Reflections of HRDs Internationally

In mid 2021, with the help of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in the UK (CIPD), and the Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI), I asked Human Resource Directors for their views on the question What do you know now that you would have benefitted from knowing before you became an HRD? The short survey was also posted via my own extensive Linked In and other social media. The stimulus for the survey was the Aspiring HRD programme, now running for the CIPD for several years, in which senior HR functional heads are linked in a mentoring relationship with highly experienced HRDs. The literature, both academic and lay, on this transition is very thin, so we set out to start to fill the gap and potentially to stimulate further research.

A total of 55 people responded, from 17 countries, mostly in Europe and Asia-Pacific. The picture that emerges suggests that the transition is difficult, sometimes traumatic and complex. Among the major challenges is lack of awareness by other directors of what HR does and how it adds value. Newly appointed HR directors may have to work harder to demonstrate their right to be at the boardroom table — although trying too hard may be counterproductive.

This article distils their collective wisdom into the following recurrent topics.

• What it means to be a director and to think like a director
• Breadth of responsibility and knowledge of the business overall
• Roles relating to other directors
• How HR directors add value
• Educating the organisation
• Politics
• Connectedness
• Doing less to achieve more
• Coaching and coaching culture
• Work-life balance