CAN A CHRO BE A CEO?

A CEO's most-important responsibilities typically include maximizing employee performance, setting values to define the organization's culture, and making sure the talent pipeline is full of needed expertise for years to come.

Maybe that's why some of the most-profitable companies like Dunkin' Donuts, Xerox and General Motors, have former HR executives as their CEOs. Yet, the typical route to the C-suite doesn't often lead from HR, originating instead from sales, finance or marketing. However, some experts argue, that should change. he path to the CEO suite should run through HR, they say, especially now that organizations are realizing that sweeping societal, economic, technological and demographic changes are heralding a new era in management that centers on the people who are doing the work—and how they are treated.

According to the report from Deloitte's 2018 Global Human Capital Trends pointed out, businesses are no longer assessed based only on traditional metrics such as financial performance, or even the quality of their products or services. Rather, organizations today are increasingly judged [based] on their relationships with their workers, their customers and their communities as well as their impact on society at large—transforming them from business enterprises into social enterprises.

And in the age of 4.0, in a world where an employee's actions can nearly ruin a company's brand—think Starbucks managers tossing out black customers. Starbucks closed 8,000 stores in the US to learn the staff code of conduct, although it led the company almost $ 17 million loss.

Who better to address them at the CEO level than those skilled in human capital management?

From CHRO to CEO

In new book, Talent Wins: The New Playbook for Putting People First (Harvard Business Review Press, 2018), Ram Charan and co-authors Dominic Barton and Dennis Carey advocate for a dramatic remake of the HR role so that chief human resource officers (CHROs) working with CEOs can manage human capital with the same zeal executives apply to financial capital.

"Leaders at talent-driven companies are as focused on talent as they are on strategy and finance. They make talent considerations an integral part of every major strategic decision. They ensure that their own focus on talent is woven into the fabric of the entire company", the authors wrote.

Gaylyn Sher-Jan (chief people officer and vice president of enterprise services for Insitu), said: "Absolutely, HR leaders are perfect for the chief executive role”.

 

She also identified more: "The roles of CHRO and CEO are intertwined. The successful transformations of HR leaders into true business partners has enabled a new succession plan to the CEO role. The main processing capabilities and navigate the cultural issues, ethics, skills cannot both be from the CHRO”.

According to data from the Los Angeles-based Korn Ferry Institute, chief human resource officers "are among the most qualified in the C-suite when measured against CEO competencies”. And here are opinions from the top leaders of comments revolved around the CEO should come from CHRO:

Alan Guarino - Korn Ferry’s vice chairman and CEO, stated that: "In a study of executive assessment data, researchers analyzed 360o assessments of thousands of leaders in 6 C-suite functions and found that the traits of CHROs matched up closely with those of CEOs”.

Brent Filson - founder of the consultancy The Filson Leadership Group Inc. in Williamston, Mass., agreed that HR leaders are "prime candidates for the CEO position”. He argued that: “They bring a trait other company executives may not have yet developed: people-centered leadership”.

Filson - author of 23 business books and a former consultant for General Electric, said: “Most CEOs neglect a vital dynamic … I call it a "leadership strategy”. Without a concomitant leadership strategy, a business strategy seldom measures up. Without a leadership strategy or business strategy, it will hardly become CHRO don't talk to the CEO”.

The role of the CHRO not only revolve around the issue of personnel. Think about the business. Understand the business, operating trends of the business. Meanwhile, a CHRO is good can use all the tools, resources and personnel necessary to ensure leverage human capital for business help achieve highest efficiency. A good make flexible CHRO learn about business, how to operate, always asking insightful questions and understand what that human resources can meet for business development.

Source Shrm.org

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