Building a business case to enable a CHRO to play their full role

‘Reimagining CHRO roles and responsibilities for strategic growth’ is the title of this recent report from Deloitte, yet in reality the actual role we see CHROs playing is often far from strategic.

In our experience, this isn’t due to lack of desire, ability or ambition. Some CEOs just want their CHROs to fix problems for them. In addition, working in true strategic partnership with a CHRO can present uncomfortable challenges for a CEO. Many CEOs actually have a very weak understanding of just what strategic HR can, and should, look like. Their perceptions of HR are stuck in the past. It’s much easier to have the same old conversations. But when the conversation changes, the business outcomes change.

In order to tackle this, the first step is to build the business case for the benefits of enabling the CHRO to play their full role – the ROI of a strategic function has to be calculated, and we help our clients to do this.

In this report by Deloitte they analysed the skills that today’s CHRO needs, and how they need to be ramped up.

‘The market is signalling a rapid transformation for the chief human resources officer (CHRO) role, marked by an expanding scope of responsibility and, in turn, an elevated seat at the executive table.’

They’ve quantified a required skill increase of 23%. That’s massive. How can a CHRO who’s already extremely busy tackle this kind of development?

‘In essence, organizations are asking their CHROs to bring more and more to the table’. That’s good news – if you’re a CHRO that’s music to your ears. However, they’re expected to do it ‘without deprioritizing any legacy aspects of the role.’

It requires a major rethink, and we help our clients to take stock of where they are and where they need to be, and build a roadmap. If you’d like to scope this out in a call, I’d be happy to help you in your thinking.

Whatever page your CEO is on in terms of business priorities, we help you to get onto the same page.