In fashionable HR, there are a number of truths we frequently deal with as self-evident, particularly with regards to the chief human assets officer position.
Josh Bersin
Permission granted by Josh Bersin
We imagine, for instance, that:
- The CHRO is more and more a secure, long-tenured transformation chief, guiding organizations by way of multiyear AI adoption and workforce reinvention.
- And after years of progress, the position now instructions a safe and revered seat on the C-suite desk, standing alongside CFOs, CIOs, and different enterprise leaders — if not all the time in compensation, then actually in share of voice and affect.
- And because the most gender-diverse place within the C-suite, the rise of the CHRO additionally indicators significant progress in management variety and influence.
- At present’s CHROs attain the highest HR position with the capabilities, time horizon and organizational help required to navigate a quickly evolving, AI-driven labor panorama. And as soon as there, clear pathways more and more open into broader enterprise management roles, together with COO, CEO or normal administration positions.
However as we head into 2026, it appears that evidently these apparently self-evident truths are, at finest, way more difficult than many people imagine. At worst, they’re primarily based on assumptions which are overly optimistic or just unfaithful.
My agency partnered with Findem to supply a deep evaluation of greater than 25,000 CHRO profiles, a survey of practically 200 present CHROs and over 50 face-to-face interviews. What we discovered is that life as a CHRO is unusually advanced proper now — and the lived expertise of the position contradicts lots of the assumptions outlined above. Behind the headlines and convention keynotes sits a actuality outlined by a set of persistent paradoxes.
The transformation paradox
CHROs are anticipated to drive fast, enterprise-wide transformation whereas additionally safeguarding long-term tradition. But many don’t stay within the position lengthy sufficient to see that change totally embedded. Whereas 86% of surveyed CHROs say their position is altering “considerably” or “dramatically,” common tenure has fallen from six years to only 4.8.
Why it issues: Excessive turnover raises a elementary query in regards to the sturdiness of transformation efforts when their major sponsors exit earlier than outcomes are totally realized.
The affect paradox
CHROs are extra seen and strategically concerned than ever, with greater than 6 in 10 viewing themselves as friends to different C-suite leaders. But formal energy has not all the time stored tempo with expectations.
Why it issues: Solely 12% rank among the many 5 highest-paid executives, and plenty of nonetheless report needing to “affect with out authority” to safe dedication to folks methods — undermining their capability to steer at scale.
The variety paradox
At 68% feminine illustration, the CHRO position is essentially the most gender-diverse place within the C-suite — a transparent constructive. Nevertheless, progress on ethnic variety stays uneven.
Why it issues: Whereas the proportion of White CHROs declined to 70% in 2021, it has since risen once more to 73%, elevating the uncomfortable risk that momentum on racial and ethnic illustration has stalled.
The success pathway paradox
At present’s CHRO position more and more calls for enterprise fluency, industrial perception and cross-functional credibility — but most leaders nonetheless ascend by way of conventional HR profession paths.
Why it issues: With roughly 3 in 10 CHROs bringing prior expertise from industrial roles (gross sales or advertising and marketing), a niche could also be opening between what the position now requires and the way future CHROs are being developed.
The aspiration paradox
Many CHROs see the position as a platform for broader govt or advisory management. In follow, nonetheless, post-tenure outcomes usually fall wanting these ambitions.
Why it issues: Forty-two % transfer into lower-level HR roles after leaving the C-suite, and simply 5% go on to change into CEOs — suggesting a misalignment between aspiration and the probably profession locations obtainable to CHROs.
Taken collectively, these findings reveal a job underneath strain, with calls for far outpacing present capabilities — and a actuality that’s way more difficult than typical assumptions recommend.
Making sense of obvious contradictions
Successfully, the CHRO — or an equal position — is being requested to steer enterprise-wide change whereas concurrently reinventing HR itself. If there are deep tensions in how organizations worth folks management, they should be addressed.
I’m not suggesting that is straightforward, however we imagine the way in which ahead is to be daring. One choice is to proceed alongside the standard trajectory — increasing obligations incrementally and solidifying HR’s seat on the management desk. Or, we are able to seize the excessive floor, ranging from the popularity that vital change is required to make the CHRO position really efficient.
The best way to change into the CHRO you wish to be and escape the 5 paradoxes is to cease performing just like the CHRO the group expects you to be. As an alternative, redefine the job, slim the agenda, elevate the HR system and begin behaving as should you actually are (and need to be) a real enterprise chief.
Give attention to what really strikes the enterprise
Too many CHROs attempt to clear up all the corporate’s issues, from tradition to management to expertise, AI, expertise, engagement, transformation and alter administration. That may imply you find yourself overloaded and ineffective — so as an alternative, determine the three to five business-critical outcomes the CEO genuinely cares about and anchor the whole HR technique round these.
Every thing else is noise. Even higher: Co-write a brand new job description with the C-suite that lays down eventually what transformation really means right here, what time horizon is practical to perform that and what trade-offs everybody agrees to.
Be a enterprise chief, not a personnel professional
In my expertise (in each conducting this analysis and our agency’s different actions), I see that the CHROs who each form their very own destinies and transfer their firms’ needles all the time suppose when it comes to:
- boosting worth creation
- accelerating productiveness
- deepening functionality
- decreasing organizational friction
- by no means being seen as the rest than main a perform always racking up a stream of quantifiable, profit-oriented industrial outcomes.
In different phrases, they cease main “HR” and begin main how the group works.
Our findings recommend that we nonetheless have a methods to go. However that there’s a actual path to creating the imaginative and prescient of the CHRO greater than a lovely thought, and as an alternative a substantive, well-compensated and deeply satisfying real-world position.
I can’t see any paradoxes in wanting to attain that. Are you able to?
