The HR Revolution

Chief Human Resources Officers have spent much of the past two decades lobbying their C-suite colleagues. “For years, CHROs have said they want to become more strategic partners to CEOs, COOs, company presidents and boards,” says PwC Workforce of the Future Leader Carrie Duarte. “That time has arrived.” Now that C-suite colleagues and boards view talent as a defining strategic challenge of the digital era, CHROs face a bigger, but appealing, challenge: delivering on this mandate. 

“This is a fantastic time to be a CHRO,” says Bain & Company Partner Dan Schwartz, who leads this firm’s Talent and Capabilities product and CHRO forum. It’s also a daunting phase for HR chiefs—as Willis Towers Watson Global Talent Business Leader Suzanne McAndrew demonstrates by violating her profession’s sacred rule of threes. She plows through a list of seven major changes to organizational talent management capabilities before asserting that “HR functions must disrupt or be disrupted.”