Dive Brief:
- CEOs at high-performing companies are working with CHROs to reshape the function into an “enterprise” role — one that puts CHROs on the team with CEOs, CFOs and senior technology leaders and at the heart of securing the organization’s long-term performance, according to an Oct. 7 report from leadership advisory firm Heidrick & Struggles.
- Enterprise CHROs are defined by three criteria, the report explained. They provide strong operational effectiveness across core HR responsibilities; advance capabilities for integrating workforce planning, executive succession planning and artificial intelligence transformation; and maintain alignment with the CEO.
- Only a quarter of HR leaders are currently operating at an enterprise level, Heidrick & Struggles found, indicating, as other recent studies have shown, that CHROs face challenges managing AI-driven change and what it means to lead HR in 2026.
Dive Insight:
One distinction setting high-performing companies with enterprise CHROs apart from their peers is their shift from a traditional CEO-CFO-CHRO triad — connecting business strategy, financial resources and human capital — toward a quartet that includes the senior technology leader, the report noted.
For the last decade, the “conventional wisdom has been that the CFO manages the financial resources of the firm, the CHRO manages the human resources of the firm, and with the CEO, they form a stable triad,” Heidrick & Struggles explained.
This is still true, the report said. But “as AI transforms work, enterprise CHROs are building partnerships with senior technology leaders that are as strong as, if not stronger, than their relationships with CFOs,” it added. These partnerships are centered on “building workforce capability, shaping how AI, automation and digital tools reconfigure how work gets done.”
Another shift is how enterprise CHROs are evaluated. While they are still measured by traditional key performance indicators, particularly overall HR cost efficiency, enterprise CHROs are being held accountable for more, such as establishing a strong leadership pipeline and whether the workforce is transforming to meet the needs of an AI-enabled future, the research showed.
Additionally, enterprise CHROs are more likely to bring different information to boardroom conversations, according to the report. The topics include strategic workforce planning, future skills needs and leader effectiveness and are designed to help the C-suite better evaluate enterprise risk and the likelihood of transformational success.
Despite these rising expectations, CEOs at high-performing companies are not increasing budgets, suggesting that what’s at issue “is not how much organizations invest in HR, but how they position the CHRO, and the HR function, to create value across the enterprise,” the report said.
The future CHRO is a “transformation driver at the center of business strategy,” a senior vice president at The Josh Bersin Company emphasized last December. Yet, while organizations are increasingly reliant on HR to guide the adoption of AI tools, skills, development and talent strategy, CHROs and the C-Suite often differ on where their role should go, according to a company report released at the same time.
CHROs have also expressed uncertainty about managing AI-driven change. Only 4% of U.S. CHROs in The Conference Board’s quarterly CHRO Confidence Index, released earlier this month, said they felt very prepared to manage the change over the next two years. Part of the uncertainty is due to AI’s potential impact on jobs and the broader workforce picture, and two-thirds of CHROs said they’ve brought AI tech or tech leaders into the discussion, the index found.
