Mercer’s 2024 Voice of the CHRO Report | Mercer

The Chief HR Officer (CHRO) role is now among the top three fastest-growing C-suite positions, according to LinkedIn’s September 2024 Economic Graph Report. With this growth, CHROs are increasingly tasked with navigating complex workplace challenges, such as AI in the workplace and hybrid work strategies. Based on feedback from 183 global companies across 14 industries, this Mercer report offers perspectives on the key concerns, challenges, and opportunities facing CHROs. Among the insights, CHROs identified building leadership capabilities within their organizations as their top priority, ranking it first among their top three focus areas. Similarly, identifying and developing talent for critical succession roles emerged as a major risk. CHROs who see this as a significant risk also reported more frequent engagement with their Boards of Directors (BoD) compared to previous years, suggesting that this topic is gaining increased scrutiny from BoDs. With this in mind, I’m resharing a 14-page report by EY and Corporate Board Member, How Boards Can Champion a Resilient Talent Strategy, which provides insights into how BoDs are engaging in aspects of talent strategy. Returning to the Mercer report, page 15 outlines six actions that CHROs should consider as they navigate opportunities and challenges ahead.