A sense of insecurity is surrounding the role of a Chief Human Resources Officer. There have been many debates in the recent times regarding the eliminable position of a Chief Human Resources officer & assigning the same duties to the finance department.
The controversy around the CHRO position
There is a stratum of people who believe that the Human Resources Management function should be absorbed into the financial sphere of a business as, apparently, HR is not strategically driven or completely business oriented. This fact was more evident when writers like David McCann tried to pull everyone’s attention to this issue by suggesting that finance should take over human resources, in the CFO magazine.
Furthermore, he is not the only person who is propagating this change as a similar thought was advocated by Ram Charon, an organizational consultant. As per Charon’s article in the Harvard Business Review, the CHRO position should be removed out of the business setting, in general, and the task regarding compensation & benefits should be undertaken by the finance division. And the function relating to enhancing employee skills should be carried out under the supervisions of the CEO by high performing individuals who possess excellent people skills and belong to operations or finance.
Seen as the by-product of the great recession, it is still not clear that until when other functions such as finance will overpower the position of Chief Human Resources Officer.
Chief Human Resources officer – Regaining prominence
Now, things are falling back in place for the CHRO as not everyone has forgotten about the eminent work human resources professionals have been doing, over the years.
CHROs belonging to disparate educational backgrounds like finance & accounting might have an expertise in their subjects but that is, perhaps, not enough to justify the position of a chief human resources officer.
A supporter of this school of thought, Mark Oppenheimer, Chief Commercial and Innovation Officer with Marlin Hawk, puts forward a point that a CHRO’s role concerns itself with understanding the psychology of the employees to align their goals with that of the organization. And someone can only do that effectively if he or she possesses some hardcore social along with cultural skills which get developed after years of experience in dealing with people’s issue’s & that’s precisely what human resources professions do.
The CHRO role revolves around developing the human capital of a firm and one can perform that role if they have an empathetic side to their persona and a strategic thinking to shape plans for enhancing the talent of each employee, regardless of his or her position.
Though a chief marketing officer or a chief operating officer can expand their role in an organization by multi-tasking, however, it is not advisable to do so because to perform the crucial responsibilities of a CHRO, a professional is required to have the educational background and work experience associated with human skills. Especially, when HR professionals of today not only possess people skills but also the knowledge to create a business strategy.