Chief People Officer

Prevail Bank•Town of Hewitt, WI

5d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Chief People Officer (CPO) is a senior executive responsible for leading the Bank’s enterprise‑wide people strategy to drive performance, accountability, culture, risk management, and long‑term value creation. As a member of the Executive Leadership Team, the CPO serves as a trusted advisor to the President/CEO, executive peers, and the Board of Directors on all matters related to human capital and organizational effectiveness. This role is intentionally strategic. The CPO ensures that workforce, talent, compensation, performance management, and training strategies are aligned with business objectives and evaluated with the same rigor applied to financial and risk decisions. The CPO oversees Human Resources, Talent Acquisition, Employee Relations, Compensation & Benefits, Organizational Development, and Centralized Training & Development, positioning the Bank as a destination employer and high‑performing, values‑driven organization.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, or related field; or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.
Strategic level HR Certification (such as SHRM-SCP or SPHR) strongly preferred, or equivalent senior-level HR and leadership experience with enterprise-wide people, talent, or workforce strategy.
Minimum of seven years of progressive HR experience, including senior leadership experience.
Strong background in performance management, organizational design, and training governance.
Experience in regulated (such as banking or financial services) or complex environments preferred.
Adaptability: Able to adjust quickly to different work situations; remain composed under pressure and in stressful situations.
Attention to Detail: Regard for important details to assure accuracy in every transaction performed; detect errors; follow through on corrections and details.
Change Management: Must embrace change and see change as opportunity. Must be willing to express and support management's ideas to affected staff.
Customer Orientation: Respond sensitively to the needs and priorities of the customer (internal or external); recognize and take appropriate action to meet their needs; establish an effective working relationship with customers to gain their respect and loyalty.
Oral/Written Communication: The ability to express thoughts and ideas in a clear and concise manner, both orally and in written form to a variety of audiences and to all levels of staff.
Professionalism: Project a positive image of the bank to all internal and external customers.
Time Management: Ability to effectively manage one’s time to complete work according to established deadlines. The ability to prioritize tasks to make the best use of time for high priority tasks.
Team Player: Must view oneself as part of an overall team. This includes supporting others throughout the entire bank to achieve the overall goals of the bank.
Valid driver’s license required for travel to Bank offices, training sessions, customer meetings, Bank and community meetings, etc.

Nice To Haves

Strategic level HR Certification (such as SHRM-SCP or SPHR) strongly preferred
Experience in regulated (such as banking or financial services) or complex environments preferred

Responsibilities

Serve as the primary advisor to the President/CEO and Executive Leadership Team on enterprise people strategy, workforce risks, and organizational opportunities.
Translate business strategy into a clear people roadmap encompassing talent, capability, structure, succession, and training.
Ensure people decisions reflect cost discipline, return on investment, scalability, and enterprise impact.
Serve as strategic architect and steward of organizational culture.
Own and continuously refine the Bank’s performance management framework.
Establish clear standards for identifying and addressing underperformance, including timely use of Performance Improvement Plans and exit decisions when necessary.
Ensure leaders manage performance issues proactively and consistently.
Align performance practices with financial outcomes, productivity, risk management, and strategic priorities.
Design and oversee development and succession strategies for critical roles and future leaders.
Partner with executives to assess leadership depth and mitigate succession risk.
Ensure leadership development efforts align with long‑term organizational readiness.
Provide executive oversight of recruitment and workforce planning.
Establish hiring philosophy and guardrails related to quality, cultural fit, speed, and cost.
Evaluate workforce needs based on both immediate demand and future‑state design.
Lead compensation, benefits, and incentive strategy to ensure competitiveness, equity, performance alignment, and financial responsibility.
Provide executive-level insight into tradeoffs between cost, retention, engagement, and productivity.
Serve as the primary internal owner of compensation and benefits strategy partners and advisors.
Lead organizational design initiatives supporting growth, restructuring, and transformation.
Ensure role clarity, reporting structures, and accountability.
Guide leaders through change with clear communication, training alignment, and accountability.
Own enterprise culture and engagement strategy.
Ensure engagement initiatives reinforce accountability and retention of high‑impact talent.
Balance engagement investments with business priorities and cost discipline.
Maintain executive oversight of employee relations and sensitive matters.
Ensure consistent, fair, and compliant practices.
Reduce legal, regulatory, and reputational risk through proactive people practices.
Holds enterprise-wide responsibility for centralized training and development as a strategic performance driver, with accountability for training strategy, effectiveness, and outcomes, not day‑to‑day delivery.
Oversees a centralized Training & Development function, including governance, priorities, and coordination across lines of business to ensure consistency, relevance, and alignment to business needs.
Oversees training department, systems, vendors, and tools; enforces clear accountability and completion expectations; and ensures training investments are disciplined, measured by business outcomes (e.g., time to productivity, behavior change, performance improvement), and directly tied to strategic priorities.
Provides executive ownership of enterprise onboarding, role-based and job-specific training, leadership and management development, and required compliance, risk, and regulatory education (in partnership with Risk and Compliance leadership).
Clear expectations are set for staff, and they are held accountable.
Develop staff and develop career paths for individuals with high potential and initiative.
Proactive management of underperformers is necessary.
Ensure adequate training is done for new hires.
Ensure staff engagement with technology remains high.
Focus main department initiatives and goals on strategic planning action plans and high-priority items set by the board and senior management. Manager success is based on how the department does at hitting these goals.
Ensure the department knows how they impact the mission and vision and how they play a key role in that success.
Continue to evolve processes and procedures to increase efficiency and customer experience.
Adequate cross-training and procedures are complete and up to date for all areas you oversee.
Complete projects that fall within the department timely and ensure adequate training is completed. After go-live progress should be monitored along with adoption and satisfaction.
Use feedback from the department to improve processes.
Hit ROI targets.
Continue to look for training opportunities for staff development- certifications programs, recurring annual training, etc.
Manage all risks associated with your department (fraud, cyber, reputational, monetary, CX, etc.).
Support other departments as needed to help accomplish our mission and our current goals.
Manage staffing levels and cross-train to ensure critical duties are covered and we are staffed effectively to meet the demand.