HR teams have now established themselves as true strategic partners within companies: supporting leaders and positioning themselves as their relay with teams during periods of uncertainty.
As companies face accelerating transformations (driven by technological advances, changing employee expectations, and global economic challenges), the HR function goes beyond simple human resources management to include supporting leaders in defining the company’s strategic direction, optimizing talent, and driving organizational change.
How do CHROs become business allies?
The real challenge for CHROs lies in their ability to align HR strategy with the company’s business strategy. This approach requires a deep understanding of the company’s financial, commercial, and organizational challenges, the capacity to anticipate skill requirements and lead transformation projects, while maintaining and supporting business development in less favorable periods. In an increasingly uncertain environment, the CHRO must be able to support all employees, and especially the CEO.
To become a business partner, the CHRO must strengthen their advisory role with senior leaders by providing them with a clear vision of human challenges and HR levers to activate in order to achieve strategic objectives. They must also be able to translate HR issues in terms of performance and profitability, measuring the impact of HR decisions on the company’s overall results.
Examples of “transformational” CHROs in pioneering companies.
Microsoft: HR and cultural change leadership.
Under the leadership of Kathleen Hogan, Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) at Microsoft, Human Resources played a central role in transforming the company’s culture. As Microsoft faced challenges related to its image and organizational model, Kathleen Hogan drove a cultural shift by emphasizing continuous learning, inclusion, and collaboration. Microsoft is now a model in talent management and adapting corporate culture to digital challenges.
Danone: HR and sustainable development strategy.
Hélène Ploix, former CHRO at Danone, played a key role in transforming the company around sustainable development and corporate social responsibility values. By aligning HR policies with environmental and social challenges, she successfully redefined Danone’s place in the world, while ensuring that employees identified with the company’s commitments, strengthening team cohesion and engagement.
Airbus: HR and digitalization.
At Airbus, the CHRO played a crucial role in managing the transition to digitalization and innovation. Through projects such as implementing digital HR processes (recruitment, performance management, training), the CHRO not only integrated advanced technologies but also ensured that teams were ready to meet these challenges through continuous training programs and change resistance mitigation.
To fulfill their role as a strategic partner in building the company’s vision, the CHRO must have strong listening, analytical, and execution capabilities aligned with strategic direction. They thus become a key stakeholder for the CEO and senior leaders, and their role as a business partner becomes essential to addressing tomorrow’s challenges.