In most of the organizations that are global, it is very hard to find a single CEO that has a background in the human resources function, or a CHRO being promoted to the royal position of the chief executive officer of the company.
Every now and then you do encounter news that claim that a CHRO has become a CEO but it is rare and even the fact that it becomes news is a wakeup call for people in the human resources function. This points towards one thing only: that HR people are generally not considered for the top role.
The biggest slice of the pie for this envied position is taken by people in the financial function or the operations of the business. But what needs to be changed so that the top HR guy should also be considered for this role?
Let’s dive into how HR has been perceived throughout the little known modern history of corporations. HR professionals are deemed those people who know how to rally people, hire them, train them, maintain them.
The qualifications needed for these positions are a masters in human resources or at most a certification in HR. A certification in the human resources can be online as well. These HR people would then take the reins of the “people factor” of the organization and start whipping up the organizational horses – read people – to attain organizational goals.
HR people are mostly interested in the functions of hiring, training, compensating, rewarding and firing people, they rarely take a strong interest in the financial aspect of the organization, they have almost zero level interest in quarterly balance or profit and loss sheet of the organization. Most of the organizations view HR as cost centers rather than a profit center.
To make an impact in this area of the HR profession, we need to essentially start at the root of the problem, this begins from the day people enroll in a university or an institution to gain a degree or a certification in HR. The outline of the syllabus does not deal with financial matters or even touches on aspects of accounting or hardcore business operations.
One can argue that why should a degree in human resources or a certification in HR be loaded with aspects of business, but this is mandatory, because HR people are dealing with the most delicate aspect of any business: humans. Humans are unpredictable and difficult to manage, there is no ideal or direct way to handle any situation or a set of standards like in accounting (GAAP) that you can follow and you will not be wrong.
A more recent trend (half a decade ago) that cropped up was the label of HR business partner where organizational vultures tried to connect HR with the business aspect but this strategy fell flat on its face because HR professionals were somehow able to twist the partnering aspect in some ways that it again was limited only to the human resources function.
The human resources leader can benefit if institutions make core business functions as the main part of their learning syllabus or online HR certification courses make it part of their course outline.
For example, Accounting, Marketing, Financial Management should be made core areas of HR syllabus, whereas the same kind of knowledge that CEO deals with on a daily basis such as reading Accounting books, developing operating strategy, reducing business costs should be made a core outline for online HR certifications.
For instance, a leading HR certification portal, HRAcademia has incorporated this factor in their advanced HR course that how by focusing on core HR concepts business goals and objectives can be aligned with revenue streams and targets. This is how they are enabling the HR to function as a leader in comparison to other courses that are still focused on traditional HR role such as recruitment or compensation.
Similarly, when a person is starting out in his human resources career, he should be introduced to financial tools such as spreadsheets and also should be keen on aspects of number crunching or statistical data whenever possible.
The HR person should even during his interview ask questions related to areas such as sales, revenue and profitability of the company, once the HR person starts moving up the ranks he she should focus on how they can impact the bottom line and should have strong and realistic involvement in the strategic business goals of the organization.
If the HR person remains cooped up in their HR dens and does not venture out in the heat of the organization to impact policies that affect customers, sales, business operations and marketing, there is almost a zero chance of becoming a CEO of the organization.
Finally, the most important thing a CHRO or a leader in HR can do is to start acting like a CEO. During meetings, he should have sales, units, customers and other financial data in hand and be well versed with how these things connect not only with the human resources function but how other functions can contribute as well.
The HR leader should have a sound idea of how operations, sales or marketing department can improve and he should have some concrete ideas and suggestions that can be implemented, participating actively in business strategy devoid of HR and signaling to the board or the top guns that you mean business and not only human resources can be the easiest and simplest way to the top. But this is only possible if you have a strong academic background in accounting, finance and business function.
You can always cover the business function by taking a keen interest in your organization’s business model and learning the same, however targeted and technical online HR certification courses such as accounting, finances are something that you have to study over time if you have not already read about them.
This brings us back to the start of this topic that it is high time that HR institutions that issue HR certifications and human resources degrees should consider adding these business courses as core courses with a strong emphasis on them being cleared with good numbers.
In conclusion, the HR leader can become a CEO of any organization but the reality is also that this function is perceived as a support function because that is how the past and current HR fraternity has dealt with it.
HR people can become CEOs only if they venture out of the HR department and start a holistic journey in ensuring that they are pervasive throughout the organization.
