Succession planning is imperative for C-suite positions, including the CHRO role. However, the task of succession planning has become far more difficult amid the rapid transformations of the last few years, experts say.
When it comes to CHRO succession planning, potential candidates likely know the new pressures top HR leaders are facing in this post-pandemic environment, says Brad Bell, professor of strategic human resources and director of the Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies at Cornell University. These include managing return-to-office efforts, hybrid culture, and political and social tensions. Meanwhile, some HR leaders are working 80-hour weeks, leading efforts to integrate AI into HR, and instituting layoffs as economic fears persist, HR experts note.
“People are looking at the CHRO job when approached and saying, ‘Do I want that job? I don’t think so,’ ” Bell says. “They’re kind of stepping off of that career track and saying, ‘I’m fine where I’m at’ or are leaving HR entirely to go do something different.”
That reluctance is creating problems for CHRO succession planning. Last year, 29 CHRO and chief people officer roles became vacant at Fortune 200 companies, and a quarter of the positions remained unfilled heading into 2024, according to a report by The Talent Strategy Group. The report notes that of the seven vacant CHRO and CPO positions at the start of this year, three remained unfilled as late as March.
How bad is the CHRO succession problem?
In his recent conversations with several CHROs, Bell says they lament that, increasingly, the people they’ve identified as their potential successors are opting out of consideration for the position. For example, one CHRO said two candidates rejected the offer at the last minute, Bell says.
Laszlo Bock, co-founder of the Berkeley Transformative CHRO Leadership Program and former CEO and co-founder of Humu, notes a disconnect between many executive teams and potential leaders on the appeal of joining the C-suite today—particularly when for leading the people function.
“I’ve often heard people saying they don’t even want to be considered for a CHRO job because it’s not their career path,” says Bock, former head of Google’s people operations, adding. “I think that’s why a third of CHRO jobs go to people outside of the field with zero HR experience.”
Indeed, according to a report by Praxis Management Consulting, 25%-30% of multinational companies hire CHROs from outside the HR function. A growing number of employers are relying on interim CHROs, according to a recent report by Heidrick & Struggles.
Between 2022-23, demand for interim CHROs soared 225% year-over-year, according to Heidrick & Struggles’ recent Fortune 1000 CHRO Trends study.
Demand for fractional and part-time CHROs has also sharply risen since the pandemic, in part because more HR leaders are suffering burnout and leaving the function, says Maria Goldsholl, chief people officer, managing partner for human capital and executive committee member at on-demand executive firm TechCXO.
As a result, it’s taking longer for leadership to find CHRO replacements, she notes.
For example, Goldsholl says many of her clients will hire a CHRO in about four months; however, the process recently took one organization three and a half years.
How to make the CHRO position desirable
Bell says both internal and external CHRO candidates are likely aware that burnout is running high among HR leaders, which will hurt the pipeline of future top HR executives.
“I think the future of the profession, especially around the issues of burnout, is probably something we’ll have to wrestle with and figure out,” Bell says. “This is where some of that role modeling comes into place. If CHROs are modeling that they can have a life, they can have balance, then I think that creates a more attractive career for people who are aspiring to those levels of the organization.”
Dan Kaplan, a senior client partner for Korn Ferry’s CHRO practice, advises that CHROs can also help shield their teams—including potential successors—from the stress of the job.
“You want to take the stress and deflect it back up, not down the organization. You don’t want your direct reports to say, ‘Wow, they just got a beating from the CEO. That’s a crummy job. I don’t want that job,’ ” Kaplan says. “I know some CHROs who do this magnificently well. They’ve worked with incredibly difficult founders, CEOs or tough situations, and the board and their team had no idea.”
Kaplan notes a fine line exists between giving potential CHRO successors a realistic view of the job and sharing the most difficult, confrontational and stressful aspects. He compares it to teaching his children how to drive.
“I told them to assume everyone on the road is an idiot and drivers will cut you off. It’s good for them to see the news about some car accidents so they know the dangers are real. But if I sat them down for 100 hours straight telling them about devastating car crashes, they’d probably still be riding their bikes,” Kaplan says.
The same can be said about preparing potential successors for the CHRO role.
“When you’re talking to a candidate about the job, you’re showing them what’s real; you’re teaching and mentoring,” Kaplan says. “But don’t vent your frustration or stress because they may choose not to climb the ladder.”
An effective way to prepare internal candidates for the realities of the job is through a rotational program that sharpens their business acumen, says Goldsholl.
She advises large, enterprise employers to design opportunities that give HR team members a taste of other parts of the organization, such as operations, sales and marketing, and finance.
“Ideally, high-potential CHRO successors will start in a rotation program about five years before they are needed,” Goldsholl says. After three years in a rotation, she notes, it is beneficial for them to serve for about two years as the CHRO’s protégé.
Rethinking traditional CHRO succession planning
At the same time, employers can manage the limited pool of CHRO candidates by tapping into HR talent earlier in their careers or finding candidates outside the HR field to bring in, say Bell and Kaplan.
The Talent Strategy report found a “remarkable shift” in the next generation of CHROs and chief people officers at Fortune 200 companies last year, for example. A whopping 86% of newly appointed CHROs and CPOs at Fortune 200 companies were first-timers to the role in 2023, compared with 66% in the prior year. The report notes that only three of the 22 CHROs or CPOs appointed to Fortune 200 companies in 2023 had prior senior HR exec experience.
The report also revealed that 23% of those newly appointed HR leaders had less than 10 years of HR experience before their elevation, most commonly because their primary experience was in the legal sector.
“Because there is a more limited talent pool out there, I think the CHRO pipeline demographics have changed a bit,” Bell says.
Hiring fractional and part-time CHROs is another way to temporarily address the CHRO succession shortfall, Goldsholl says. A fractional CHRO can groom a strong vice president from within HR or another department and mentor them for the CHRO role.
Such efforts must be undertaken with an acknowledgment that today’s high-potential talent may not be as motivated to reach for the top ranks of leadership.
“[Difficulty finding CHRO successors is] definitely happening more since the pandemic,” Goldsholl says. “I think a lot of that has to do with some apathy in the workforce, and it’ll never really come back to the prior way we saw it now that we have this whole hybrid, work-from-home environment.”
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