The CHRO Role is Limited. Make way for the CSHRO

CHROs are at last reporting that, after decades of trying to show value, they have now achieved the HR Holy Grail of having a Board table voice. (see 2023 TSG HR Operating Model Report https://lnkd.in/eBDikgBU)

That’s great and long overdue…but it could be short-lived.

The business operating model is changing as well as the HR operating model. We are living through a technology tooling era that was once science fiction & HR needs to stay ahead of the in-workflow technology game or it will be pushed back out of the Boardroom.

It’s time for the rise of the Super-Human Resources function!

If HR don’t immediately grab the huge strategic opportunity of owning the plan for increased cognitive/knowledge support for the people in the operation and the integration of AI with the workflow, then responsibility will naturally be absorbed by the COO domain.

The COO’s approach is usually to focus on automation to replace people and that leaves HR with a diminishing relevance and relegation back to the “reports to” role of the past.

A few decades ago, when a legendary department, known as “Personnel” roamed freely in something called “the office”, people imagined a time of robots and super-humans that had harnessed technology to overcome human limitations (anyone remember Steve Austin, the Bionic Man?). Well, that is yesterday’s news — the future is here, AI has started augmenting human performance and it’s looking for a Board representative.

Michael Eggleston at Nokia Bell Labs even identified this (way back in 2020) as a new era of human evolution, in which Homo Sapiens is being superseded by Homo Augmentus (see Introducing Homo Augmentus).

Humans are increasingly integrating personalised AI and machine support, a trend recently accelerated by openly available Generative AI. That doesn’t make people less important, it makes them super-human.

CHROs need to harness the real power of AI (and robotics) which is the augmentation of human strengths (such as creativity, passion, innovation, empathy, strategic vision, desire for progress).

To remain strategic, the board level HR leader has to broaden their scope to include the integration of machines with people. To plan and enhance the cognitive processes and transactions of people, using the power of machines. To provide the tools and training that enable people to deliver super-human results.

The era of the Chief Super-Human Officer is right here, right now.