One would be hard pressed to find a General Counsel who did not possess a law degree. But the same cannot be said of top human resources professionals — Chief Human Resource Officers — many of whom have little or no human resources education background.
That's the intelligence from an Aon Hewitt study of 45 CHROs from around the globe.
"More than half of participating CHROs revealed they are not career HR professionals," Aon Hewitt reported. "Of these, approximately one third had no background in HR prior to assuming their current CHRO position."
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What Aon Hewitt discovered is that the shifting, and increasing, demands being placed on the position have dramatically altered the route through corporate bureaucracy to the top HR spot.
"The evolving needs of the business, the volatile economic environment, and the changing face of talent are shaping the selection of CHROs, with diversity in experience a key factor," the study said.
Among the findings:
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73 percent of the study participants have changed their industry at least once in their career;
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Those who have changed their industry more than three times had the highest average tenure as a CHRO, with seven years, and the lowest average work experience (23.3 years);
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66 percent of study participants indicated they had prior board exposure;
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84 percent said their experience with determining executive compensation was a key requirement;
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24 percent took a rotation or assignment in a line role (outside of HR) to build their business and commercial acumen;
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67 percent have worked and lived abroad, and/or led global teams and initiatives;
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65 percent indicated "business knowledge" as a key competency they required, but it was also among the competencies for which they felt least prepared.
The study asked participants to identify emerging capabilities that future CHROs will need to be successful. Among the most often cited:
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Data- and analytics-based decision making;
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Being the architect and assessor of shifts in organizational culture;
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Proactively mapping organization capability needs to the future strategy of the firm;
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Playing the role of an internal and external talent scout, or talent spotter;
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Understanding the impact of technology and how it will improve HR processes and analytic capabilities;
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Asking organization-specific questions rather than following the herd.
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
