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There is a ton of movement in the CHRO space. The demand for CHROs has never been hotter, and the number of top HR folks changing roles is at an all-time high.
If you just moved to a new company, you have some distinct advantages that will help you supersize your impact quickly. You may be thinking, “But I’m in a new role. I need time to assess the organization.” Well, yes and no.
It’s true that understanding the business, knowing how the People Practice is viewed, and getting to know the needs of your peer executives will be key for your future success.
But you have the knowledge and capability to have success NOW, too. You can make an impact on some of the most pressing problems the company is facing. How? Because you dealt with these issues at your last company.
You already know some of the People priorities before you walk in the door
- Diverse support needs across all breeds of work: remote, hybrid, in office
- An exhausted and burned out workforce
- Extremely competitive labor market
- Significant portions of the workforce absent due to their own illness or that of a dependent
- Never-ending deliberations on the company’s stance on vaccine status and in-person meetings
- Knock-on business effects of the pandemic, like supply chain squeezes, inflation, workforce illness
What you do next can help your company take a leap ahead on some of these issues. And, while it may seem premature, you can more effectively impact your new company’s ability to deliver to their customer, investors, and Wall Street if you choose to address these issues early in your tenure.
You have advantages as a newly hired CHRO
Your Mandate: New CHROs typically are hired for a particular reason by the CEO. Some examples include shifting the culture, plugging a gap, or reviving the People Practice’s reputation and impact. Whatever the CEO’s reason, your mandate affords you a lot of air cover.
Your CEO (and the Board, if they were part of your hiring process) want you to be successful. They want to lean into your success in the first six months because they believe in you. As a strong champion, your CEO can help you implement significant strategic interventions in the first year, just by being supportive.
This does not mean, of course, that you can ignore your executive peers and just push everything through. It does mean, however, that you have an advantage as a newly hired executive. You likely won’t have that next year.
If you have the budget, don’t wait to spend it: You can use your budget early to build momentum. Your ROI can be realized faster, and potentially be larger, if you apply your budget quickly to the items that you know need to be addressed. This gives you a running start on making the organizational impact you envision.
Take advantage of your beginner’s mindset: You bring fresh eyes. You have a unique perspective. That allows you to think of new ways and capabilities to get things done. You aren’t ingrained in the status quo yet.
Bringing in innovation and new capabilities is a great way to motivate and inspire your incumbent team. They likely want to achieve more within the organization but have been hampered by any number of barriers, including staffing levels, change-resistant leaders, and legacy processes.
You can show your team what is possible by bringing innovative new capabilities to the company at scale while, at the same time, you make progress on your goals more quickly. For those on your team “stuck in their old ways,” showing decisive action and quick wins will send a clear message that it is time to be bolder, more disruptive, and more impactful.
How do you move forward?
You already know what can be done immediately, so do it! So, while you assess your team and the organization, look for opportunities. What can you do to push forward the strategic agenda? What can you do to achieve your CEO’s intent more quickly?
Address the key issues you know exist and have the greatest impact on the business, like:
- Leadership capability in change management, employee engagement, etc.
- Improving agility throughout the organization
- Workforce burnout
- Retention
Augment your team
Look for partners that can help you augment your team's impact in key areas. Picking a quality vendor will allow you to move quickly with a high-quality implementation while your team members can develop skills in program development and partner management.
Make sure that your team is learning from these partners along the way.
BetterUp can help
We specialize in driving organizational success through the transformation of your people. We have a variety of products and coaching services that allow you to:
- Build effective leadership through expert coaching and other methodologies
- Address people development issues through precision development at scale
- Improve mental wellness, agility, and resiliency through multiple modalities centered on the Whole Person™
- Provide you with data to monitor progress in real-time and make adjustments as needed
Our implementation processes let you get on with the real work of your strategic interventions without having to spend a lot of time administering them.
Our customer results speak for themselves
We are extremely proud of our partnership with customers and work hard to provide value today and in the future. We have the data to prove it:
- NPS of 71
- Renewal rates greater than 90%
- 2x increase in Productivity
- 76% increase in Coaching Culture
- 63% increase in Intent to Stay
- 77% increase in Cognitive Agility
If you want to know more about what we can do for you, learn more and request a demo today. We would love to hear more and share how personalized support can help.
This article was co-authored by investor, lecturer, and BetterUp advisor, Michael Ross, and Britt Sellin, Executive Advisor BetterUp.
