Getting a Head Start in Your New CHRO Role

Ask for feedback to unlock your leadership potential:

You’ll likely have already received feedback during the rigorous assessment process to win the top job. However, that’s only one piece of the puzzle – you also need to align with your CEO around a common understanding of your leadership strengths and development areas. Leadership advisors can help facilitate these alignment conversations via informal discussions or more structured assessments (for example, RRA’s Leadership Portrait model). Creating this alignment allows you to start your new position knowing where to focus, develop a plan to fill any existing gaps, and allows for ample time to reflect on actioning development recommendations in a sustainable way.

Deepen your understanding of HR’s “brand” within the organization:

In addition to keeping up to date with the latest industry trends and competitor intelligence, taking the time to understand how HR is perceived in your new organization will pay dividends. Find one-to-one time with each of the “core” HR functions and pick the brains of HR business partners, who are often closer to the business than those in more specific HR verticals.

Additionally, lean on outside resources with a strategic perspective on the organization; external consultants and leadership advisors with a healthy detachment from the company’s day-to-day will have a different point of view from those living and breathing its HR function. Several interviewees shared that they arranged trainings on their front-line workers’ experiences, so as to better understand their workforce’s responsibilities and what they deal with every day. These perspectives will help inform your assessment of the current HR function, its key stakeholders, and how it contributes to (and is viewed by) the organization.

Finally, have a direct discussion with your CEO to ensure alignment around their vision for the HR function. Get crystal clear on their expectations for you, and how the two of you will work together to lead the organization’s workforce.

Start building your relationships with the CEO, C-suite, and board:

It’s never too early to start building relationships with senior stakeholders. This helps you understand the business and its challenges, while also raising your profile and building both your confidence and their confidence in you.

Your top priority should be establishing trust with your CEO, as many in the top job find the CHRO to be a useful confidant. Additionally, learning the board’s views around talent is key. Consider establishing a regular touchpoint with your talent and compensation board member.

If you don’t have existing connections with important internal stakeholders, lean on other executives, board members, or leadership consultants to make introductions. Understanding these personalities and dynamics will be critical to your success in the new role, and engaging early gives you more time to understand the stakeholder landscape.

Build a trusted external network:

While other functions may lean on you, confide in you, or even rage at you, HR leaders cannot do the same to others. That can leave those new-in-role feeling lonely, and many interviewees commented on the self-reliance HR leadership requires.

“For me, the biggest change was that I needed my own network,” noted one CHRO interviewee. “I needed places to go where I could be vulnerable, because it’s so difficult in this job to say, ‘I don’t know,’ or have a trusted conversation with a boss. When you’re in the number two role, that support infrastructure is there for you. But when you step up, you need to proactively build it on your own.”

To counteract this, invest in building community with other CHROs. This can be achieved through topical industry events or formalized mentoring programs with seasoned CHROs. Consider how additional board roles could play a part in building your personal network. 

Embark on a listening tour:

Prepare to rack up the airmiles: almost all of the CHROs we spoke with went on an in-person “listening tour” across the regions and functions for which they are responsible. Meeting face-to-face builds trust, helps you to better understand the culture, and, as one CHRO put it, humanizes you and “shows you’re not ‘big bad HR.’”

Our interviewees stressed the importance of just listening, rather than talking. Hearing multiple perspectives enables you to triangulate different points of view and assess perceptions around what HR is (and isn’t) good at. It’ll also enable you to really get to know the business, the culture, and how HR can add strategic value; seven of our 21 interviewees said that understanding the business and building relationships was their top priority when starting their new role (Figure 2).

Assess your team’s strengths and weaknesses:

“I don’t have the time to run HR like I used to,” observed one CHRO, referring to how much the top job has broadened in recent years. A CHRO needs a strong team leading each of the key pillars on their team – with today’s volatile environment, it’s not possible for you to carry any weak links.

“If you walk into an organization and your ‘next level’ is not where it should be, you’ve got burnout coming,” warned another CHRO. “You need to make sure that the next level is up to speed and gives you a strong safety net.”

To avoid this outcome, quickly determine which areas need changing, where you can nurture and develop talent, and who your rising stars are. Many interviewees listed “assessing and restructuring HR team” as their top priority when stepping into the role, and even more named this as their second priority (Figure 2). They emphasized the importance of team members who can manage and integrate the different HR functions effectively, who can be trusted to nurture crucial relationships, and who can be entrusted to be cultural stewards within the organization.

Sell your vision and celebrate quick wins:

Having connected with key stakeholders and heard multiple perspectives, outline your plan in a way that engages people.

“Dazzle the board,” said one CHRO. “Be really clear about your focus areas. Tell a cogent story about the initial state of the business, what progress you’ve made, and your future goals. Leverage data, but don’t let it overwhelm. It’s about clarity and building confidence.”

Use these opportunities to demonstrate how HR can support and enhance the business’s strategic priorities, while also pointing to quick wins that make immediate business impact. We heard from a CHRO whose rapidly growing company’s lack of HR basics needed addressing; another spoke of restructuring all-hands meetings and internal communications for visible, immediate impact; another advised shutting down existing initiatives that aren’t delivering tangible value.

Figure 2: Top priorities for new-in-role CHROs

_{Source: RRA proprietary CHRO interviews, 2024, n = 21.}

Maintain a laser focus on what only the CHRO can do:

CHROs today spend the bulk of their time outside the “core” HR remit. “I spend at most 20% of my time in my own function,” said one CHRO. “I spend the rest of my time with the CEO, the board, and the rest of the C-suite.”

As CHRO, you will handle the most sensitive issues your organization deals with: succession planning, including for the CEO; executive compensation; hiring or managing out other leaders in crucial positions; long-term workforce planning; interacting with the board; and managing relationships with potential for power struggles at the very highest levels. As CHRO, you are uniquely positioned to build consensus and mediate through conflict by remaining independent and keeping the organization’s best interests at the forefront.

Build your team around what you need to achieve:

With so much on your plate, you need to ensure the team beneath you can take care of running the HR function. By this point, you’ll know your priorities and what the organization needs from your team, and whether you need to restructure or change reporting lines. Ensure you have the talent you need to help you achieve the areas of focus—whether that’s a culture shift or a talent reboot—and don’t be afraid to make changes. If you sense that you need to make several changes, one CHRO offered the following advice: “Figure out where you can afford not to have the very best talent versus the areas where you absolutely need top performers. Act fast and be very, very selective when hiring, especially for those key areas.”

Make changes to your team sooner rather than later:

If you feel that there’s tension or things aren’t working with members of your team, it’s better to act quickly and decisively. Many CHROs told us that, when they stalled for the perfect moment to have tough conversations, they regretted waiting so long. Most (76%) of the CHROs interviewed recommended that new-in-role CHROs make changes within their team in the first six months of their tenure (Figure 3).

Figure 3: CHROs agree on making changes to the team quickly—16 of 21 CHROs advise doing so in the first 6 months

_{Source: RRA proprietary CHRO interviews, 2024, n = 21.}

Embed data-driven decision-making into succession processes:

CHROs can demonstrate their value by bringing objective assessment tools and frameworks to succession conversations. You have expertise that your peers and senior stakeholders are unlikely to have, meaning you can establish yourself as someone who brings expert insights, facilitates communication, and builds consensus and trust between those with differing views.

Become a trusted advisor:

Use your first year to build trust with your senior stakeholders—and, most importantly, your CEO—by providing honest, insightful counsel. This includes having candid conversations, being brave enough to address issues directly, and using data and experience to advise others. All of this will build your credibility as a strategic partner and an essential facilitator of communication that makes the entire leadership team work better together.

Regularly communicate and measure the impact of your initiatives:

Ensure you establish a regular communication cadence with the CEO, C-suite, and board. In these conversations, demonstrate the impact of your work and how it aligns with the business strategy. Whenever possible, link it to financial performance, external benchmarks, or other metrics to measure the value of HR. Avoid using HR jargon; use plain speech that connects with other executive leaders.

Ensuring you get the airtime you need can be tough. One CHRO described pushing back when the board overran on other topics, saying directly, “I’m not going to cover the people strategy in five minutes – it’s too important.” Pointing to HR’s strategic impact helps tell your story, and makes it harder to dismiss as unimportant.