The Josh Bersin Company, the world’s leading human capital advisory firm, has released research on the evolving role of the chief human resources officer (CHRO), highlighting the capabilities and detailed backgrounds of the most high-performing HR leaders.
The CHRO role has clearly moved into the C-suite, with 13% of senior HR leaders now ranked among the top five highest-paid executives. However, as the role has escalated in importance and complexity, companies are increasingly struggling to find the “right” CHRO for their needs.
The key findings include the following.
- Over half (53%) of HR leaders are C-suite members, making them as important as CFOs and CIOs. In high-performing companies, this percentage rises to 60%.
- Surprisingly, most companies either lack trust in or have no program for building CHRO skills internally, with 73% of new CHROs coming from outside the company.
- Despite the complexities of HR, non-HR candidates are now taking on the CHRO role in more than 10% of companies, and these individuals drive higher impact on organizational success than incumbents.
- CHROs promoted internally are 40% less likely to be promoted to C-level than their business counterparts, demonstrating the lack of effective succession management for this position.
- High-performing CHROs typically have multi-disciplinary backgrounds. Leaders who majored in political science and economics often make the strongest fit, while those with business and language studies backgrounds tend to be less successful.
- CHROs are highly educated, with 98% holding a degree, yet just 15% have a qualification in HR. Top organizations are twice as likely to have a CHRO with a doctorate.
- CHROs who come from finance and administration, the traditional hiring sources, are decreasing in number and show the lowest business impact in the study, while consulting and technology experience are correlated with higher organizational performance.
- International experience is key—75% of high-performing CHROs have it, compared to 50% of lower performers.
- CHROs over 50 are 36% more likely to be high-performing than their younger counterparts, indicating a strong link between experience and success.
“The choice is becoming clear: Do you want to operate as the administrative ‘head of personnel,’ with an endless list of payroll, labor-relations, compliance, and benefits admin tasks filling up every second of the day? Or do you want to embrace the reality that, thanks to forces like the pandemic and AI, you’ve become a C-level officer responsible for the growth and productivity of the number one managed expense in the company? There’s room for all kinds of CHROs and career paths,” says Josh Bersin, global industry analyst and CEO of the Josh Bersin Company. “But an amazing opportunity has opened up, exposed in great detail in our research: you’re just a few steps away from leading the transformation your CEO needs, from AI to job redesign, skills-development, and future planning.”
