People Operations (PeopleOps), HR, Tech Recruiting

The goal of people operations (PeopleOps) is to develop a company structure that helps employees be productive and happy while they work.

PeopleOps is a relatively new field that has grown out of the more traditional human resources (HR) departments. It performs many of the same functions, but people operations is supposed to be more employee-focused. While HR traditionally works for the benefit of the company, PeopleOps is supposed to focus on how they can help the employee, which should in turn help the company as well. You can think of it as similar to treating employees like customers, and PeopleOps have the goal of trying to increase “customer satisfaction”.

The PeopleOps team will be responsible for areas like finding and recruiting talent, managing employee training programs and benefits, retaining employees, and creating an organizational structure that helps maximize employee productivity.

Startup technology companies can grow incredibly quickly – it’s not unheard of for headcount to jump from 5 to 500 employees within a year, and more established tech companies like Snap or Instacart have thousands of employees across the world. With this level of hypergrowth and scale it’s easy to see why it is so important for PeopleOps to develop strong processes around employee recruitment, retention and performance.

With such huge competition for talent within the technology industry, another vital part of PeopleOps work is developing a strong company culture and building a positive public perception of the company for future potential employees. There are many examples of startups that failed to set a positive culture, resulting in toxic working environments for their employees.

News spreads quickly within the tech world and these companies can quickly find themselves struggling to recruit, as the top talent doesn’t want to be associated with such toxicity.

There are a range of specialist roles within PeopleOps. Sourcers and recruiters will be responsible for finding, recruiting, interviewing and negotiating with prospective employees. Other members of the team will be responsible for employee development, training, and other areas that help with retention. There will also be team-members looking after the more standard human resources and operations work.

PeopleOps and Technical Recruiting Salaries

Salaries within PeopleOps will vary depending on the role. PeopleOps managers can expect salaries of $100k+ per year, technical recruiting roles tend to be in the $75-100k range and the more administrative roles will generally pay a little less.

Is PeopleOps right for you?

Most PeopleOps roles will require a degree, preferably in a related subject like human resources, business or psychology. You’ll need to be highly organized, have strong verbal and written communication, and feel confident speaking with people at all levels of the company.

PeopleOps roles do not generally require a high level of technical competency, but it can certainly help, especially for technical recruiting roles (our Foundation guides on hardware, software and the internet are a great way to build up your technical knowledge).

PeopleOps roles are well suited to people with previous HR experience, and for recruiters looking to move into a technical recruitment role. They are also a good fit for people with previous administrative or operational experience.