Human Resource Executive Online, April 15, 2010, Thursday

Human Resource Executive Online

April 15, 2010, Thursday

Human Resource Executive Online

Succeeding in HR

Understanding the business and having the courage to express fact-based opinions will enable emerging HR talent to reach the top. More experience working with boards of directors of senior leaders will also offer needed perspective.

By Kristen B. Frasch


Just how effective senior HR leaders are at nurturing and developing chief human resource officers within their own ranks was a point of concern raised at a bonus session Monday, prior to the conference, entitled "Becoming a Chief HR Officer: How to Get There and What You'll Need to Succeed."

Patrick M. Wright, the William J. Conaty GE professor of strategic human resources at Cornell University's ILR School and the session's moderator, presented results of a study from the university's Center for Advanced Human Resource Studies underscoring the fact that, in Wright's words, "HR talent management is abysmal."

The study, The Chief Human Resource Officer: Shifting Roles and Challenges, polled 54 CHROs culled from the 2008 Fortune 150 list. It found that only about one-third (36 percent) of organizations' CHROS are being promoted from within HR and slightly less (31 percent) are being hired directly into the role from outside.

Even more alarming, Wright said, was discovering that 10 percent of CHROs at these companies were promoted from within, but not from HR.

"This underscores how badly we really are doing at developing our own talent," he said.

Yet working concurrently with that shortcoming, the study also revealed a profound interest by CEOs today in HR talent and talent, generally.

A majority of CHROs (63 percent) said talent is one of their CEO's top priorities for HR, yet they also cited talent gaps in the HR function as a major obstacle to delivering on the CEO's priorities and meeting strategic objectives.

Joining Wright were panelists James M. Bagley, global leader of corporate officers sector at Russell Reynolds Associates, a New York-based executive search firm; Kevin Barr, senior vice president of human resources at Terex Inc., a Westport, Conn.-based construction equipment manufacturer; and Kenneth J. Carrig, executive vice president of human resources for Comcast Cable, based in Philadelphia.

All were concerned with HR talent development and agreed that prepping their top performers by giving them more experiences working with boards of directors and senior HR leaders would help them gain the perspective they need to lead.

Barr cited an experience early in his career when a board member asked for his views on his CEO's salary and whether he was learning how to get along with the company's founder.

"Had I had the opportunity to meet with boards of directors and CHROs earlier in my education, I would have avoided a lot of problems," Barr said.

He also stressed the necessity for top HR performers to get out "into line-leadership roles so they'll have more of the kinds of experiences they'll need."

Carrig, too, told the audience he would "encourage you all to go out and work in your business."

Less "learning on the job is being allowed today in a business world of rapid changes and enormous challenges," said Carrig. "Having a network of fellow peers and CHROs to turn to is imperative."

But so is understanding that CEOs "look to us to better understand the business and speak the business," and no one can do that without fact-based, numbers-based discussions, proposals and assessments, he said.

Beyond that, he added, "we need the courage to have a point of view. That's very respected by a CEO, even when it's not favorable or easy to hear."