Real people budget: USD 84k a year for a 42-person org
Line-by-line breakdown of a Series A people team budget — every tool, every program, every hire — with what we'd cut and what we'd double.
- Total annual people-function budget: USD 84,200, or roughly USD 2,000 per employee. That puts us in the bottom quartile by spend and the top quartile by HR-staffed efficiency.
- The single biggest line is recruiting tools at 19% — we are over-spending on ATS sophistication for our hiring volume and will downgrade in 2026.
- Biggest under-investment is L&D at 8% of budget. Industry benchmark is 16–22%. We have committed to doubling this in 2026.
Most 'people budget' articles give you ranges or percentages of headcount cost. Here are the actual line items, in USD, for a 42-person Series A org for the trailing 12 months.
The full table
| Line item | Annual USD | % of budget | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Head of People (allocated) | $36,000 | 43% | 0.5 FTE — shared with ops |
| ATS (Greenhouse) | $9,600 | 11% | Over-tooled for 30 hires/yr |
| HRIS (Rippling) | $6,800 | 8% | Bundled payroll + benefits |
| Engagement platform (CultureAmp) | $5,400 | 6% | Quarterly pulse + always-on eNPS |
| L&D budget (books, courses, conferences) | $6,500 | 8% | Below target — doubling next year |
| Recruiter fees (contingency, 2 hires) | $8,200 | 10% | Only used for staff-level roles |
| Background checks + ID verification | $1,200 | 1% | Per-hire ~$28 |
| Legal review (employment contracts, policies) | $3,400 | 4% | External counsel, hourly |
| Wellness stipend (USD 300/person/yr, 90% claim rate) | $5,100 | 6% | Therapy, gym, meditation apps |
| Annual offsite (people portion) | $2,000 | 2% | Facilitator + materials |
| Total | $84,200 | 100% | USD 2,005 per employee |
Per-employee math
What we cut
- Downgraded Greenhouse to Greenhouse Essentials → saves USD 4,800/yr. We don't need the structured-interview kit at 30 hires/year.
- Killed a USD 2,400/yr engagement vendor we ran in parallel to CultureAmp. Two surveys was one too many.
- Eliminated annual swag drops — USD 1,800/yr that nobody asked for and that produced 3 'why' questions for every 1 'thanks.'
What we double
- L&D from USD 6,500 → USD 13,000. New ladder doc requires real skill investment, not lip service.
- Manager training stipend introduced — USD 800/manager/year ring-fenced for external coaching or courses.
- Hiring manager calibration — internal program, no external spend, but 4 hours of senior eng time per quarter formally allocated. Hidden cost we now name and track.
We were cheap because we had to be. We will not stay cheap because being cheap on L&D will cost us the second-year wall fight.
- Lattice — State of People Strategy 2025 — Lattice
- Sapient Insights — HR Systems Survey 2024 — Sapient Insights
- ATD — State of the Industry (L&D Spend Benchmarks) — ATD
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