The stereotypical Chief Human Resources Officer position of the past is wholly different considering the functions and goals of the position today. CHROs in 2023 are tasked with a more dynamic range of responsibilities than before. Formerly understood as a standard executive position concerned primarily with business output, the modern CHRO must assume the role of a social psychologist mixed with a culture transformist.
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The new-look CHRO
Congratulations! You’ve just accepted a new position as a Chief Human Resources Officer and you’re ready to hit the ground running. The CHRO position is one that every HR professional aspires to hold at some point or another in their careers. But there is a caveat; the modern CHRO position of 2023 requires a much different set of skills and motivators than in the past.
No longer is the CHRO a sanitized go-between for managers and their employees solely concerned with employee progression and profit margin alignment.
“Streamlining internal communications is still an indispensable responsibility of the CHRO, but sculpting company culture and enhancing diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DE&I among other relationship management are increasingly important,” says Steve Scovner, CSS Professional Staffing Group Sales Director.
Building culture in a remote working world
Passivity is a non-starter for the 2023 CHRO. The need to be proactive is rooted in remote and hybrid work popularity across sectors which distances coworkers from one another. Connection has never been more difficult and CHROs need to champion innovative ways to interact and build their company culture. These leaders should leverage one-on-ones with staffers of all levels to gauge connectivity and field ideas to bring people together. Organizing team-building activities virtually will boost employee morale and instill a collective business purpose. Making these a regular occurrence is necessary; there’s no opportunity to build culture if no one remembers what happened in the last meeting.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion take center stage
Being proactive in addressing and implementing DE&I initiatives is imperative for the modern CHRO. Glassdoor found that two out of three candidates seek out work cultures that prioritize a diverse workforce. Most reports studying the effect of strong DE&I culture find that an inclusive workforce boosts company revenue and morale, so this should be an especially important project for a CHRO to tackle.
CHROs should seek employee feedback around their company’s DE&I status and create programs to alleviate the sharpest pain points. CHROs should encourage an open flow of ideas from the diverse backgrounds of candidates coming through a bias-free recruitment pipeline to make employees feel comfortable working in their own skin.
Promote employee advancement through upskilling
Employee development is paramount to job seekers in the 2023 market. Research.com’s 2022 Training Industry Report found that 68 percent of employees prefer to learn through their workplace and 94 percent noted they’d stay at their current company if it invested in their professional development. As changes in technology accelerate, employees need to learn the new capabilities of their digital offices. CHROs should develop comprehensive professional learning and development pipelines to ensure their workforce delivers at the highest standards.
Humanize the workplace with an emphasis on mental health
CHROs have the unique perspective to observe and enhance the employee experience, or EX. The traditional weight placed on User and Customer Experience, or UX and CX needs to extend to employees. The post-pandemic era we are moving into is being defined by the employee experience which spurred The Great Resignation and quiet quitting among other employment trends. A 2022 McKinsey study found that 28 percent of workers in the United States reported feeling burnout symptoms sometimes, often, or always in the workplace.
Employee burnout across industries ran rampant over the past few years leading to pronounced employee turnover. To keep quality people in-house, CHROs need to implement mental health and wellness policies like mental health days and flexible hours to allow employees to work when they feel they are most productive.
Partner with a hiring expert to offload recruitment
Human resource teams have mounting responsibilities across all business units, so it’s imperative to offload work where possible. To devote all resources to internal culture building and limit turnover, hand off staffing to an expert recruiting agency like CSS Professional Staffing Group. Agencies like CSS PSG cater their services personally to a client’s hiring needs in the core capabilities of Human Resources, Accounting and Finance, Office Support, and Contact Center Support.
Connect with an expert CSS Professional Staffing Group sales consultant to build your 2023 HR dream team
To build the perfect team equipped to maximize your business in 2023, reach out to the recruitment professionals at CSS Professional Staffing Group and begin your employment journey. Specializing in human resources, accounting and finance, office support, and call center support, CSS PSG has been a staffing industry leader for almost 20 years with stellar client reviews. Connect with CSS PSG today to hand your staffing need to the talent experts!