​​The expanding CHRO toolkit: Redefining tomorrow’s HR leadership

Data, the fuel that lets AI systems learn, is the backbone of modern business. So HR leaders must help their teams derive greater value from that data for such tasks as identifying talent gaps, assessing employee performance, enhancing talent planning, and aligning talent with changing business needs. 

To step up, many HR leaders say they need to move beyond managing people who understand data, to understanding it themselves. Nearly half (48%) of survey respondents believe they need to become more analytical to do so. 

“Most of us are moving from data as insight to data as action,” says Larson. Rather than scan reports on past and current metrics, “now we want to see the predictive data and models.” She believes that HR leaders who don’t build this muscle for interpretation and insights will be held back. 

For example, Larson says other leaders will want the CHRO to mine data to find linkages between HR and other parts of the company. What’s the connection, for example, between investments in high-potential employee programs and overall attrition and employee satisfaction rates in various functions? Does it help in sales but hurt in engineering?

Business leaders in other functions already look for these linkages. “Their expectation is that we CHROs do the same,” Larson says. “We have to know our data and be able to interpret it and use it predictably.”

As business becomes more digital, HR leaders say they’ll need to take a more hands-on role in choosing and understanding the capabilities of the systems employees use to do their jobs. Nearly half (45%) of those surveyed reported that they are becoming more digitally adept. In digitally advanced companies, defined as those making more progress on digitally enabled business transformation, that rises to two-thirds.
 

Nearly half (47%) of surveyed CHROs within digitally advanced companies reported they are becoming strategic partners with other C-suite members and business leaders, compared to 31% of CHROs in companies that are earlier in their digitization journeys. In digitally advanced companies, 34% of CHROs have established strategic partnerships with the CEO, in contrast to only 17% of the less advanced group.

Larson says this level of collaboration is one of the bigger changes she’s seen. “This new world of work is so much more blended versus hierarchical,” she says. “Because work has become so much more process-driven and value-driven, collaboration is important.”

It’s been just two years since the public debut of ChatGPT, but “generative AI is reshaping the foundation of business strategy,” according to ServiceNow Chief People Officer Jacqui Canney. Survey respondents are on board: 65% of HR leaders report that they are using GenAI to transform their HR processes and strategies. Not surprisingly, HR leaders in digitally advanced companies are gearing up for faster adoption: 73% have plans to integrate GenAI into their operations within the next 18 months, compared to 42% of less-advanced companies.

There’s no lack of use cases for GenAI. It’s a powerful, versatile productivity tool that frees up countless hours that were formerly spent preparing PowerPoints and summarizing research reports. But that’s just the start. GenAI can help with talent acquisition, for example, by helping recruiters consider far more sources of information when writing job descriptions or by streamlining workflows to simplify the interview process for candidates. Larson’s team is even using AI in training programs to help people work on their soft skills. “AI can create a scenario,” she says, “say, a difficult conversation between a manager and employee.”

“These systems will continue to make our lives easier,” Larson says. “They’ll allow us to add value and amplify decision-making. Ultimately, they’ll continue to enable HR to realize its dream of being a strategic partner.”