CHROs Are Failing and It’s Our Fault: 5 Barriers to CHRO Career Success

In brief

• The CHRO role’s complexity and internal challenges deter many from aspiring to it, despite its critical importance. This highlights the need to address these barriers to attract and retain top HR leadership.
• Additionally, the CHRO role has evolved from heading HR to a business leadership position with expanded scope, including ESG, digitalization, and a complex stakeholder landscape.
• There are five challenges that CHROs indicate inhibit their success in the role. These include power, politics and unpredictability, lack of legitimacy, a lack of belonging, inheriting and navigating historical HR leader failures, and perception that CHROs “serve” at the CEO’s discretion.
• A change is required in how we develop CHROs. We propose a three-pronged approach that considers the ecosystem needed for CHROs to be effective.

The CHRO role is notoriously difficult and complex, leaving many CHROs feeling ill-equipped and unprepared. Politics, a complex stakeholder environment, and Board dynamics are some challenges new CHROs face. For many, this makes the role unappealing. 

Only 40% of senior HR leaders say that they have the ambition to move into the CHRO role, while senior HR leader turnover is reported to be significantly higher than in other C-suite roles. Contrary to what many believe, this is not a symptom of the role’s demands — more often, it is due to significant internal barriers that CHROs face.

In this article, we draw on our latest research to discuss the current reality of CHRO careers, how the role changes, and the unique challenges we must address to set the role up for success. 

The reality of the CHRO role: Changing expectations and scope

The CHRO role has significantly changed over the last decade. Even before the pandemic, the CHRO scope changed to include the inclusion of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) as a critical strategic priority. Similarly, the digitalization of HR and the rising importance of board oversight on people matters have significantly impacted the role’s focus.

Beyond the evolution of the scope and responsibilities of the CHRO role, the reality of talent in CHROs highlights significant challenges. Recent rates show that the turnover (14%) within top HR roles is higher than in other C-suite roles.

Similarly, the internal promotion rates for CHROs are much lower than their C-suite counterparts, at only 57%. This signals that the CHRO role is not set up for success within the business and requires urgency in developing CHROs for the future and addressing the symptoms of underlying challenges.

5 challenges inhibiting the success of the CHRO role

CHROs state that they experience five barriers to success:

Barrier 1: Power, politics and unpredictability

By its nature, the CHRO role is at the heart of complex relationships and organizational politics. This results in CHROs spending significant time and effort managing relationships across the organization and navigating politics. To make this practical, CHROs often spend more time navigating organizational demands rather than focusing on activities that lead to strategic HR impact. 

When reflecting on their careers, many CHROs say that they felt ill-prepared to work with the Board and C-suite, and managing conflicting agendas and dynamics contributed to their feeling of being an imposter within the C-suite.

Many CHROs share that they don’t feel fully prepared for the role. As many as 41% of CHROs advanced from the HRBP role, with 29% moving into the role from outside of HR. This means that CHROs enter the role with varying skill sets and exposure, which might not always align with the role’s expectations.

Barrier 2: Lack of institutional legitimacy

The CHRO role is often not given credibility within the organization, holding very little power and autonomy. In some organizations, this is explicit – the CHRO is not seen as part of the executive leadership team. In others, the role is included at face value but holds no real influence or power. CHRO decision-making power and autonomy are often diluted at the C-suite level, which contrasts the expectations that CHROs hold of the role.

CHROs impact business, society, and people. However, once they enter the role, they struggle to build trust and credibility with leadership, often feel isolated and not part of the C-suite, and struggle to manage overwhelming expectations and decision-making responsibilities. This leaves many CHROs feeling disempowered and needing more agency to drive the strategic HR agenda.

Barrier 3: The CHRO role is lonely

CHROs report that being elevated into the CHRO role often brings a sense of loneliness and lack of belonging. On the one hand, the CHRO is considered the people leader of the HR function and represents business leadership in meetings. On the other hand, they do not feel fully integrated into the business executive team. This leads to dissatisfaction with the role, with only 52% of CHROs reporting that they are satisfied with their careers.

Chief Human Resources Officers also experience little support in their roles, resulting in burnout, disengagement, and often premature exits from the profession. This poses a significant risk to the readiness and availability of experienced CHROs. Many CHROs remark that being the ‘outlier’ in the C-suite (treated differently than other functions) and advocating for the HR function and profession creates a challenging and lonely environment, which was not anticipated in the role.

Barrier 4: Carrying the burden of HR’s past

Thirty-eight percent of CHROs progress into the role through upward advancement and promotions. While this leads to solid business acumen and an understanding of the organizational context, it often diminishes HR’s credibility and ability to transition into a C-suite leader. “Growing up in the business” brings with it the responsibility of carrying the history of previous HR leaders while also being seen as part of historical failures.

Where HR has been established as a successful contributor under a strong leader, new CHROs carry the burden of being measured against their predecessors and continuously compared to them—which is especially true if the new CHRO grew within the business under the leadership of the previous incumbent. Even though this is not unique, given the intimate stakeholder relationships that successful CHROs hold, it often makes it difficult for new incumbents to establish their brand.

Barrier 5: A perception that CHROs “serve” at the CEO’s discretion

The relationship between the CEO and CHRO contributes significantly to the role’s success. This relationship also often dictates the accessibility of the CHRO in terms of key strategic discussions and its critical role in managing board dynamics.

Unlike the relationship between the CEO and other C-suite executives, there is a close link between the perceived credibility of the CHRO and the CEO. CHROs mention that working for a CEO where they align with the values and ways of work significantly contributes to their own career decisions. 

To put this practically, a CHRO is 2x more likely to leave the role following a CEO transition, with the likelihood of this churn increasing to 54% within the first 24 months. 

Given the changing nature of the CHRO role, the current CHRO talent development approach cannot overcome these challenges. Similarly, the impact CHROs can make is lessened because of institutional factors inhibiting their performance. These challenges and changing expectations set the stage for the future CHRO profile. They will significantly influence the development of a healthy and sustainable CHRO talent pipeline.

 What should we be doing to create a healthy CHRO talent pool?

We need to change how we develop CHROs. Traditional upskilling will not be enough. We propose a three-pronged approach that considers the ecosystem needed for CHROs to be effective.

Individual level

CHROs must reflect on their skills and experience to identify gaps and proactively address them to build confidence to prepare for the role. Beyond the required skills, CHROs also have to demonstrate clarity in their belief system and how this impacts their professional identity.

This is essential for making tough calls, navigating ambiguity, and remaining true to purpose. Self-awareness is essential in any leadership role, but for CHROs, the ability to reflect and make sense of their strengths and limitations is even more critical.

Organizational level

The organization plays a key part in creating an environment where CHROs can thrive. On the one hand, this requires clearly defining the contribution and expectations of the CHRO role and giving it appropriate decision-making authority.

This means legitimizing the role, its positioning within the C-suite, and its power and influence. It also requires a proactive approach to CHRO succession planning and feeder pool development to ensure the role’s readiness and continuity.

Profession level

Beyond the organization, the HR profession as a collective also needs to address past perceptions about why the HR profession exists and the type of work it is responsible for. The baggage of the past often impacts the credibility of the CHRO or even demotivates individuals from entering the profession in the first place.

Also, the profession needs to establish communities of support, coaching, and mentorship to ensure that CHROs receive tangible support in transitioning into the role and navigating the loneliness of the profession.

 A call to action

The scarcity of qualified CHRO talent poses a real threat to organizations’ capacity to cultivate sustainable workplaces in the future. The hurdles confronting the CHRO role demand innovative solutions, as current strategies prove inadequate. HR cannot solve this challenge on its own. It will require a concerted effort that will include multiple parties changing the current perceptions of the role, its value, and the credibility of those who step into the responsibility.