
Job title: Vice President HR
Department: Human Resources
Reports to: Chief Human Resources Officer
Location: [City], [office, branch or site]
About the role
A Vice President HR leads HR for a large company or a major business within a group and sits on its leadership team. The role owns the people strategy for that business, workforce cost at scale, leadership hiring, HR transformation and employee relations across states, and leads AVPs and heads of HR functions. It reports to the CHRO or CEO. A good VP HR frames people decisions in business terms such as cost per employee, productivity and risk, and gets them carried out across regions.
Key responsibilities
- Set the people strategy for the business with the CEO and leadership team, and agree measurable HR goals for the year.
- Own workforce cost at scale, covering headcount, salaries, variable pay, benefits and contract staff, against the business's operating plan.
- Lead HR transformation programs such as HR shared services, system rollouts and policy harmonization across regions.
- Integrate people, policies and pay structures after mergers, acquisitions or business transfers, with clear communication to affected employees.
- Lead the employee relations strategy across states, including union engagement where unions exist and the state rules that apply.
- Hire and develop the business's senior leaders, and chair talent reviews for the top two levels.
- Guide the performance and reward cycle across regions so that calibration is consistent and spend stays within budget.
- Lead AVPs, general managers and functional HR heads, set their goals and hold monthly reviews with each.
- Present people metrics and risks to the CEO, board committees and group HR, with recommendations rather than raw data.
- Act as the final HR escalation point for serious misconduct, POSH appeals, senior exits and legal disputes.
Requirements
- MBA or PGDM in HR from a recognised institute
- Graduate degree in any discipline
- Executive programs in strategy, finance for HR leaders or organization change are an advantage
- 18 to 22 years in HR, with 5 or more years leading HR for a business spread across regions or plants
KRAs and KPIs for a Vice President HR
Key result areas for the appraisal form, each with a KPI you can measure every month or quarter.
| Key result area | How to measure it |
|---|---|
| People cost to plan | Workforce cost within the operating plan, with every monthly variance explained |
| Transformation milestones | Agreed HR transformation milestones delivered on schedule and within budget |
| Leadership retention | No more than one unplanned exit from the top two leadership layers in the year |
| Employee relations | No business disruption from labour disputes and no major findings in state-level audits |
| Workforce productivity | Revenue or output per employee higher than the previous year, against the target agreed with the CEO |
| HR succession | Successors identified for the VP HR role and every AVP role |
Skills and tools
Tools used day to day: HRMS, ERP HR module, Power BI or Tableau, MS PowerPoint, Workforce planning models in Excel.
Reporting line and career path
Next roles: Chief Human Resources Officer, Senior Vice President, Executive Director
Interview questions for a Vice President HR
- How would you reduce workforce cost by 8 percent without hurting the teams that bring in revenue?
- You are integrating an acquired company with different pay and leave policies. Where do you start?
- Which people numbers would you show a board committee, and which would you leave out?
- How have you handled a labour dispute that spread beyond one state?
- Describe an HR system rollout that did not go to plan. What did you learn from it?
- Why do senior leadership hires fail in their first year, and how do you prevent it?
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What does a VP HR do?
A VP HR leads the HR function for a large company or business and is part of its leadership team. The role sets the people strategy, manages workforce cost, leads HR transformation and integrations, owns employee relations across regions, hires senior leaders and heads a team of AVPs and functional HR heads.
What is the difference between VP HR and HR Director?
The two titles often sit at a similar level. HR Director is common in Indian subsidiaries of multinationals, where the role adapts global policy and leads the India HR team. Vice President HR is common in large Indian companies and banks with corporate grade structures, and is often one of several business-level HR leaders under a CHRO.
What is the career path to become a VP HR?
A common path is HR executive, HR manager, HR business partner, senior HR manager or DGM, then AVP or GM HR, and finally VP HR, over roughly 18 to 22 years. Moves across plants, regions or HR specialisms such as rewards or talent acquisition along the way strengthen the case for the VP role.