Calling, Chief People Officer

By Emmanuel Christi Das, Editor, siliconindia  |  Friday, 08 July 2022, 19:31 IST

Calling, Chief People Officer
The HR profession is in its Golden Age, and the chief people officer (CPO) is at the helm.
The role of the CPO is to direct the organisation in developing and implementing the talent strategies and work options required to support future business growth. Technology and automation are relieving HR leaders of more administrative and process-related work. This role is becoming more and more important as workplace technology and innovation advance; in the future, the strength and power of an organization's human capital will be what separates success from failure.
Let's examine the Chief People Officer's rapidly evolving role and to identify significant, emerging trends and practical insights that will advance the position, profession, and function. To address pressing people issues that have an impact on a company's bottom line and to unlock the opportunities in the new workplace, organisations need strong, visionary HR leadership. Moving past outdated HR models is essential because the cost of doing nothing could be disastrous for the business. 
The CPO of the future must adopt an ambidextrous mindset to drive strategic business initiatives in the C-suite while continuing to deliver flawlessly on administrative and operational tasks. There is a new urgency to get the people equation right or risk adverse business consequences.
This calls for letting go of ingrained beliefs and habits that hinder the HR function's efficiency and performance.
HR leaders must be committed to evolving in order to fulfil this mandate and guarantee that the company keeps its competitive edge, but they cannot do this on their own. To transform the work of HR and fundamentally reframe expectations for the CPO role, this also necessitates the same dedication from their C-suite peers, the CEO, and the board.
There is a strong consensus that CPOs will require different skill sets and experiences than they do now.
According to survey results, 94 percent of all senior business leaders, including CPOs (95 percent), CEOs (93 percent), board of directors members (92 percent), and other C-suite members (94 percent), believe it is crucial to consider ways to hasten the development of the HR executive of the future.
To meet the challenges of the new workplace, CPOs must specifically improve in three key areas: data science, learning and reskilling, and digital business acumen.
However, only about a third (35%) of participants think that aspiring CPOs are receiving the necessary training. The chief people officer and other business leaders will be able to create rigorous and creative human capital solutions with the help of the following five crucial imperatives, which highlight the essential abilities, perspectives, and behaviours.
  1. Push the envelope to boost organisational agility. The HR leader is crucial in fostering agility both inside the HR function and throughout the entire organisation. To do this, however, calls for flexibility on the side of the HR executive, who must continue to support HR's crucial operational operations while also serving as the architect of new and improved business initiatives crucial to the organization's future.
  2. Let digitization run wild. As organisations use digital technology to increase business value, CPOs must have the digital business acumen to comprehend how technical talents fit in the workplace and how to deploy people most effectively.
  3. Support ongoing job innovation. Work will be continuously reinvented as a result of the introduction of new working practises and employment options, some of which may involve automation.The CPO organises the numerous new options for accomplishing tasks and chooses how to most effectively blend human talent and automation.
  4. Reconsider leadership and culture. It takes an inclusive culture that goes beyond traditional organisational boundaries to attract and retain a global, multigenerational workforce that may include free agents and alliance partners so that all talent feels invested in a shared mission and purpose.
  5. Improve HR decision-making. Decision science and analytics enable HR leaders to move from anecdotal to evidence-based thinking, which is crucial for having an impact as business executives. This can be done in a variety of ways, from predicting talent shortages to enhancing the talent experience to making better business cases in the boardroom.
An immediate and comprehensive call to action for the CPO and other senior executives in their organisations can be found in these five pivot points. This call to action offers HR leaders the chance to forge a new course as they give priority to growth opportunities and train the following generation of CPOs to run the company in the future.

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