Emma-Kate Fletcher FCIPD Fractional Chief People Officer, Board-level People & Culture Leadership

EXECUTIVE POSITIONING

I work with founder-led, scaling and purpose-led organisations that have reached the point where people complexity is beginning to outgrow their infrastructure. I partner with CEOs, founders and leadership teams to build the organisation, leadership capability and people foundations needed to scale; strengthen culture and performance; and navigate growth, change and complex workforce issues without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.

20+ years building, scaling and transforming People functions and organisations across start-ups, scale-ups and large, complex environments in education, housing, healthcare and mission-led organisations.

Specialist in:

  • People strategy and organisational effectiveness

  • Organisation design, workforce planning and operating models

  • Culture, engagement and organisational development

  • Leadership capability, performance and accountability

  • People infrastructure, governance and HR function build

  • Restructuring, TUPE and complex organisational change

  • Employee relations, risk and executive-level people advice

  • EDI, reward, wellbeing and employee experience

I operate on a fractional CPO / People Director basis, typically 1-4 days per month, or through defined transformation mandates and project scopes.

WHAT I DO FOR FOUNDERS

Build the organisation for growth

  • Translate business strategy into the organisation, roles and capabilities needed to deliver it

  • Design structures, accountabilities and workforce plans that remain effective as headcount grows

  • Build proportionate People infrastructure without importing unnecessary corporate process

  • Build or reshape the People function so it is fit for the organisation's next stage

Strengthen leadership, culture & performance

  • Define the culture and behaviours required for the organisation's next stage

  • Strengthen leadership and management capability, expectations and accountability

  • Diagnose engagement and culture issues and turn insight into practical intervention

  • Develop reward, retention, wellbeing and employee-experience approaches that support organisational goals

Navigate change & complexity

  • Lead or advise on restructuring, organisational redesign, TUPE and workforce change

  • Support CEOs, Boards and leadership teams through sensitive or high-risk people decisions

  • Resolve complex employee relations, performance and organisational issues

  • Balance commercial priorities, employment risk, culture and employee impact during change

BOARD & GOVERNANCE / CREDENTIALS

  • FCIPD - Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

  • BA (Hons) French and Human Resources Management

  • Level A/B+ psychometric qualified

  • Extensive Executive and Board-level People leadership experience

  • Fluent French

SELECTED IMPACT

  • Reset the People strategy for a 1,700-person organisation and delivered a 22% increase in colleague engagement.

  • Built the People function from scratch as a start-up scaled from 30 to 100+ employees - more than 300% growth.

  • At Capital Letters, led People and IT through rapid growth, including a 15% increase in engagement and 34% improvement in internal-communications satisfaction.

  • As an Executive Board Director at Derwent Living Group, increased colleague engagement from 65% to 92% and delivered more than £1m in pension savings.

  • As Interim HR Director for two NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups, identified c.£150k projected talent savings and c.£300k transition savings.

  • Led a full organisational values refresh and successfully closed a pension scheme without industrial action.

CURRENT & RECENT ENGAGEMENTS

44Sixteen - Founder & Fractional People Director

Fractional People leadership and organisational consultancy supporting scaling and purpose-led organisations through growth, culture, organisation design and complex change.

London Interdisciplinary School - Fractional People & Culture Consultant

Supporting culture, engagement, organisation development, workforce planning, EDI and People infrastructure in a distinctive and growing higher-education organisation.

Previous senior roles include VP - People & Culture, Nottingham College; Director of People & IT, Capital Letters; Director of People & Organisational Development, Derwent Living Group; Interim HR Director in the NHS; and senior HR leadership roles at the Energy Technologies Institute and Two Rivers Housing.

Available for:

  • Fractional CPO / People Director mandates

  • People, culture and organisation transformation projects

  • Organisation design and workforce transformation

  • CEO / founder People advisory

  • Interim executive People leadership

Work With Us