RBP020L074A: CEOS KNOW THAT They Depend on Their Company’s Human Resources: HR Business Partnering Assignment, UoH, Singapore

Instructions for the summative assessment

The assessment for this module is through a Case Study Article. The report will require you to critically examine the future of the HR profession. There will be regular opportunities for feedback on your individual work in progress and an opportunity for formative assessment of your Case Study while it is under construction. The question is:

“To what extent does the approach suggested by the authors address the challenges facing the human resource function and its leadership? Critically examine the article and conclude on its suggested approach to human resource management.”

Case Study: People Before Strategy:

A New Role for the CHRO by Ram Charan, Dominic Barton, and Dennis Carey

CEOS KNOW THAT they depend on their company’s human resources to achieve success. Businesses don’t create value; people do. But if you peel back the layers at the vast majority of companies, you find CEOs who are distanced from and often dissatisfied with their chief human resources officers (CHROs) and the HR function in general. Research by McKinsey and the Conference Board consistently finds that CEOs worldwide see human capital as a top challenge, and they rank HR as only the eighth or ninth most important function in a company. That has to change.

It’s time for HR to make the same leap that the finance function has made in recent decades and become a true partner to the CEO. Just as the CFO helps the CEO lead the business by raising and allocating financial resources, the CHRO should help the CEO by building and assigning talent, especially key people, and working to unleash the organization’s energy. Managing human capital must be accorded the same priority that managing financial capital came to have in the 1980s when the era of the “super CFO” and serious competitive restructuring began.

The CEO’s New Contract with the CHRO

A CFO’s job is partly defined by the investment community, the board, outside auditors, and regulators. Not so for the CHRO role—that’s defined solely by the CEO. The chief executive must have a clear view of the tremendous contribution the CHRO could be making and spell out those expectations in the clear, specific language. Putting things in writing ensures that the CEO and CHRO have a shared understanding of appropriate actions and desirable outputs.