Who Should You Hire First on an HR Reward Team?

Building a functional HR reward team from the ground up isn’t quite like assembling a puzzle – because puzzles tend to come with instructions. In reality, there’s little uniformity in how businesses shape these teams. It depends on size, growth stage, strategy, and internal politics (though no one ever admits that last part). But amid all the variance, one question seems to pop up consistently: where do you even start?

This is not just an administrative question – it’s a strategic one. Hire the wrong role too early, and your team might lack operational traction. Wait too long on the strategic thinkers, and you risk losing sight of your broader objectives. So, let’s unpack the logic behind deciding who should come first.

Why Order of Hiring Even Matters

Not every HR reward team begins at the same point. Some are spun off from a single overworked HR generalist. Others emerge when a business decides to finally disentangle payroll from performance strategy. But regardless of origin, the team’s effectiveness hinges largely on sequence.

Hiring order can dictate whether a team delivers quick wins or gets bogged down in abstraction. For instance, jumping straight into hiring a Head of Reward without groundwork often results in strategy that lacks legs. Conversely, a bottom-heavy team with no strategic anchor might excel at process but flounder in aligning those efforts to business goals.

Don’t forget, timing matters. And if you’re navigating that early-stage decision-making process, you’ll likely benefit from some support for HR and reward recruitment to get the role profile right the first time around.

Understanding the Breadth of HR Reward

Before zeroing in on job titles, it helps to map the landscape of what HR reward actually covers. The function typically spans compensation, benefits, recognition, wellbeing, performance incentives, job evaluation, grading frameworks, governance, data analytics, and increasingly, equity and ESG-aligned schemes. Some teams absorb elements of payroll, others sit separately from it. Some lean into analytics; others stay tightly HR-focused.

The point is: it’s broad. So broad, in fact, that expecting one person to cover all of it – at the start or ever – is a fast route to burnout.

And that’s where thoughtful recruitment makes a difference. Most companies don’t need a full team on day one, but they do need a key individual who understands the terrain well enough to lay foundations.

The Case for a Senior Generalist (With Teeth)

Often, the first role on an HR reward team is a Reward Manager or Reward Business Partner – a mid-to-senior-level generalist with enough technical ability to deliver, but enough strategic oversight to steer. This is especially true in companies where reward hasn’t been formalised yet.

Why this role first? Because it offers flexibility. You get someone who can design a bonus scheme, run benchmarking exercises, and still advise on pay equity issues without always needing external support. It’s not a perfect fit for every organisation, but it tends to hit that sweet spot between doing and directing.

And if internal alignment proves tricky (which it often does), this kind of hybrid hire can bridge the language gap between senior stakeholders and operational HR.

The Strategic Anchor Point

Of course, if your organisation already has solid operational HR structures in place, and reward needs to mature quickly, it might be time to go higher up the chain. A Head of Reward or even a Reward Director can provide that strategic clarity and long-term vision that the business craves. But this comes with a catch.

Bringing in senior leadership too early without execution support underneath can leave strategy hanging. That’s why even these senior hires often immediately seek out operational or technical partners post-hire. A vision needs traction – or it’s just a PowerPoint.

Avoiding the One-Hire Trap

There’s a common tendency – particularly in scale-ups or transformation-heavy environments – to put all hopes into one single reward hire. One person to build frameworks, manage grading, own compensation cycles, champion DEI pay equity, run analytics, and handle exec comp on the side.

Let’s be clear: that person doesn’t exist. Or if they do, they’re probably not available, and definitely not cheap.

The more realistic approach is to hire with foresight. Know where you’re headed and choose someone who can both contribute meaningfully now and evolve into a broader leadership role later – or who can mentor those who follow.

Team Growth Isn’t Linear

Once that first hire is in place, building out the team rarely follows a textbook approach. Some businesses need data specialists next to handle increasingly complex reward modelling. Others need a benefits expert as global footprints expand. Still others lean into performance and recognition design – particularly as employee expectations shift.

The common thread is agility. Reward is not a static function, and your hiring strategy shouldn’t be either. Prioritise foundational strength early, but stay nimble enough to adapt when business needs shift.

Final Thoughts

There’s no one-size-fits-all when building a reward team, and that’s kind of the point. Your first hire shouldn’t be perfect – they should be practical, strategic enough to align with vision, and operational enough to roll up their sleeves.

The real question isn’t just “who should we hire first?” It’s “what kind of team are we trying to build – and who can help us get there?”

And if you’ve thought seriously about that question, you’re already ahead of most.