Santrupt Misra, who left Hindustan Unilever to join Aditya Birla Group in 1996, became a close partner of the chairman, Kumar Mangalam Birla, working on organization and restructuring and developing P&L managers. She is overhauling the HR pipeline to bring in other people with business experience. Mary Anne Elliott, the CHRO of Marsh, had had several managerial roles outside HR. Conaty weighed in on key promotions and succession planning, working hand in glove with Welch in a sweeping overhaul of the company.

The celebrated former CHRO of GE, Bill Conaty, was a plant manager before Jack Welch brought him into HR. They don’t know how key decisions are made, and they have great difficulty analyzing why people-or whole parts of the organization-aren’t meeting the business’s performance goals.Īmong the few CHROs who do know, I almost always find a common distinguishing quality: They have worked in line operations-such as sales, services, or manufacturing-or in finance. What they can’t do very well is relate HR to real-world business needs. They are focused on internal matters such as engagement, empowerment, and managing cultural issues.

Most of them are process-oriented generalists who have expertise in personnel benefits, compensation, and labor relations. They would like to be able to use their chief human resource officers (CHROs) the way they use their CFOs-as sounding boards and trusted partners-and rely on their skills in linking people and numbers to diagnose weaknesses and strengths in the organization, find the right fit between employees and jobs, and advise on the talent implications of the company’s strategy.īut it’s a rare CHRO who can serve in such an active role. I talk with CEOs across the globe who are disappointed in their HR people. It’s time to say good-bye to the Department of Human Resources.

Recruitment separate from hr