A Manifesto: Why More Leaders Should Pursue Careers in People

If any organization in the world could only get one thing right, what would that be? For us, that’s easy: Hiring, Retaining, and Developing People.

However, oddly, some professionals seem reluctant to pursue People and HR career paths.

How can People both be the most important thing an organization does, and also a career path that some professionals are reluctant to pursue? As co-founders of One Acre Fund, this has always puzzled us. We want to make a short but urgent plea for: 1) Why People is the most important thing that we do, and 2) Why People is an outstanding career path for any leader.

Why People is the most important thing that we do

Simply put, an organization is the sum of its People. When we think about the ten-year future of One Acre Fund, the only thing that really matters is for our work to be led by exceptional, rapidly-growing, diverse, inclusive, and satisfied leaders.

Over the next six years, One Acre Fund has an ambitious growth plan. We hope to provide professional farm services to 3+ million farm families through our full-service program, and 7+ million families through operating partnerships with governments and the private sector. In 2030, this will be about 20% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s smallholder crop farmers. With every email, spreadsheet, and phone call we exist to serve the hardest-working, most powerful people on earth - smallholder farmers.

People are - by far - the most important success factor in achieving this vision. In order to achieve this vision, we need to continue to build the world’s best departments in logistics, finance, accounting, core field operations, purchasing, biz ops, government relations, fundraising, etc. We do that by hiring, retaining, and developing outstanding leaders in every function. We want every department at One Acre Fund to have amazing leaders, and try to create an environment where they can achieve their best professional selves.

Essentially, People is the most foundational element that matters in achieving One Acre Fund’s long-term vision.

Why People is an outstanding career path

It has always pained us that despite its importance, People is sometimes seen as somehow a “lower” function. The people department sits in the figurative basement of many organizations. To the contrary: we believe they are the most important department that any organization can have.

Working in People and HR is a great bridge to other careers - when we are recruiting a Finance, Technology, Operations, or Logistics professional and we see that they have People and HR experience on their CV, we are immediately far more interested in them. Being an outstanding leader includes mastery of a technical skill  - but it is even more about being a leader of people.

We also believe that there are outstanding career paths for professionals staying purely within People departments. Some of the hardest leadership work that we do as an organization is related to change management: improving the collective performance, equity, and inclusion of our 8,000-person team. We also constantly seek innovative ways to recruit, improve our candidate experience, and attract some of the world’s most amazing talents. And we have many internal consulting projects that seek to streamline day-to-day administration, improve the employee experience, and utilize data to make better strategic decisions.

People-related work is foundational to any managerial and executive role. Learning how to call leaders to your banner, multiplying the performance of large teams, and shifting culture - these are all incredibly valuable leadership skills. We think that spending time doing People work is an important career experience relevant to many lines of work - and think that more Chief People Officers should one day become CEOs.

If any of this resonates, you are very welcome to take action! Even if you are not a People professional today, that’s ok. You can start by checking out our Careers Page to explore open roles.

To all amazing leaders: we hope that you might consider joining the People team at One Acre Fund!

Farmers First, 

– Eric Polhman & Andrew Youn