The leading-edge CHRO: The future of the people function is here

What is the future of the CHRO?

N2Growth conducted a global study on the present and future of the CHRO role between March and November 2025. The work draws on more than 10,000 data points, interviews with over 100 CHROs, and a survey of 35 of the leading 40 CHROs identified in our analysis.

In this report you’ll find:

This report is for

Boards and CEOs
who want to understand the future of the HR function, support current CHROs, and, when the time comes, hire the right CHRO for their organization.

Current and aspiring CHROs
who want to understand the future of the HR function, how to prepare for it, what skills to develop, and what priorities to set.

The CHRO’s transformation from administrative manager to core business partner is accelerating

Why?

1. The increasing role of people and culture strategy in determining business outcomes
2. Rising skill obsolescence and scarce-skill costs
3. Escalating geopolitical uncertainty
4. The effects of AI 5. The fast changing future of the people function itself
5. The fast changing future of the people function itself

Five disruption drivers: cone of possible futures (2025 → 2030)

The cone shows possible low-, medium-, and high-disruption futures for each of the five drivers—light orange for high disruption at the edges, dark orange for low in the center.

The lines are not forecasts, but a set of scenarios for CHROs to monitor.

What do boards, CEOs, and CHROs need, and what should they be doing?

Board members and CEOs need CHROs who can advise on how people, culture, and technology will drive enterprise value, translating those insights into real time decisions about strategy, growth, risk, and execution.

CTOs/CIOs, CFOs and other C-suite officers need CHROs who can advise on the workforce and capability implications of technology and AI decisions, the P&L and ROI impact of people and culture investments, and the talent, leadership, and change dynamics underpinning the delivery of enterprise wide transformations.

CHROs need business acumen at levels historically expected of CEO succession candidates, a strong point of view on people and culture, and the capacity to lead in an environment of increasing technological and geopolitical uncertainty.

3 actions for boards & CEOs

1. Hire and develop CHROs with cross-functional, P&L, and AI fluency, not just HR tenure, and be deliberate in weighing the tradeoffs between internal versus external appointments.
2. Expect the CHRO to be a core business leader: seek their involvement in setting strategy, not just in downstream execution.
3. Give the CHRO a clear mandate and resourcing to lead people, culture, and change management initiatives, including succession planning, workforce development strategy, and enterprise wide AI enablement.

3 actions for CHROs & aspiring CHROs

1. Deliberately build enterprise, P&L, and technology fluency through close collaboration with business unit leaders and the finance, product, revenue, and technology functions.
2. Re-architect the HR function into a strategic engine: build a star team and foster shared understanding across the C-suite of how HR efficacy directly creates essential business results.
3. Act as the organization’s chief futurist for work: partner closely with the board and CEO to ask and answer big questions on broad workforce possibilities, identify and magnify core values and abilities to lead through uncertainty, and protect time for scenario planning.