i4cp Chief HR Officer Board In-Person Meeting

Meeting Details

It was great to see so many of you last week in Scottsdale! Over 25 of you participated in-person or online.  Importantly, many relationships were either established or strengthened, discussions were numerous and insightful, and (for those who attended in-person) full advantage of the beautiful weather and venue at the Fairmont Princess resort was taken.  We hope all of you learned as much from each other as we learned from you.

Morning small group discussions: The day started (and ended) with small group discussions. Key themes that emerged from the morning group discussions included:

• Flexible work and return to office – how new ways of working and distributed work models can impact engagement and culture, and how to sustain both.
• Upskilling and the future of skills – how do we rethink jobs and roles, how do we rethink compensation when work and talent is fluid and not tied to a single job.
• The future of DE&I – what kind of metrics should we look at and how do we track progress.

The CHRO and the board: As the group came back together, our energy shifted to relationships and partnership with the board of directors.

• Educating the board – there was broad consensus that CHROs must contextualize the data they provide to the board (i.e., provide a sound narrative that goes with it – why it matters and what it means). CHROs also agree they must be more diligent in helping the board understand the difference between culture and human capital, and how they interrelate.
• Willingness to put your job on the line – strong sentiment was shared by several CHROs that one is not fit to assume the role of head of HR if they are not willing to be courageous (e.g., surface employee sentiment that could signal toxicity brewing within a business unit or among a segment of the workforce, despite the CEO wanting to hide that data).
• Building strong relationships with board members before situations like this arise is key so that if something does come up, you have credibility.

The future of work: Our first guest was Joe Fuller(opens in a new tab), professor at the Harvard Business School and the co-lead of Harvard’s Future of Work project. You can view the presentation recording above. Key points from that discussion include:

• On talent – “CEOs and Boards increasingly know that differentiation depends on the quality of their people”.  Also, “We are at risk of talent acquisition internally and externally becoming ‘too efficient’ and, as result, we are not seeing a lot of ‘hidden talent’ (e.g., older workers, military veterans, neuro-diverse, etc.)”.
• On interpreting data – “As humans, we make very sensible decisions on incomplete data”. Joe furthered that his research shows no correlation between employee engagement and turnover.
• On AI – “Routine work is going away. What’s left is non routine jobs that involve imperfect humans.” “AI should be an incredible boon to HR…e.g., reducing mismatches on skills”.

Ensuring HR and Business strategy alignment: Our next presenter was Kristen Robinson(opens in a new tab), former multi-time CHRO and current public company board member. She also recently joined i4cp as an advisor. She discussed board expectations with the group:

• You need a vision and some data – not just random numbers, or data points we “always show.” Kristen reinforced the importance of making the intangible (culture, brand, etc.), tangible for the board.
• She then challenged the group to think about, ‘Are you “doing strategy” versus being strategic?’.
• Kristen also shared how she’d prepare her top HR successor candidates to interact with the company’s board:  Involve them in how you prepare for a meeting with the board, meet with them after the board meeting to debrief them on what was discussed, and bring them into simulations or other executive meetings.

Afternoon small group discussions – Laughter, wine, and up-coming research (and not necessarily in that order) sums it up. Outside in the beautiful Scottsdale weather:

• Upcoming Research – We broke the in-person group into two groups of 10. They were charged with ideating on a study that i4cp could pursue that would get the attention of their CEO and board chair.  There was no shortage of ideas. Particular energy centered on AI and Work; the convergence of HR and ESG; how companies compete in a fluid labor market; and the CEO of tomorrow.  We will report back to this board soon with which ones i4cp will pursue.
• Laughter - Without question, this group knows how to have fun and enjoy each other’s company. Sharing each other’s stories – personal and professional – is one of the joys of working with this group. We could recount some of them here, but we will honor the cone of silence!