The line between business and people decisions is blurring. These five shifts illustrate how the CPO role is adapting to meet that challenge with confidence and commercial acumen.
The role of the Chief People Officer (CPO) is evolving rapidly. Once centred on compliance and workforce operations, the role is now broader, more strategic and more deeply embedded in whole-of-business leadership.
This shift reflects a broader reality: in today’s dynamic business environment, people decisions are inseparable from business decisions. Whether it’s workforce planning, AI integration or navigating change, people and culture sit at the heart of organisational performance and resilience.
What does this mean for current and aspiring CPOs? Conversations with senior executives across sectors highlight five key developments reshaping the expectations and impact of HR leaders.
1. Shaping strategy, not just supporting it
Modern CPOs don’t merely align people plans with business strategy – they actively shape it. From advising on operating models to influencing board-level decisions, CPOs are contributing to critical choices about how organisations grow and adapt.
In many businesses, HR has played a pivotal role in guiding restructures, responding to market shifts and embedding capability planning into commercial decision-making. The ability to link people strategies with financial, risk and operational outcomes is now essential.
Those who demonstrate commercial fluency and strategic judgement are not just securing their ‘seat at the table’ – they are helping define what the table looks like.
2. Embracing the extended workforce
Workforce planning is no longer limited to permanent employees. Today’s organisations rely on a mix of employees, contractors, partners, platforms and automation. Managing this complexity is becoming a core part of the CPO’s role.
This broader ecosystem requires a shift in thinking. It’s less about headcount, and more about capability, cohesion and accountability across a fluid workforce. Indeed, Deloitte’s 2025 Global Human Capital Trends report highlights that over half of workers anticipate shifting between employment models across their careers, with organisations adapting in response.
CPOs who lead well in this environment are rethinking workforce architecture and considering how learning, engagement and inclusion translate across the full spectrum of contributors. Success relies on a systems mindset and the ability to balance flexibility with fairness.
3. Designing culture that scales
In an environment that is increasingly distributed, hybrid and fast-moving, culture needs to be intentional and scalable. It’s not just about values; it’s about the systems, behaviours and decisions that reinforce those values every day.
CPOs must design culture as a living, operational framework. In growth organisations, this means embedding cultural markers into hiring, onboarding and performance systems. In others, it involves using transformation as a catalyst to reset expectations and drive alignment.
When done well, culture becomes not just a differentiator but a driver of performance and cohesion at scale. Indeed, research from McKinsey shows that companies with strong cultural health significantly outperform peers, not just in engagement, but in shareholder returns.
“CPOs who thrive in this context are fluent across domains. They bring a people lens to business challenges, and a business mindset to people strategy.”
4. Leading through complexity
CPOs are playing a leading role in helping organisations manage uncertainty and competing priorities. Whether it’s restructuring, hybrid work or embedding inclusion and wellbeing, the trade-offs are real.
In complex environments, such as those navigating transformation, industrial change or heightened stakeholder scrutiny, CPOs are helping leaders pace delivery, engage effectively and respond with clarity. The emphasis is shifting from controlling outcomes to enabling adaptability.
This capacity to sequence change and maintain trust is becoming a defining leadership capability.
5. Connecting people, performance and the business
CPOs are now expected to influence well beyond the HR function. Their remit includes linking people decisions to business results, helping shape transformation programs and participating in enterprise planning and governance.
In some organisations, HR leaders are co-designing workforce investment plans with finance. In others, they’re leading metrics conversations that track workforce impact alongside customer and financial outcomes.
CPOs who thrive in this context are fluent across domains. They bring a people lens to business challenges, and a business mindset to people strategy.
Evolving role, evolving capability
These changes aren’t simply a case of HR doing more. They reflect a redefinition of the CPO’s mandate, and a broadening of the skills required to lead.
Today’s CPO must balance strategic insight with operational depth. They must communicate clearly, think systemically and engage confidently with business peers. Influence, adaptability and trust are key – not only to lead the people and culture function, but to shape the direction of the organisation.
Recognising this evolution matters. It affects how CPO roles are scoped, how success is measured and how internal teams are structured to support them.
As culture, capability and strategy become more interconnected, the CPO is no longer just a steward of the people function. They are a strategist, connector and co-leader of organisational performance.
Dr Alistair Clark MAHRI is a Principal at Odgers Berndtson, a global executive search and leadership advisory firm. He leads the firm’s Human Resources Practice in Australia and advises organisations on the appointment and development of Chief People Officers and senior HR leaders. He is a member of AHRI.
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