CHRO Report

The Chief HR Officer must coordinate various ongoing efforts to manage an organization’s most important resources—its employees. The survey responses show that human resources departments are focused mainly on talent development and retention in the next 12 months, with almost 80% naming it a top priority in the near future. This focus area was followed by recruiting and hiring for 63% of respondents, and benefits and compensation for 43%. The data indicate that while talent development and retention is a main priority for HR executives, companies are also largely focused on the practice of recruiting and hiring top talent.

CHROs surveyed named a lack of access to budgetary resources (31%) and outdated HR technology infrastructure (25%) as the greatest impediments to the HR department’s progress. Lack of qualified candidates to meet hiring needs (17%) provides some context as to why CHROs are focused heavily on recruiting and developing talent in the near future. Other impediments to the HR function included a talent gap within the HR department (15%) and, to a much lesser degree, uncertainty regarding global politics (2%).