Chief People Officer — Wealth Division

The mandate

A multinational-owned wealth division is changing its client segmentation, advice model and use of digital service. Its organisation still reflects the previous strategy. Senior relationship roles overlap, specialist capability is concentrated, productivity varies widely and succession plans name familiar people without testing readiness. The board has approved a new Chief People Officer seat to make the people plan executable.

The role influences approximately ₹83,650 crore in loans and deposits and leads about 500 employees and material partners. Scope includes organisation design, executive talent, workforce planning, reward, succession, learning, employee relations and people analytics. The CPO will work with business and control leaders but must shape choices, not administer an agreed chart.

Work should determine structure. The executive will identify what changes across client coverage, advice, product, operations and digital service, then set roles, skills, location and capacity. Productivity cannot be reduced to assets per adviser where client complexity, conduct and team contribution differ.

Succession is the immediate leadership event. Critical roles need evidence-based readiness, development assignments and emergency cover. The CPO should distinguish relationship value from personal dependency and create transitions that preserve client trust while widening leadership supply.

Reward must reinforce the new strategy. Measures should balance durable client value, collaboration, risk and service, with transparent treatment of inherited books. Cost choices must include capability build, vacancies, contractors and employee-relations consequences.

People data must become decision grade. Titles alone cannot reveal adviser capability, specialist scarcity or leadership dependency. The CPO will combine performance, client outcomes, mobility, assessment and work evidence. Organisation changes need transition maps for critical clients and decisions, not merely an effective date. Managers must explain selection, changed roles and career paths consistently. The executive will test whether centralisation transfers work to advisers or customers and whether digital capacity matches the proposition. Learning investment should follow verified gaps and deployment; programmes without changed readiness or performance should stop.

People data must become decision grade. Titles and grade alone cannot reveal adviser capability, specialist scarcity or leadership dependency. The CPO will combine performance, client outcomes, mobility, assessment and work evidence while protecting confidentiality. Organisation changes need transition maps for critical clients and decisions, not only an effective date. Managers must explain selection, changed roles and career paths consistently. The executive will test whether centralisation transfers work to advisers or customers and whether digital capacity matches the proposition. Learning investment should follow verified gaps and deployment; programmes without changed readiness or performance should stop.

Why this seat is open

This planned new role belongs to the next operating model. Its four-to-six-month search is timed ahead of the next capital and talent cycle. Existing accountabilities continue until activation.

What you will own

• Translate wealth strategy into work, roles, skills, capacity and location.
• Redesign executive accountabilities and settle overlapping relationship leadership.
• Build evidence-based succession and emergency cover for critical roles.
• Reset productivity and reward around client value, collaboration and conduct.
• Steward people choices affecting the ₹83,650 crore banking perimeter.
• Govern selection, development, redeployment and employee relations.
• Lead 500 employees and partners with stronger specialist succession.
• Give the board an integrated workforce, cost, customer and risk view.

The first 12 months

The first 90 days should map strategy to work and validate workforce, productivity, skill and succession evidence. Meet the 30 stakeholders most consequential to leadership and redesign, including advisers, specialists, clients represented through research, risk and operations. Assess the people team, stabilise critical-retention risks and agree board gates for appointments and structural change.

Months four to nine should settle executive roles, launch targeted selection and development and reset workforce plans. Fill capability gaps and remove work or layers that do not support the chosen model. The first value should appear in stronger role coverage, released capacity, improved adviser productivity or lower regretted loss.

By year end, critical-role depth, productivity and an executable people plan should be sustained. Delivery must remain within 10% of baseline and forecasts should reconcile workforce, cash, customer and operating assumptions for three quarters. Priority issues require independently evidenced closure; severe escalation cannot remain unresolved beyond 30 days.

What the board will measure

• Ready-now and developing successors for business-critical leadership roles.
• Productivity by client and role complexity, not blunt population averages.
• Retention of at least 90% of critical talent and immediate cover for 70% of direct reports.
• Reward, mobility and appointment decisions aligned with the new strategy.
• Workforce cost after vacancies, contractors and capability investment.
• Quantified improvement in leadership depth with clean people data.

The person

You are a Chief People Officer, Business CHRO or senior people executive with 22–28 years in banking, wealth or a comparably regulated service enterprise. You have changed leadership structure and workforce economics while protecting critical talent and client continuity.

Your accountable book, portfolio, budget or P&L exposure has been at least ₹48,500 crore, and you have led 350 or more people. You can evidence a strategy-led workforce redesign whose productivity and succession outcomes held for two reporting periods.

You can challenge successful relationship leaders, distinguish readiness from sponsorship and make cost consequences explicit without reducing the people plan to headcount.

Compensation and terms

Fixed compensation is ₹2.2–3.0 crore plus performance variable. The permanent Bengaluru appointment is onsite and can accommodate notice up to six months.

Confidentiality

The division, succession and organisation design will be disclosed only under confidentiality. Composite facts cannot identify the bank.