Is the HR the Next “It” Role in the C-Suite?

Executive roles come in and out of fashion like hemlines and haircuts, but unlike these expressions of personal style, there’s usually something important driving their ascendance. 

For example, the fragmentation of media and rise of digital made the CMO the it role of the aughts, while the product- and design-led movements of the 2010s brought chief product officers to prominence. This isn’t to say that one fell off of a cliff as the other came into the spotlight, but the prevailing challenge of the time brought extra attention to this role as a driving force in helping a company to transform and grow by meeting a brand new set of challenges.

By the same logic, you can argue that the CHRO--or the chief people officer, as the case may be--is next in line for the spotlight. Let me explain.

HR has long been undervalued--and often misunderstood. In many cases, the lack of influence within the people team is simply an artifact of the work itself: heavily administrative, process-driven, and reactive to unpredictable personnel matters that keep teams in a perpetual firefighting motion. 

But while high profile corporate compliance and executive malfeasance crises of the 2000s, and the me-too movement of more recent years gave the HR leader an important seat at the table, I’d argue that the role has still been more reactive than it needs to be--more of a fixer for the CEO and the board than a contributor to the strategic direction of the business.

It has functioned this way because HR hasn't been armed with the right insights nor given the time and space to make more of a strategic impact to the business. Imagine a modern day CMO coming to board meetings without the most recent pipeline attribution numbers, or CAC ratio; or the CSO not being able to offer insights into projected sales forecasts. That would be completely unacceptable, and yet the CHRO has traditionally not been empowered to share those same data-driven insights into a business’ most valuable asset: its people.

Simply being reactive with people management decisions in this environment is no longer an option. In fact, it’s not an overstatement to say that being reactive in managing a workforce carries an existential risk for companies today.

Over the last 12 months, COVID-19 and BLM have turned many companies upside down--at a time when recruiting and retaining talent was already harder than ever. This forced a dramatic rethink in the approach to workforce management. Teams are now geographically distributed and isolated, and expectations are high for diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging in the workplace. 

Just as the so-called Apple effect (which raised the bar for design quality and UX for every other company) and the app economy brought chief product officers to prominence--tectonic shifts in business have brought renewed focus on HR execs. 

Employees, to state the obvious, represent the largest single line item in an operating budget and the largest single lever for driving strategic impact and change.  

And this is why I’d argue that chief people officers will have to rise to the moment, and why the 2020s will be their time to shine. 

But in order for that to happen, they’ll need to think differently about their roles, and ensure their teams are armed not for reacting to workforce change, but preempting it. They’ll need to be ready to see the future in order to create a better future for employees and the companies and stakeholders they serve. 

This begins with thinking more broadly about HR transformations, and the failures of the past. Instead of focusing on automating processes to wring diminishing efficiencies out of the HR department, CHROs will need to look to transformations that unlock and activate a rich digital footprint about people that goes well beyond traditional record-keeping, to improve the employee experience and make better decisions on behalf of the business. It also requires a holistic view of people, that focuses on, not just the highest performing few, but raising the floor for lower performers, and activating “the mighty middle.” 

Not every CHRO is up to the task, in the same way that not every CMO or CPO rose to the challenge in decades past. But as Churchill said never let a good crisis go to waste.

This is a time for a fresh start, a new path, and a better future for HR leaders who rise to the moment. This is a time to finally give HR leadership its moment to shine.