This is the second article in the “Path to CPO and CHRO” series. If you missed the first article on business savviness, I encourage you to read it here .
After analyzing dozens of LinkedIn profiles, I found that three skills make CPOs and CHROs stand out among their junior peers:
And who would be better equipped to cover global perspective than Jaci Kassmeier. Jaci is a seasoned HR executive and runs an HR consulting firm. As one of the first two employees of Impossible Foods , Jaci started as a generalist. When the company grew, Jaci decided to specialize in HR and took the challenge of scaling the company’s culture and operations globally.
I chatted with Jaci about how she helped Impossible Foods scale and what she learned along the way.
Here is an edited summary of our interview. Watch the video to hear Jaci’s full story. Make sure to scroll down in the article to read Jaci’s tactical advice on addressing scaling problems.
VIDEO
Patrick Brown, the founder of Impossible Foods, hired you as one of the first two employees before the company was founded. How did he find you?
He found me through a mutual friend and hired me as a generalist. I had never done startups or biotech before. It was a risky but thrilling opportunity. I was excited about working with Pat and his vision to change the food system. So I came on board.
You were at Impossible Foods for a little under 8 years. How did your role evolve as the company grew?
I took care of everything that had to do with daily operations, from setting up the company to accounting, legal, and hiring. For the first five years, our team was mostly made up of R&D and engineering. We were figuring out how to build meat from plants. I took care of general operations. As we approached the product launch, we hired more specialists to run accounting and legal. I decided to fully focus on HR, even though I did not have an HR background. When I left, the HR team I built was around 12-15 people.
What resources helped you transition from a startup generalist into an HR leader?
I was lucky that Pat supported me as I learned about HR. Not every leader does that.
The most helpful resource was SHRM’s PHR certification. It covers core pieces like compliance, recruitment, talent management, employee lifecycle—and how they apply to companies of different stages.
The least helpful were conferences. You do learn something from other attendees, especially when their companies are at a similar stage or at the next stage of their development. But the content at conferences is just general information. So if you want to go to a conference, pick one designed for your company’s stage or industry.
How did Impossible Foods prepare to go global?
The vision was always to go global. The path there was a long planning process, and we had to pivot. With the product we had, we had to go through regulatory processes, which can take from months to years. We had to decide who to partner with, what facilities to open, whom to hire.
As you went global, what were the top 3 challenges from the HR perspective?
The first challenge was scaling our culture . We were very intentional about building our culture in the first place. It helped us in recruiting, retention and engagement. Culture was important to us because, as an early-stage company, we weren’t cash-competitive, so we had to have the best culture. Our HQ was a beautiful building which represented our culture. As we went global, we couldn’t have offices everywhere. So we had to help employees connect to the company’s culture, mission, and the rest of their teams in other ways.
The second challenge was compensation . In Silicon Valley, we are used to giving away equity, and it is valuable. It’s not the case everywhere in the world. So we had to find other incentives for people to join. We also had to rethink our compensation and communicate about it in a culturally relevant way.
The third challenge was having our executive team show up in front of employees everywhere. They used to go to our office and production facilities in person. It was amazing because it felt like we were all in it together. When we went global, it was difficult to get the leadership team to be near the employees, so we had to change the ways that they showed up.
How did you scale your culture?
Employee Resource Groups We created Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) that anyone in the world could join. It connected people with similar interests and experiences and showed the company’s support for diverse representation. Creating ERGs wasn’t enough. It was critical to put budget dollars towards activities and events for each group (e.g., the Pride ERG used some of their budget to have a booth at the SF Pride Parade weekend). We weren't just saying we wanted our employees to connect and feel included. We dedicated resources for them to participate in external events and hold events at the company to educate others. Other examples of ERGs were Women in Tech, Start-up Parents, Asian Roots, Plant-Based Power (vegetarians/vegans).
Onboarding We revamped the onboarding process and started doing more formal kits. At the time, it was a novel idea! Based on your budget, you can do a simple DIY version (company swag + handwritten welcome letter) or a more branded "experience" (branded box + branded items inside + values flashcards, etc.).
I encourage early-stage or budget-strapped companies to do this—it's a great way to make every employee, regardless of location, feel welcome. It lets the new employee know "we've been planning for your arrival and are excited to have you here". If you're not sure what to include in your kit, think about what you want a new hire to know on their first day. It could be a list of people they should contact if they have problems. It could be a card from their manager with a personal invitation to upcoming company events. It could be a list of your company’s values. It doesn't have to be an exhaustive list of everything they'll learn at the company—only what is most vital for them to feel welcome and included on their first day.
Nothing deflates first day excitement more than arriving and having your team scramble to clear off a desk or say "Uh… I'm not sure where you'll be sitting, we need to figure that out." So if the hiring manager or HR person needed to stay late on a Friday or come in on a Sunday to get the desk ready and welcoming, we did it. And it was always worth any inconvenience on our end!
Team-building and events We pre-planned activities to ensure everyone had the same experience in at least some ways. For example, if we were hosting an ERG event focused on Lunar New Year, we mailed custom swag ahead of the event so everyone had it on the same day. If there was a specific food brought for lunch, we arranged for DoorDash to deliver similar food to people in other locations. This helped non-HQ employees to feel like part of the team and not as secondary employees or afterthoughts.
How did you address global compensation? I recommend working with a compensation firm or consultant that has experience in global markets. Understand how they make recommendations. Do they review local laws? Do they talk with local representatives? Do they come to a final recommendation that works for the company and the local population? Compensation is highly impactful both personally and legally, so you want to get this right!
Budget-friendly alternatives:
If you don't have the budget for that, then I would suggest the company HR leader networks until they can connect with HR people in that location/country and see what advice or recommendations they would give. Most likely, your company already works with a legal firm. Leverage that relationship and talk to their in-house employment law specialists to get their recommendations on comp packages. In addition to creating the policies, you need to have a carefully considered and managed communication plan. Inevitably, some employees will feel something is unfair or disadvantaged, so be prepared to discuss these comp plans more deeply with anyone who has questions. For example, if someone wants to transfer locations does the company allow this?
How did your leaders show up for employees globally? The tactical follow-through on this depends on your company. If you have 2 executives it will look a lot different than if you have 7. Executive time is the hardest to reserve because demands on their time are unpredictable. Identify reasonable commitments (it's better to undercommit and overdeliver than the opposite!).
At Impossible, we had weekly all-hands meetings. They were typically "hosted" at HQ with the Oakland factory zooming in. We decided that once a month our CEO or COO would be onsite at the Oakland factory for this meeting. It proved to be challenging! But it made a difference for Oakland employees. It was virtually their only face time with executives, and they were more engaged in the meeting. When they asked questions, there was a person in front of them who answered. We built in an extra 15 minutes for Q&A so that it didn't feel like the executive was rushing out after the meeting. The HR team consistently received positive feedback when the executives were onsite.
HR also worked with the executive admin's to coordinate in-person time that worked with the executive's schedule . For example, if our CEO had to go to New York for a conference, we would organize a dinner with NY-area employees. Those efforts always paid off with increased engagement and passion from employees.
Another thing we did was have the executive sit in the open office area with employees. That was part of the culture overall. No one had a private office. But when an executive would sit down in a pod of desks with people for a few hours, it was always a pleasant surprise and sparked conversation and engagement.
Are you working to scale your culture? Do you want to empower your ERGs to run cultural events? Or perhaps, you are planning a team-building event yourself and need someone to research and execute the nitty-gritty details?
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