Standing on the Shoulders of the CHRO: Shaping the Modern Workforce Era
October 20, 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.
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.”
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 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.”
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.”
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.”
The Evolution of the CHRO: From Personnel to Enterprise Leadership
As organizations confront accelerating disruption, the expectations placed on chief human resources officers continue to expand beyond traditional talent leadership. In a new report, The Taplow Group examines how the CHRO role has evolved into a strategic leadership position with growing influence over business performance, organizational transformation, and board-level decision making. The findings underscore why companies are placing greater emphasis on HR leaders who can help shape enterprise strategy while guiding their workforces through constant change.
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.”
“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.”
Related: The CHRO’s New Mandate
“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.”
“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.”
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.”
Related: CEOs and CHROs: Strategic Alignment or Differing Priorities?
“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.”
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.”
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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.”
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.”
“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.”
Related: The CHRO’s Leadership Imperative in the AI Era
Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief and Dale M. Zupsansky, Executive Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media
