Why Are so Few CHROs Promoted to CEO?

A few weeks ago I had the chance to attend my first DisruptHR-Tampa event and left quite impressed. I had the opportunity to listen to many knowledgeable speakers and one that really impacted me was John Wilson CEO @ WilsonHCG . John offered some interesting statics and reasons why so few CHROs become CEOs within Fortune 500 companies.  Having sold into HR over the past 20+ years and currently selling a new HR technology solution into HR, this information was eye opening and I decided to explore further.

What does it take to become a CEO? Is it all about your pedigree? Do you have a better shot if you attended a school with an elite MBA program? Or is it all about who you know?

It turns out that none of these are correct. While they can help, they aren’t necessary and generally aren’t predictive of future career performance.

According to the CEO Genome Project, a ten-year study that gathered data on 17,000 CEOs and closely analyzed 2,600 of them for specific characteristics, the most predictive factor in reaching CEO is taking big risks.

Imagine for a moment that you were interested in watching a good movie on TV one evening, so you posted on social media for suggestions. You’re likely to get good ideas from your friends. They have an incentive, because of your existing relationship, to want to help you. But you aren’t likely to hear from people you don’t know that well.

How Referral Recruitment Can Help Find Your Next, Quality Hire

Hiring can be expensive and time-consuming. Whether you’re paying per click or paying per post, if you’re not getting the results you’re after, you’re wasting a lot of money. And if you’re pouring through listing after listing on multiple job boards, you’re spending far too much time for poor quality results.

Employment as we know it is undergoing a massive shift right now. Large numbers of people are abandoning the standard work week world of working for “40 hour per week company” jobs for the freedom of the new freelance world. This new employment landscape, the gig economy, is transforming our relationship with our jobs.

Human resources often gets a bad wrap, and is accused of being an unorganized and chaotic part of the corporate machine. While for many HR professionals the saying, “those who live in glass houses…” comes to mind when faced with these accusations, we do have to take some responsibility for the shred of truth that exists here. Many HR organizations across the board are not performing at tiptop shape for one reason or another. It falls to those sitting in the driver's seat to identify and address some of the hot-button problems currently out there.

Getting to the point where your decisions are as valuable as other verticals in the business is the first obstacle, but once you've obtained that seat -- now it's time to hold onto it. Human resources isn't a profit-generating business unit, but it certainly saves the company just as much in hiring expenses and other related costs. 

Human resources and recruiting professionals have been pushed to the brink to develop strategies which simultaneously improve employer brand, streamline recruiting and onboarding, all while on a shoestring budget. Amidst this daunting challenge one glowing solution has arisen, employee referrals. After all, what do you do when you have limited HR staff and resources? Make everyone in the organization a recruiter! Not to mention the potential offset of recruiting costs that happens when you make quick effective hires. With this in mind, we began to wonder who in the marketplace is doing this better than others.