Standing on the Shoulders of the CHRO: Shaping the Modern Workforce Era
September 21, 2026 – As organizations confront rapid technological change, workforce disruption, and mounting pressure to build stronger leadership pipelines, the role of the chief human resources officer continues to expand. Today’s CHRO is expected to help shape business strategy, guide organizational transformation, and ensure companies develop the talent, culture, and leadership needed for long-term success.
At the same time, CEOs and boards are placing renewed emphasis on building more diverse leadership teams, recognizing that broadening candidate pools and challenging traditional hiring assumptions can strengthen decision-making and business performance. Hunt Scanlon Media spoke with executive search leaders from across the industry about how the CHRO role is evolving, the impact of AI on human resources, and the strategies organizations are using to identify and develop the next generation of leadership.
A New Imperative
As AI is embedded in everyday decisions and workflows, outcomes are shaped as much by leadership choices and people as by technology, according to a new report from Egon Zehnder’s Kristen Burke. “Every serious AI conversation eventually becomes a people conversation about trust, skills-building, and how leaders show up,” the study said. “Human resources leaders sit at the center of that reality.”
“These dynamics mark a defining moment for the CHRO. As one CHRO characterized it, it’s a once in a generation opportunity,” the Egon Zehnder report said. “While AI is often referred to as a technology challenge, organizations making real progress understand that AI success hinges on people: skills, culture, trust, and everyday leadership behavior. Organizations seeing traction are aligning HR, technology, and finance from the outset, ensuring that questions of skills, ethics, trust, and accountability are built into decisions rather than addressed after the fact.”
“Just as important is clarity around what must remain human,” the report stressed. “As AI absorbs more routine tasks, leadership will shine in high-stakes decisions, use of judgment, building relationships, and navigating uncertainty. This places HR at the center of intentionally shaping how work evolves. For CHROs, the choice is not whether AI will reshape work, but whether they will actively shape how it does.”
Expanding Leadership Pools
AI is rapidly and broadly impacting every function at multiple levels, Dwain Celistan, managing partner and leader of the global inclusive leadership practice at DHR Global, explained. “The future of most organizations will evolve/transform due to increasingly greater adoption of AI,” he said. “The HR leaders will need to aid organizations during this period for the benefits of the organization and how leaders/employees will need to adjust.”
Mr. Celistan said that the typical organization has inadequate panels of diverse talent from which to select leaders and separately, there is a built-in bias for the status quo. “Historically, diverse candidates who have been included in senior roles were less qualified than the balance of the pool,” he said. “For example, if the organization were looking for a CFO, in several cases, the diverse person might be a treasurer or comptroller while the other candidates were sitting CFOs. Thus, the panel would include a diverse person but not someone who has a strong likelihood of being selected for the role.”
“By contrast, when comparable diverse talent is included, they perform very well and are many times selected for the role,” Mr. Celistan added. “Thus, the key is to present diverse talent who meet/exceed the position specification requirements/expectations. In fact, over the past 20 years, this has proven to be true for my clients across industries and functions.”
“On the bias front, the demographics for senior leadership are significantly skewed versus those in middle of the organization or college graduates from 20-plus years ago,” Mr. Celistan said. “Interestingly, one demographic consistently dominates at senior levels that was not seen in earlier peer group comparisons. It isn’t because of outsized talent or capability improvements over time.”
Mr. Celistan urges HR leaders to challenge their internal team and search partners to present diverse slates of candidates who meet their expectations. “Choose search partners who have a demonstrated track record versus statements of intention,” he said. “The numbers tell the story. As a firm, nearly half of our placements are women and/or people of color. Personally, my placement rate is 70 percent. This addresses the notion of availability of the talent.”
“Last, the CEO/board should know that the data is overwhelmingly positive about the value added by diverse senior leadership,” Mr. Celistan continued. “They should not be swayed by an assortment of social media posts versus high-quality evaluations done by McKinsey and others.”
“One of the more notable trends we have observed in recent years is the continued expansion of the human resources function beyond its traditional responsibilities,” said Shawn M. Hartman, SVP and COO of Academic Search. “While this evolution is not occurring uniformly across higher education—and is often more visible at larger institutions with the infrastructure to support it—we are seeing an increasing number of organizations broaden the scope of these roles to include talent strategy, leadership development, employee engagement, and institutional culture.”
“In some cases, this shift is reflected in position titles that emphasize people, talent, or culture,” Mr. Hartman said. “More often, however, it is evident in the expectations institutions have for their senior HR leaders. Search committees frequently seek individuals who can serve as strategic partners, help navigate organizational change, and support efforts to attract, develop, and retain talented employees in a highly competitive environment.”
Diversifying Their Leadership Teams
CEOs and boards should view these efforts as a leadership and talent strategy rather than simply a recruiting initiative, according to Mr. Hartman. “Organizations that make the greatest progress tend to examine not only who they are hiring, but also how leadership opportunities are defined, how talent is developed internally, how succession planning is approached, and whether the organizational culture supports a broad range of leaders and leadership styles,” he said. “Attracting diverse candidates is only part of the equation. Organizations must also create environments where talented leaders can see themselves succeeding, feel welcomed and supported, and have opportunities to contribute and advance. Without that foundation, even the most well-intentioned recruitment efforts can fall short.”
Mr. Hartman explained that for boards and CEOs, that often begins with asking a few foundational questions: Does our leadership team reflect the perspectives and experiences needed to serve our stakeholders and achieve our strategic goals? Are we creating opportunities for talented individuals to advance within the organization? Are our recruitment and evaluation processes helping them identify the broadest possible range of qualified candidates?
In their work, Academic Search has found that clarity around leadership competencies is particularly important. “When organizations focus first on the qualities, skills, and experiences needed for success—and then conduct broad, intentional outreach—they are often able to build stronger and more diverse candidate pools,” Mr. Hartman said. “Perhaps most importantly, diversifying leadership is rarely the result of a single hire or a single search. The organizations that have been most successful tend to view it as a long-term commitment that includes recruitment, leadership development, succession planning, and organizational culture. Over time, those efforts help create a stronger pipeline of leaders and position organizations to make more informed choices when opportunities arise.”
The CHRO role has evolved from a traditional HR leadership position to that of a strategic business partner and enterprise leader, according to Kelly Griffin, chief operating officer of Kincannon & Reed. “Several factors have accelerated this evolution, including changing workforce expectations, hybrid work models, AI and technology adoption, an increased focus on leadership and culture, and the need for organizations to build resilient and adaptable talent strategies,” she said. “As a result, today’s CHROs are expected to advise CEOs and Boards on talent strategy, organizational design, leadership development, culture, and business transformation while balancing traditional HR expertise with broader business and operational capabilities.”
“When recruiting for the role, organizations are prioritizing strategic business acumen, change leadership, executive presence, talent management expertise, and the ability to influence across complex organizations,” Ms. Griffin added. “Ultimately, organizations are seeking CHROs who can effectively align people strategy with business strategy to drive long-term organizational success.”
Ms. Griffin also agreed that AI is transforming the HR function by automating administrative tasks, enhancing talent acquisition and workforce analytics, improving employee experience, and enabling more data-driven decision-making. “As a result, organizations are increasingly seeking HR leaders who are technologically savvy, adaptable, and capable of leveraging AI and analytics while maintaining a strong focus on leadership, culture, and the human aspects of organizational effectiveness,” she explained. “The most successful HR leaders will be those who can balance technological innovation with strategic business and people leadership.”
Building Diverse Candidate Pipelines
One of the biggest challenges organizations face when building diverse leadership teams is developing sufficiently broad and diverse candidate pipelines while balancing experience requirements, cultural fit, and business needs, Ms. Griffin noted. “Additional challenges include unconscious bias, limited internal succession pipelines, and competition for top talent,” she said. “We help clients navigate these obstacles by encouraging a broad and inclusive search strategy, challenging traditional candidate profiles when appropriate, and ensuring the evaluation process remains focused on competencies, leadership capabilities, and long-term potential. Ultimately, successful diversity efforts require intentionality, commitment, and a willingness to consider talent from a wider range of backgrounds and experiences.”
Ms. Griffin’s advice to any CEO or board that is serious about diversifying its leadership team is to first broaden its definition of diversity. “Diversity certainly includes gender, race, and ethnicity, but it also encompasses diversity of thought, experiences, career paths, industries, geographies, and leadership styles,” she said. “Organizations often unintentionally limit themselves by repeatedly recruiting leaders with similar backgrounds and experiences.”
“The CHRO seat used to be about compliance and process,” said Mar Hernandez, co-founder of NU Advisory Partners. “Today it’s a business seat. The CHROs I place sit at the table for M&A decisions, workforce planning tied to strategy, and increasingly, technology adoption. Boards and CEOs want someone who understands the P&L, not just headcount. What I hear most from clients now: they want a CHRO who can translate business strategy into talent strategy, who’s comfortable with data, and who can hold their own in a room with the CFO. Change management skills matter more than ever too, especially with AI reshaping roles across the company.”
Ms. Hernandez also explained that AI is forcing HR to move faster than it’s used to. “Workforce planning now has to account for which roles shrink, which grow, and which transform entirely,” she said. “I’m seeing clients ask for CHROs who can lead reskilling efforts at scale, not just approve a training budget. The HR leaders in demand today are the ones who see AI as a talent and culture issue, not just a tech rollout. They need enough fluency to have a real conversation with the CTO, and enough judgment to know where human oversight still matters, especially in areas like hiring and performance management.”
When trying to build a diverse leadership team, Ms. Hernandez said that the most common obstacle is pipeline, or rather, the excuse of pipeline. “Companies say the diverse talent isn’t out there,” she noted. “It is, but you have to search harder and look in different places than the usual networks. The second challenge is what happens after you make the hire. Diverse leaders often get placed into roles without the sponsorship or support to succeed, and then people point to that as proof it didn’t work. My approach is to widen the search net deliberately, and to push clients on what support structure exists once someone’s hired. A search isn’t done when someone accepts the offer.”
“Start with an honest audit of where you are now and why,” Ms. Hernandez said. “Not a vague statement of values, real numbers. Then look at your succession pipeline two or three levels down, not just the open seat. If you’re not developing diverse talent internally, no single external hire fixes that. And be patient but not passive. This is a multi-year commitment, not a search you run once and check off.”
“Diversity should be connected to the organization’s broader strategy rather than treated as a separate hiring initiative.”
“The last 18 months, which have been extremely difficult for our non-profit clients, have reshaped the CHRO role,” said Michelle Kristel, managing partner at McCormack + Kristel. “Organizations are navigating an incredibly uncertain funding environment, particularly those that relied on federal support. We’ve watched the dismantling of USAID, the termination of grants for anti-violence, climate, and mental health programs, and federal funding increasingly conditioned on organizations eliminating their DEI programs. The result has been program sunsetting and, in far too many cases, reductions in force.”
“That reality has fundamentally changed what we look for in a CHRO,” Ms. Kristel noted. “Today’s nonprofit HR leaders need a deep, working knowledge of employment law as it relates to terminations and furloughs—this isn’t theoretical anymore; it’s part of the day-to-day work. They need real strategic and business planning skills, because they’re being asked to support organizational effectiveness with fewer people and fewer resources. And maybe most importantly, they need the emotional intelligence and change management skills to shepherd culture through reductions in force, mergers, acquisitions, and sometimes full organizational wind-downs. That’s heavy, human work, and it takes a particular kind of leader to do it well.”
“At the same time, we’re seeing significant legal and regulatory pressure on DEI programs, which has led many organizations to eliminate or dramatically scale back chief diversity officer roles,” Ms. Kristel explained. “Where often diminished versions of those positions still exist, we’re seeing them shifted under the HR umbrella,” she said. “The CHROs we work with understand the business case for diversity—they know a diverse workforce builds stronger, more innovative teams. But something important gets lost when the CDO role disappears. When that position matured, CHROs had a peer at the C-level, someone to collaborate with and, honestly, sometimes push against, in service of the organization’s DEI goals. That healthy tension drove better outcomes. Now, with the CDO role eliminated or watered down in so many organizations, the CHRO is left holding that responsibility alone.”
“So the qualities we prioritize now go beyond traditional HR competencies,” Ms. Kristel continued. “We’re looking for leaders who can navigate legal complexity, financial constraints, and cultural stewardship all at once, who can carry the DEI mandate forward without a dedicated partner in that work, and who can do so in a way that keeps their organization’s mission and its people intact. That’s a rare combination, and it’s exactly what we spend most of our search time today: finding the CHRO who can be both the steady hand in a crisis and the long-term architect of a healthier, more resilient culture on the other side.”
“I’d push any CEO or board to be honest about whether the motivation is rooted in a genuine valuing of diversity, or whether it’s more reactive—pressure from funders, optics, a moment in the news cycle,” Ms. Kristel said. “That distinction matters enormously, because it shapes everything that follows. Diversity efforts that come from genuine conviction tend to stick. Efforts that come from external pressure alone tend to fade the moment that pressure lifts.”
Over the past few years, the role of the CHRO has expanded well beyond the traditional oversight of talent programs, employee relations, compensation, and organizational policy, according to Michael Henry, managing partner of Massey Henry. “While these responsibilities remain important, today’s CHRO is increasingly expected to serve as an enterprise-wide strategic partner, helping the organization anticipate change, build the workforce capabilities required for future growth, and translate business strategy into decisions about people, structure, and leadership,” he said. “Several forces have accelerated this evolution. AI and automation are reshaping how work is performed, talent shortages are making critical capabilities more difficult to secure, and changing employee expectations are challenging traditional approaches to careers, leadership, and workplace design. At the same time, organizations are facing heightened pressure to improve productivity, manage transformation, and prepare for skills that may not yet exist at scale within the business.”
As a result, Mr. Henry said that the CHRO is increasingly becoming a workforce architect. “Rather than focusing primarily on filling existing roles, the CHRO must help determine how work should be organized, which capabilities should be developed internally, where external expertise is required, and how technology can enable stronger performance,” he said. “This includes rethinking job design, career pathways, succession planning, talent assessment, leadership development, and organizational structures. It also requires creating environments in which expertise and leadership can emerge at multiple levels, rather than relying solely on position or tenure.”
“When recruiting for the CHRO seat, organizations are prioritizing a broader and more commercially oriented leadership profile,” Mr. Henry said. “Strong functional HR expertise remains foundational, but it is no longer sufficient on its own. Boards and executive teams are looking for leaders who understand the business model, can connect workforce decisions to financial and strategic outcomes, and are comfortable operating alongside the CEO and other enterprise leaders. The role has shifted from managing the people function to actively shaping the future of the enterprise.”
Mr. Henry said he would give this advice to a CEO or board that is serious about diversifying their leadership team but doesn’t know where to start. “The first step is to understand the organization’s current position,” he said. “Before beginning a search, CEOs and boards should take an inventory of the leadership team and the succession bench beneath it. That includes examining not only demographic representation, but also diversity of professional experience, perspective, geography, industry background, and leadership style.”
This assessment can help an organization identify where representation is limited, where succession pipelines may be too narrow, and which capabilities or perspectives will be increasingly important to the business, Mr. Henry explained. “Diversity should be connected to the organization’s broader strategy rather than treated as a separate hiring initiative,” he said. “It is also important to establish what success will look like. A general intention to improve diversity is difficult to translate into action. Boards and executive teams should agree on the gaps they are trying to address, how those gaps relate to the organization’s future needs, and how progress will be measured over time.”
Engaging an executive search or leadership advisory firm can be valuable at this stage, Mr. Henry pointed out. “The right partner can bring an external perspective, challenge assumptions embedded in the role profile, and help the organization understand how its requirements may be affecting the available candidate pool,” he said. “The search process itself should also be designed deliberately. Organizations should review whether the role criteria are genuinely essential, ensure the candidate pool is developed through more than personal referrals, and use consistent assessment criteria across all candidates. A structured process helps decision-makers focus on leadership capability and potential rather than familiarity.”
“Finally, organizations should think beyond a single appointment,” Mr. Henry added. “Diversifying leadership is a long-term process that includes succession planning, internal development, and ongoing relationship-building with prospective talent.”
The CHRO role has moved well beyond the traditional HR remit, according to Ted Moore, managing director, global HR practice leader with Russell Reynolds Associates. “The best CHROs today are not only stewards of talent and culture; they are enterprise leaders helping shape how work gets done, how organizations transform, and how leadership teams build the capabilities required for the future,” he said. “Since the pandemic, the role has become more central to questions of resilience, operating model design, succession, workforce transformation, and now AI adoption. As a result, organizations are prioritizing CHROs who bring broader business acumen, systems thinking, comfort with ambiguity, and the ability to operate across HR, technology, operations, and strategy. Functional HR depth still matters, but it is increasingly table stakes.”
Mr. Moore also said that AI is already having a very real impact on the HR function itself. “In many organizations, HR is one of the functions where AI use cases are becoming tangible fastest—from recruiting and candidate engagement, to learning, employee service, workforce analytics, performance insights, and HR operations,” he explained. “At a practical level, HR teams are being asked to do more with less: improve speed, personalization, and quality of service while also managing cost and complexity. AI can help automate transactional work, surface better talent insights, and free HR teams to focus more time on judgment-based, advisory, and strategic work. That means organizations are looking for HR leaders who are AI-fluent, commercially minded, and able to partner credibly with technology and business leaders—while keeping culture, leadership, capability, and accountability at the center.”
One of the biggest challenges is that organizations often define leadership potential too narrowly, Mr. Moore explained. “They may say they want diverse leadership, but still assess candidates against a familiar model: similar backgrounds, similar career paths, similar leadership styles, and similar experiences,” he said. “That can unintentionally screen out leaders who bring different capabilities, perspectives, or ways of solving problems.”
Russell Reynolds encourages clients to think about diversity broadly, including diversity of lived experience, but also diversity of skills, leadership competencies, industry exposure, functional background, and problem-solving style. “As the CHRO role shows, the future leadership profile is changing: organizations increasingly need leaders who can operate across functions, navigate ambiguity, lead transformation, and think in systems,” Mr. Moore said. “The first thing to get clear on is what the business will need in the future, rather than relying on what has worked in the past. From there, we help clients pressure-test role specifications, broaden candidate pools, challenge assumptions about ‘fit,’ and assess candidates against future potential as well as past experience.”
Dramatically Impacting Success
“Increasingly, the CHRO is a critical part of the executive business strategy, versus being seen as an enabler for an organization with an acknowledgement that the right CHRO can dramatically impact the success of an organization,” said Sam Wallace, technology partner with Wilton & Bain. “CHROs are increasingly bringing a long term vision that touches, technology, strategy, people, communication and talent.”
“Today’s CHROs are expected to advise CEOs and Boards on talent strategy, organizational design, leadership development, culture, and business transformation while balancing traditional HR expertise with broader business and operational capabilities.”
“AI is an incredible tool for HR teams, to improve efficiency, reporting and data management, supporting data driven decision making,” Ms. Wallace said. “Every HR leader has to have a curiosity around how AI can support the function, and a clear collaboration with technology to ensure ethical and compliant use across the business.”
Ms. Wallace also told Hunt Scanlon organizations have always faced challenges when trying to build diverse leadership teams but in recent months this has been compounded by the dismantling and delegitimizing of global DEI initiatives. “The value of diverse leadership teams is well documented (cultural and financial) and companies need to take an honest look at their boards and executive as part of this process,” she said. “Understanding the starting point, can highlight institutional behaviors that exclude diverse leaders, in which case, external advisory work is needed.”
The goal isn’t simply diversify, that suggests a process for its own sake, rather than a meaningful and long term impact on the business, according to Ms. Wallace. “If there is an opportunity to bring in new talent or develop internal talent from within, the CEO and board need to establish a plan for the business impact and work into a talent strategy from there,” she said. “This creates a structure for roles that drive change and deliver results. As this plan evolves, the talent strategy has to be intentional about identifying diverse leaders who can fulfil the role. There has to be a process acknowledgement that diverse leaders engage differently and need to be managed accordingly. Old habits of network and referrals need to be critically assessed to ensure the easy, more of the same doesn’t win over the harder intentional change.”
