Key Workday HR Trends 2023 [2: The New CHRO Mandate]

Editor’s Note: Thank you to our expert contributors, John Huckle, Matt Gregory, Jen Kuzmick, Mary Havern, and Laura Hume.   

It’s become standard protocol to talk about the transforming role of the CHRO. In fact, a quick article search on the term produces nearly 2.5 Million articles on the topic. Everyone from SHRM to Gartner to the NY Times (and even, interestingly, a human interest piece in Vogue Magazine) are heralding a new CHRO mandate in the digital age.

But, what does that actually mean? And why do Skillcentrix experts agree that core business mandates falling under the People team umbrella will continue to evolve – and even accelerate – in 2023?

As a company’s most valuable resource, its humans, the head of HR strategy has become increasingly more fundamental to driving overall business strategy. Once a tedious job used only for payroll and time schedules, HR has become the shepherds of every company’s core differentiator – the people that make it all happen.

But (as we mentioned in our previous Key Trends article) as Digital Transformation moves from an idea to a Business Department, the need to support the organization along that change management journey has grown proportionally. This era of social change and questioning has elevated functions like employee relations, comms, and corporate social responsibility, making them now vital to recruitment and retention goals.

In addition to Organizational Designer, Executive Coach, and Culture Creator, today’s CHRO needs to add an additional “Technologist”, “Skills Aficionado”, and “Social Change Driver” quiver to their own unique skill mix.

Here’s an overview of what Skillcentrix sees as the new evolutionary requirements for today’s CHRO.

Embrace HR Digital Transformation (and the value of your own personal HR tech vision)

While the “digital transformation” drumbeat can sometimes feel like an echo chamber, today’s business reality is a technology stack that can finally match our wildest strategic imagination (or expensive strategy decks). We can finally connect and unite data and workflows allowing us to make decisions, support our teams, and help shepherd careers, enhance skills – and ultimately help employees become happier in their jobs.

That’s right, folks, our “digital transformation: dreams have come true! Now, how do we humanize this, empower employees, and become a truly digital organization?

1. Talk Transformation to Your Team, Today

The downside of these AI and implementation advances? Not everyone got into Human Resources to map data endpoints or vet API limitations.

But it’s time to level up your tech vocabulary. To be effective as an HR leader today you need to be both curious about and conversant in the HR tech-verse so you can lead your team from the front. (We will dive a bit deeper into the intrinsic link between HR Tech and HR strategy in Key Trend  Four).

Perhaps more importantly than getting your own brain around our new transformational powers, it’s up to us to arm and guide our (largely change-fatigued) teams into the next “next.” Because the rate of change in business (and likely society) is only accelerating, and someone needs to galvanize our humans to embrace ongoing transformation.

In a recent interview, LinkedIn CEO, Ryan Rolansky, noted: “Be it because of Covid or digital transformation or looking at what’s going on in the AI space… Roles are being created and displaced at truly a record pace right now. Whatever your role, whatever your company, whatever your industry, you need to keep up with these really quick and big changes that are going on.”

Working at the pace of digital change will inevitably require employees to learn new skills and methodologies. This, in turn, requires HR teams to step up, to both set a technology vision to guide our teams into the future – as well as sell the value of continuous change to the broader org.

2. Connect to a Bigger “Why”

In our Predictions Part One, we briefly touched on what it takes for organizations to drive retention. Significant research backs up the premise that companies with Employee Staying power have people who feel connected to the corporate mission, and believe leadership is focused on wellness, stewardship, and diversity.

As people leaders, CHROs are certainly driving the charge toward corporate stewardship, embracing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the workplace.

Our experts believe this increased remit over the corporate conscience will also only accelerate; First because it’s the right thing to do. But further because building successful businesses fundamentally requires robust talent pools, a plurality of thinking, and disruptive innovation – especially in times of rapid technology acceleration.

Here are some stats:

• Lack of diversity in executive teams are 27% more likely to lose profits, according to McKinsey.
• A recent Harvard Business Review study, found that a full 90 per cent of employees would relinquish some portion of their life’s earnings for greater meaning at work.
• Requiring college degrees eliminates 76% of Black adults and 83% of Latino adults with the right skills for a position (Chief Executive: Talent over Credentials).

However, don’t expect “the business” to take your word for it, or intuitively know what to do with the above statistics. Embedding new corporate responsibilities enterprise-wide will require CHROs to make compelling business arguments that even the staunchest CFO can get behind (and, better, release some of the super double secret “special projects” budget to support.)

Creating a new culture, not one of “what’s in it for me” but “what’s in it for us” is by no means an easy vocation. But presenting new methods with proven data to improve our customers, employees, industries, and society is ultimately the way to promote future success.

Remember, every good message begins by speaking your audience’s unique lexicon. The more you can translate talent strategy into internal and external business outcomes, supported by data and demos, then mapped back to your broader goals, the more successfully your pitch will land.

In the case of Skills adoption, for example, tie the impact of finding the right skills or consistently retaining those with the wrong skills to concrete business outcomes, such as productivity, sales volume, or customer service scores.

In addition to sound strategy and executive sponsorship, driving key DE&I or ESG business initiatives requires a technology boost. Ensure your corporate goals are spotlighted in your analytics strategy, sourcing, skills, mobilization, and workflows to drive programmatic change.   The right data, tools, and strategies allow clear visibility into what’s working, allowing you to measure, plan and react to your progress.

Even better, in a time of budget pressures and questions around IT rationalization, new platform advances mean that a lot of the critical mandates CHROs are taking on, including Skills strategy, can be done leveraging the technology investments, such as Workday, you’ve already made. For example, think about:

• Leveraging the Skills Cloud across the Workday HCM platform
• Taking advantage of existing reporting capabilities such as VIBE Central, Discovery Boards, and tailored Candidate Grids
• Introducing modernized notification templates to your recruiting and onboarding processes.

More to come next time with Skillcentrix’s Trends Three and Four: Talent and Skills Strategies Emerge As Crucial Competitive Advantages, and Technology Helps Break Barriers In HR Strategy.