Twenty years ago, when Jack Welch was the CEO at GE, and also when Lou Gerstner was the CEO at IBM, he knew that people and culture were critical to his success. They both knew that their HR leader was the most valuable person within their organizations.
The same is true today in 2018, but what has changed is the function of the CHRO role, having evolved to meet the disruptive times we’re living in. At Bedford, we know that having the right person in charge of HR has never been so critical. When we partner with enlightened CEOs, they too know that success hinges on who they have leading human resources simply because the set of challenges facing the CHRO have never been so profound.
For example, cannabis has been legalized in Canada so a system for integrating it into the workplace must be created to align with the company’s core values and in respect to the law. The #metoo movement must be accounted for and supported from the highest level of leadership. And, most organizations also have multiple generations co-existing under one roof, talent shortages, succession planning to do and, of course, hyper-competitive markets where the next biggest competitor is always around the corner and ready to disrupt.
All of these challenges bottle squarely into the domain of the CHRO, and with all of them occurring at once, the person in the CHRO role is being tested to play a more strategic role in aligning human capital with business challenges. There are more, and more complex, challenges coming at the CHRO all at once than ever before.
It’s also worth mentioning how most boards of directors have elevated the priority of the CHRO to become mission-critical, even more than succession planning. Having somebody who can manage each of the tough human capital issues in equal measure and in tandem is now most urgent. If your existing CHRO is not having, at least, some visibility to the board on a regular basis, there is a good chance that you don’t have the best person in place.
This is where Bedfordcomes in, to partner with CEOs and map culture to help drive growth. We offer a unique consultative workshop that trains executive leaders how to map culture using a proprietary set of measurable indicators that ultimately prepare a defined action plan for the CHRO. We’ve always been recognized as an innovative firm but this workshop empowers a CEO to measure culture and leverage its power to become more competitive.
This workshop provides a process that can accelerate the performance of your organization, centred on culture and qualified by measurement. This workshop is not for latent companies. If you’re not ambitious, if you’re not somewhat dissatisfied with your current corporate culture, and if you don’t have that gene to be a champion CHRO, this isn’t for you.
However, if you want your employees to feel engaged and fulfilled and excited to go to work in the morning, we have a way to help get you there by measuring culture and moving your leadership forward with a plan.
If you are a CEO who needs to measure culture and an action plan for driving growth, please connect with me or call Bedford Consulting Group Inc. at 416-963-9000 to book a call.
Thank you for reading this story by Bedford Consulting Group Inc, written with insights from our partner group: Howard Pezim, Steven Pezim, Darren Raycroft, Frank Galati, and John Marshall. We are proud to be publishing original stories about our experiences in executive search, talent management, leadership, people and culture, human resources and more. Follow our channelto receive regular updates and business news from Bedford.