It was almost ten years ago when Ellie Filler, a Korn Ferry search executive specialising in CHROs and Dave Ulrich, the famous university of Michigan professor, wrote ‘Why Chief Human Resources Officers Make Great CEOs.’ We remember thinking at the time how aspirational the headline seemed.

Ten years on and there remain very few CHROs going on to become CEOs. Only Leena Nair comes to mind, taking the top role at Chanel at the beginning of 2022. Filler and Ulrich’s research made the case that great CHROs were better qualified than all their C-suite peers to ascend to the CEO position, perhaps except for COOs. So why haven’t we seen more CHROs in the top job? If great CHROs possess the right attributes, what’s stopping them? Perhaps the problem is in the definition of ‘great’ and how difficult we have made it for HR professionals to achieve the standards that Filler and Ulrich envisaged.

So, what does it take to build a great HR function and what distinguishes great HR people from others? Our research and experience points to five key ingredients. When these are present, we have witnessed extraordinary HR leaders emerge.

Here are the five dimensions that we believe are foundational for ‘great’ HR functions:

1. Breaking free from narrow specialities: While finance, operations, and marketing functions have some diverse specialisations, they are more effective at building breadth not just depth. Critically, in these other functions, the transition from middle management to senior management is often the point of trading specialisms for leadership breadth.

HR, however, can get lost in its heterogeneity. Heads of recruiting have great prowess in marketing but no finance or operations experience. Heads of learning can become consumed by the academic. Heads of operations get caught in procurement and increasingly in mastering cloud-based software services. Even business partners, the last refuge of the so-called generalist career paths, have narrower roles as we centralise core services in the search for efficiency.

Great HR functions find a way to create T-shaped career paths, that allow individuals to rise above silos while also creating a more singular identity.

2. HR leaders must possess business acumen: We always hated it when we were classified as HR people, and when HR was dismissed as a ‘soft skill’ function. There is nothing soft about a world class HR function. HR people, particularly CHROs, need to identify as businesspeople, confident to participate in broader business debates.

There is a corollary here to the age-old encouragement for HR leaders to ‘take get a seat at the business leadership’ table. This has flirted from aspiration to affirmation over the years. We see this much more pragmatically. Over a 30–40-year career, you should find the time to study, participate, or even launch a business. Form does follow function. Business acumen can be obtained but it requires a conscious and deliberate effort.

3. Less process more judgement: What is it about HR functions and check lists? Or competency spreadsheets? Or, heaven help us, glossy brochures. We have been in constant battles with HR people across the globe explaining that not every problem is solved by adding process. Overregulation is the death of growth. Unfortunately, too many HR functions prioritize process over principle.

Some of this, we believe, is because HR can get caught up in mistaking activity for value. For attempting to solve rule breaking with more rules. This seems irrational to us. Focusing on attaining an outcome, on thinking about outputs, is really the key.

Ultimately, HR’s role is to help an organisation achieve a purpose, an objective. And it does that through helping acquire and inspire great talent, while optimising the conditions for their success. In our experience, success is more easily achieved with the minimum of bureaucracy. 

4. CEO, CFO, and CHRO need to be joined at the hip: Most opportunities in every company are ultimately rooted in people and money. As a result, the CFO, and CHRO need to be in constant dialogue with the CEO to understand the desired direction of travel, while constantly adjusting the available levers. A key attribute is not being precious about established approaches; remaining open to changing what needs to be changed.

We can get carried away with big words and rousing speeches. However, the important thing is to make sure everything is aligned. It’s easy to say and much harder to do. But from the foundations of organisational structure, through recruiting, rewards, and particularly managing poor behaviour, there is nothing more important in helping an organisation achieve its ambitions.

However, a leading indicator of greatness is the effectiveness of teamwork between executives and across business functions.

5. Ego should have no place in HR: In life, one must decide whether to be in front of or behind the camera. If you want to be in front of the camera, avoid HR. Chose PR, marketing, or communications as your career paths. HR’s role is to make others shine and be the best version of themselves. Self-promotion has no place in this function.

This is an overlooked component of what makes an HR function great. We emphasize it here because the spectre of hidden or personal agendas are the absolute death of any HR function. It is critical that HR can present itself as apolitical. As a rational and logical actor in a world that can sometimes seem chaotic, unpredictable, and unfair.

These principles are more relevant as we shift aspirations from the personnel department, through HR function, to people and culture custodians. Contemporary organisations present radically different challenges and opportunities to those even 10 years ago. It is essential that HR functions and its leadership adjust their relative clock times to keep up.

So, how does one create the right conditions for greatest to emerge? Well, here are our suggestions in the topical format of some new year’s resolutions:

1. Consciously create T shape career paths: Take the leap of faith to encourage your top middle career HR professions to swap disciplines and even take tours in other business areas. Talented individuals 10 years into their careers should have opportunities to build business breadth while also consciously encouraging more of a singular identity for the function. 

2. Launch hierarchy busting initiatives: Find ways to leverage the informal organisation. Unleash the talents of particularly Gen Z talent who might otherwise languish at the base of traditional hierarchy pyramids. Gen Z are an under-appreciated and under-utilised resource to help organise modernise while also fighting for more consequential societal purpose. 

3. Ensure alignment of the big HR tools: We must role model what we mean by creating a genuinely positive and respectful workplace. Too often the loudest and most disruptive get rewarded ahead of the quiet but diligent. Moreover, in the context of this article, create the right conditions for HR professions to build ‘great’ skills.

4. Pragmatism over perfection: Whether it be return to the office mandates or banning the use of personal devices at work, let’s spend less time, money, and organisation effort on legislating for poor what could go wrong and focus instead on maximization the potential. The HR function has a responsibility to show cost discipline but also restraint in launching activity into an organisation. Perhaps we should commit, in this sense, to do 20% less but achieve 80% more?

5. Champion purpose driven work: Extraordinary talent is no longer satisfied solely with traditional offers of salary, benefits, and titles. There is a growing need to feel a conviction of serving a greater purpose. Starting with HR and building on the idea of HR aspiring to the standards articulated by Filler and Ulrich, engage some top Gen Z talent to answer how your organisation can answer this question.

So, do we believe that great CHROs can be great CEOs. Is it simply an aspiration or can it be a reality? We absolutely believe it’s the latter. All great CHROs should be serious succession candidates for the top job. However, attaining greatest is elusive and requires focus, perseverance, and dedication. There are benefits for organisations well beyond succession plans. Great HR functions do contribute to great organisations, great places to work. Consequently, we would urge Boards to reflect on our 5-point plan as well as thinking about how to achieve the optimum CHRO performance we describe in our 5 dimensions.

As we greet 2024, we can look backwards at what could have done better, or we can look forward at the possibilities. We know from experience, that strong HR functions all started with a simple resolution, a decision, to strive for something greater.

A Career Carol: A Tale of Professional Nightmares and How to Navigate Them by Dr Helmut Schuster and Dr David Oxley is published on October 13 by Austin Macauley Publishers.