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CHROs to the Rescue
Back to Top
PERSPECTIVES
CHROS TO THE RESCUE
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MAY 4, 2021
The pandemic and the purpose movement triggered urgency among CEOs to get the
right CHRO in place—even if it means going outside their industry. Our panel
discussion with some of the very top CHROs in the field.
Home
1. Insights
2. Perspectives
CONTRIBUTORS
Doug Charles
President, Americas and Global Consumer President
Torrey N. Foster, Jr.
Vice Chairman, Consumer Markets, CEO & Board Services & Managing Partner, North
American Consumer Markets
Daniel Rubin
Senior Client Partner
Sheila O'Grady
Senior Client Partner, Consumer
Christian Hasenoehrl
Senior Client Partner
George Atkinson
Senior Client Partner
Tom Wrobleski
Global Account Leader, Consumer, Co-leader, Supply Chain Talent Optimization
ONCE IS AN ANOMALY. TWICE IS A COINCIDENCE. THREE TIMES IS A TREND.
A half dozen times or more, however, is the making of a paradigm shift—and
that’s what the recruitment of chief human resources officers is currently
undergoing.
Over the last year, several of the biggest and most recognizable companies in
the world have appointed new CHROs who have limited experience in their new
industries. While it’s tempting to dismiss the pattern as no big deal—to a
degree, HR skills are industry agnostic, right?—the reality is that it is a very
big deal. It isn’t common, after all, to see a CHRO move from aerospace and
defense to restaurants or from a software company to a retailer. Against the
backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and the purpose movement, the surprising new
model not only reinforces the elevated importance of the CHRO function in the
minds of CEOs and boards. It also opens up previously blocked pathways for
C-suite talent to move into the CHRO position and from it to other operational
roles, including, perhaps, CEO.
In his view, Doug Charles, president of Korn Ferry’s Americas region and global
consumer operations, says the pandemic pushed and stretched the demands on CHROs
in a way never before seen. “With so much on the line, CHROs showed their
strategic and tactical agility,” says Charles. “Organizations that didn’t have
the right executive in the role were exposed.”
Certainly, the CHRO role has evolved greatly as organizations push for more
digital transformations, cultural makeovers, and other business shifts.
COVID-19, of course, has only increased that pressure. “CEOs need that
combination of prior experience and a fresh set of eyes in their CHRO to help
them anticipate, adapt, and adopt talent strategies to changes in their
industry,” says Torrey Foster, vice chairman and managing partner of Korn
Ferry’s Consumer Markets practice in North America. Even more prized, he says,
is a track record of using data and analytics to train, deploy, and build a
pipeline of leadership talent from the inside.
But what do the actual CHROs who have just joined top firms have to say about
all that’s happening? To get some answers, we spoke with the CHROs of four of
the biggest names— McDonald’s, PepsiCo, Tyson Foods, and Walmart. They all were
appointed between 2018 and 2020 and came to their new industries with limited
prior experience or following a prolonged absence. The following are excerpts
from our conversations.
OUR PANEL
WHAT’S BEHIND THE TREND OF ORGANIZATIONS RECRUITING OUTSIDE CHROS WITH LIMITED
EXPERIENCE IN THEIR INDUSTRY?
Heidi Capozzi: I think there are a couple of dynamics at play. One is that
current sitting CHROs demographically tend to skew older, so there are more
retirement-eligible folks that could be impacting demand versus supply. Another
is CEO turnover: as new CEOs seek to build their own people and culture agenda,
there’s a personal element to whom they pick as CHRO. Certainly, it’s someone
who shares their values and brings expertise in the areas that support their
future vision.
Ronald Schellekens: The CEO-CHRO relationship has definitely been elevated,
particularly in light of the pandemic. There’s a new and greater recognition
among CEOs, executive committees, and boards of the complexity and impact of the
CHRO role. We are an integral part of the business and are expected to have an
opinion and provide guidance on every part of it.
Donna Morris: I’m thrilled this trend is happening. It’s great to see so many
talented CHROs transitioning into new roles and sharing their wealth of
experience across industries. This allows for a fresh set of eyes and a
different filter to question processes and systems. For Walmart, for instance,
my two decades of experience in technology allows me to look at issues through a
new lens.
Johanna Söderström: Talent is increasingly being recognized as driving the
transformation agenda. As a result, the CHRO role is now viewed as a
transformation and growth role, and strategically minded CHROs who have built
people agendas to help solve business issues and provided a competitive
advantage are in demand.
WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO SWITCH INDUSTRIES?
Morris: Walmart is an amazing company, and I knew it would offer the opportunity
to make an incredible impact, which was so important for me. And that has
absolutely been the case over this past year. The role Walmart has played to
make an impact on its associates, customers, and communities around the world is
second to none. While I’m proud of my 18 years at Adobe, growing the company
from 3,200 employees to 25,000, and actively recruiting many senior leaders, I
am excited to have this opportunity to learn about a new industry and make
positive contributions to a strong company. Walmart is also a company in an
industry I resonate with, bringing together my passions for both people and
digital.
Söderström: While food is certainly different than chemicals, there are
similarities between Tyson and Dow that made it easy to switch industries. Both
are manufacturing companies with massive production facilities. Both have two
distinct employee cohorts—frontline workers and office employees—with different
HR needs and experiences. Both are global players. I felt Tyson was a great fit
for me to use my skills and experience to help the organization achieve what it
has set out to accomplish with its people agenda.
DOWNLOAD THE PDF
*
It’s great to see so many talented CHROs transitioning into new roles
and sharing their wealth of experience across industries
— Donna Morris, Walmart
WHAT ADVICE DO YOU HAVE FOR CHROS WHO COME INTO AN INDUSTRY THAT THEY HAVE BEEN
OUT OF FOR A WHILE OR ARE UNFAMILIAR WITH?
Capozzi: It’s one thing to bring great HR subject-matter expertise to the table,
but you have to understand the industry and business to apply that expertise in
the most relevant and effective way. Anyone considering a move should have a
curiosity for the new and be very intentional about their onboarding. One of the
first things I did when I got to McDonald’s was don a uniform and get trained up
to be a crew member at one of our restaurants in Chicago. I spent over a week
there making Big Mac sandwiches, working the register and the drive-thru line,
cleaning up. I talked to restaurant crew and got to see the day-to-day inner
workings of the business.
Schellekens: You definitely need to get a sense of the uniqueness and rhythm of
the business. The worst thing you can do is copy and paste a previous HR
strategy and system to a new organization. Even though this was my second stint
at PepsiCo, I had been out of the company for 16 years and had never worked in
the US, so I went in very consciously saying this was like joining a new company
and not the same one I left. If I used old experiences and visions of the past
to interpret what PepsiCo is now, I’d set myself up for failure. The same goes
for anyone entering a new industry. You need to be clear about your past
experience while appreciating the uniqueness, culture, and needs of the new role
and business. You may think you recognize patterns based on previous experience
and rush into action faster than you should. My advice is that slightly slower
and right is better than quick and wrong.
Morris: Sector matters less than cultural fit. You need to understand who you
are going to work for and with. How receptive the organization and its leaders
are to change directly relates to how successful you will be able to integrate
and bring forward ideas. To be successful, CHROs need to develop partnerships
and interpersonal connections; and if you don’t understand how you will work
together with other leaders in advance, it could be a derailer.
Söderström: That’s part of the challenge: balancing cultural fit with your
mandate. It takes a certain amount of sensitivity and emotional intelligence to
understand what the culture is enabling and hindering while also driving the
changes the company hired you to make. They did hire you for your specific
background and expertise. You need to understand how to use the organization and
its leaders to enable change and bring people along.
THE ROAD LESS TRAVELED
The pandemic, remote work, and purpose elevated CHROs’ visibility and importance
to business success. As the resumes of the four CHROs highlighted in this piece
show, the progression also created a paradigm shift whereby organizations are
increasingly willing to go outside their industry to get the right executive for
the role.
THIS IS A UNIQUE TIME PERIOD, OF COURSE—THE PANDEMIC, REMOTE WORK, AND DIVERSITY
AND INCLUSION ISSUES. ALL OF YOUR NEW COMPANIES HAVE ESSENTIAL AND FRONTLINE
WORKERS. HOW DID THEY HELP SHAPE YOUR APPROACH TO HEALTH, SAFETY, AND MENTAL AND
EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING LAST YEAR?
Schellekens: PepsiCo is a company that is very visible in our communities. More
than 230,000 of our 290,000 associates go out to our factories, warehouses, and
stores every day, and throughout the pandemic, they have continued to serve our
consumers and communities when they needed us most. Our frontline workers are
our heroes, and we realized very early on that we had to do everything possible
to keep them healthy and safe. We also realized they have different needs than
our office workers due to the nature of their jobs. So we focused on ensuring
proper social distancing in all of our facilities and the distribution of PPE
[personal protective equipment], including donating PPE to fellow frontline
workers around the world. We also expanded benefits for associates who were
diagnosed with COVID-19 or had to care for a sick family member. And because we
know our associates thrive when our communities thrive, we also worked with The
PepsiCo Foundation to provide over 145 million meals to hungry families impacted
by COVID-19, with a special focus on providing nutritious meals for students who
usually get meals through school.
As we were doing all of this to protect our frontline workers and communities
from the pandemic, we also faced a reckoning on racial inequality. After some of
the horrific incidents we witnessed in 2020, we stepped up our dialogue with our
associates and our employee resource groups, and we realized we needed to do a
better job of listening to them. There was real hurt, pain, and anger, but also
a lot of constructive dialogue. Out of these conversations came our Racial
Equality Journey, a more than $500 million commitment to our Black and Hispanic
associates and communities. This initiative has three pillars: people, business,
and communities. When it comes to people, we are focusing on increasing Black
and Hispanic representation at PepsiCo through recruitment, education,
internships, and apprenticeships. When it comes to business, we are leveraging
our scale and influence across our suppliers and strategic partners to increase
Black and Hispanic representation and elevate diverse voices. For communities,
we’re working to drive long-term change by addressing systemic barriers to
economic opportunity, with tools like scholarships for community-college
graduates to help them earn four-year degrees. We still have a lot of work to
do, but this initiative is something I’m very proud of.
Capozzi: At McDonald’s, there are over 2 million individuals who work under the
Arches, most of them working in restaurants. Having the opportunity to work in
the restaurant during the pandemic really allowed me to walk in their shoes. It
gives a different lens to the work you are doing. We also did a lot of
listening. In appreciation of our crew during the pandemic, many franchisees
offered enhanced compensation programs, including bonuses. Last year, we
provided additional employee assistance and emotional support counseling
sessions for employees in our corporate-owned restaurants in the US, and later
in the year, we piloted a program that offered expanded access to backup
eldercare and childcare.
We’ve also talked over the last year about transparency and accountability
around DEI [diversity, equity, and inclusion]. We took an important step forward
this year as we incorporated a human capital metric—inclusive of driving our
values, increasing representation of women and underrepresented groups in
leadership, and strengthening our culture of inclusion—into the incentive
program for our senior executives.
Morris: What our 2.2 million frontline associates did last year for the company,
our customers, and our communities was heroic and unprecedented. I am absolutely
blown away by the impactful and meaningful work that happened across our
business. Our goal as a company is always to support our greatest asset, which
is our people. We did that last year by launching a COVID-19 leave policy that
the New York Times called “a standard for the rest of the private sector.” We
paid out $2.8 billion in cash bonuses to frontline workers as a form of
gratitude. We pledged $100 million over five years to a new Center for Racial
Equality, and established four associate-led, shared value networks focused on
the US criminal justice, education, financial, and healthcare systems to address
racial equality. All of those things happened because of what we saw and learned
from our frontline workers last year.
Söderström: The health and safety of our frontline workers has been our top
priority, and we’ve made significant progress. We’ve invested hundreds of
millions of dollars to transform our facilities with protective measures. We
hired our first-ever chief medical officer, who reports to me since health and
safety oversight has become part of my role. We’ve also added 200 nurses and
administrative staff, have been vaccinating thousands of team members, and are
piloting several free health clinics this year for employees and their families.
In addition, we remain focused on creating career development opportunities for
our frontline workers, launching an on-site program called Upward Pathways that
provides free training and certificate courses. We also pledged $5 million to
five different organizations chosen by our team members that are committed to
advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion.
INITIATIVES LIKE THESE THAT RESULTED FROM THE PANDEMIC HELPED THRUST CHROS INTO
THE PUBLIC SPOTLIGHT LAST YEAR. GIVEN THAT THE ISSUES OF REMOTE WORK, D&I, AND
EMPLOYEE WELL-BEING AREN’T GOING AWAY, HOW DOES BEING MORE VISIBLE CREATE
OPPORTUNITIES TO ELEVATE THE ROLE?
Söderström: Last year, our team gave more news media interviews than any other
function in the company, as we shared the steps we’ve been taking to protect our
team members during the pandemic and what we’re doing to promote a culture of
well-being and build a healthier workforce. People and purpose are now on the
table in a way they never were before, and they elevate everything a company
takes on because of the impact they have on communities.
Capozzi: The fact that our position is more public is an opportunity. Now,
everyone is listening. It’s a chance for us all to step up and make more
progress and a greater difference. We need to use this time to innovate around
how to connect people and ideas better, particularly inside our own departments,
because we can then fan that out to the rest of the organization and the wider
CHRO community.
One of the first things I did when I got to McDonald’s was don a uniform and get
trained up to be a crew member at one of our restaurants in Chicago.
— Heidi Capozzi, McDonald’s
IT’S INTERESTING THAT YOU MENTION THE WIDER CHRO COMMUNITY. ONE OF THE THINGS
WE’VE HEARD FROM OTHER FUNCTIONAL ROLES DURING THE PANDEMIC IS HOW MUCH EVEN
COMPETITORS RELIED ON EACH OTHER FOR SUPPORT, TO SHARE BEST PRACTICES, AND JUST
CONNECT WITH EACH OTHER. WAS THAT THE CASE FOR CHROS AS WELL?
Schellekens: Absolutely. Certainly for me and my fellow CHROs at IBM and
MasterCard. We are all in the same vicinity, so it was like helping out your
neighbor. We all consulted with each other on things like office reopening
playbooks. We wanted to help each other out. Institutions like Gartner and HR
executive networks also quickly linked the various CHROs together to share best
practices.
Söderström: Same thing with Donna and me. We both started our new jobs within
months of each other. So we both were newly relocated to Arkansas, in new jobs
in new industries, amid the pandemic. It has been great to have a CHRO network
to bounce things off and learn together.
Morris: Johanna and I had a prior connection from sitting on the board of the
Society of Human Resource Management as well. It was fortunate to be able to
connect a few times to compare notes on what we were going through, for sure. As
a member of the HR50, we’ve also had subgroups sharing best practices.
Accenture, under the leadership of Ellyn Shook, has been so generous with that,
for instance. I think the pandemic has absolutely strengthened the CHRO
community— we all had a common focus on the well-being of our workforce.
Capozzi: In this job, you often face new challenges, difficult decisions, and
issues that can’t be discussed with just anyone. Having a network of CHROs to
call on for advice has been incredibly helpful. This was true before the
pandemic, and it certainly was a source of support during the pandemic. Even as
it relates to switching industries, I know I’ve turned to CHROs in the
restaurant and retail business who have been very open to sharing best
practices.
Last year, our team gave more news media interviews than any other function in
the company.
— Johanna Söderström, Tyson Foods
GETTING BACK TO THE POSITION BEING MORE VISIBLE, IT’S NO SECRET THAT CHROS HAVE
ONE OF THE SHORTEST AVERAGE C-SUITE TENURES, DOWN TO A CURRENT AVERAGE OF 3.7
YEARS FROM 5 YEARS IN 2016. CHROS ALSO RANK AT THE LOW END OF C-SUITE POSITIONS
IN TERMS OF SUCCESSION PLANNING. HOW MUCH DO THOSE TWO DATA POINTS PLAY INTO THE
SWITCHING INDUSTRIES TREND AND ORGANIZATIONS TRYING TO UPGRADE OR REALIGN THE
POSITION WITH BUSINESS OBJECTIVES?
Morris: On the tenure topic, I’m actually not sure given the pace of change that
it’s a good idea to have a CHRO in the job for more than a decade. I question
how objective someone who has been in the seat that long can be when they built
everything. If the role is a catalyst for change, that becomes hard when you are
in a fixed position. I’m not sure four years is right, but I’m not sure 10 or 18
years, like I put in at Adobe, is right anymore either. Given the global demands
of the role now, I’m not surprised though that an average tour of duty is three
to five years.
Capozzi: On the succession side of the equation, we spend a lot of time helping
other leaders plan succession pipelines for their functional areas. In reality,
CHRO succession should be a model for how it is done in other positions. We
should be using ourselves to experiment and pilot ideas to improve succession
management.
Schellekens: There’s no question that boards and CEOs are turning to CHROs to
help them drive the business agenda. And if they don’t have the right person in
the role to do that, they are going to go out and get the right person, which
plays into the tenure and succession issues. No matter the industry, certain
aspects of the role are always transferable. What companies are looking for are
CHROs who can establish deliverables around an organization and people agenda to
meet their business priorities.
The worst thing you can do is copy and paste an old HR strategy and system to a
new organization.
— Ronald Schellekens, PepsiCo
CHROS HAVEN’T HISTORICALLY BEEN CONSIDERED POTENTIAL CEO SUCCESSOR CANDIDATES,
PARTLY BECAUSE OF THE LACK OF OPERATIONAL AND P&L RESPONSIBILITY. BUT IF THE
ISSUES OF THE LAST YEAR AREN’T GOING AWAY, AND IF CHROS ARE BEING HELD
ACCOUNTABLE FOR DELIVERING ON A BUSINESS AGENDA, THEN DOES THAT MEAN THERE COULD
BE A PATH TO THE CEO POSITION FOR CHROS?
Söderström: I could see a path opening up sometime in the future depending on
your career path and experience. We are at a point in time where CHROs are
expected to step up and lead in a broader space than before. With purpose,
culture, strategy, and other people agenda topics becoming part of everyday
C-suite conversations, CHROs are core business enablers and value creators.
Schellekens: Although HR is more integrated with the business and plays a much
larger role, I don’t think we are quite at that point yet. I think there’s a
value to moving HR executives into operating roles so that they can understand
other elements of the business and to be on the receiving end of HR policies and
practices and see what has an impact and what doesn’t. But when it comes to most
CEO roles, it’s critical to have a deep understanding of the consumer and how to
run end-to-end businesses at scale.
Morris: I’ll put it this way, the function has a lot of runway to make a
sustainable impact on an organization, whether as CHROs or in another leadership
position.
*****
For more information, contact:
Doug Charles: doug.charles@kornferry..com
Torrey Foster: torrey.foster@kornferry.com
Daniel Rubin: daniel.rubin@kornferry.com
Sheila O'Grady: sheila.ogrady@kornferry.com
Thomas Wrobleski: tom.wrobleski@kornferry.com
Christian Hasenoehrl: christian.hasenoehrl@kornferry.com
George Atkinson: george.atkinson@kornferry.com
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RELATED INSIGHTS
* Perspectives
REIMAGINING GIRL SCOUTS OF THE FUTURE
New CEO Sofia Chang, Girl Scouts’ first Asian-American leader in its
110-year-old history, spoke to Korn Ferry about her vision for reimagining
the organization to reach the female leaders of tomorrow.
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* Perspectives
ARE COACHES UNDERVALUED?
An unprecedented boom in corporate-coaching services risks commoditizing a
key asset: coaches. Our experts on how to prioritize a fast-growing need.
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* Perspectives
THE 5 CONSTANTS OF CHANGE
Leaders don’t know what kind of disruption is coming next — but they know
it’s coming. Our experts discuss five mindsets that can help manage
continuous change.
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* Perspectives
THE 'CLIMATE CHANGE' DIRECTOR
Companies—and their boards—may soon be required to assess the effects of the
changing environment on their business. But where will the expertise come
from?
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