The business world has changed rapidly in recent years—thanks, in part, to the widespread adoption of remote work and the volatility of the labor market. As a result, the CHRO job has changed dramatically, and so has the process of filling it. Like Goldilocks, recruiters are realizing it’s harder to find the one that’s “just right.”

Talent strategy challenges have brought remote work, the labor market, and culture into boardroom discussions unlike ever before. As a result, directors and CEOs have become more involved in the CHRO hiring process. Staffing firm executives told HR Brew that this shift is not unprecedented.

“If you think back to the financial crisis of 2008, finance had their Sarbanes-Oxley moment,” Steve Patscot, who leads Spencer Stuart’s North American HR practice, said. “I’d say 2020 was the HR [role-defining] moment…so many of these ‘gray zone’ issues—culture, talent, compensation, retention—they’re all coming back to HR.”

Because the skill set required of CHROs has evolved so quickly, the process of recruiting for the role has changed, as well.

Top-level involvement. One of the biggest changes to CHRO searches has been the seniority of leaders involved and the amount of time they dedicate to it. In the past, most CEOs were not involved until the end of the process, Dan Kaplan, senior client partner for Korn Ferry’s CHRO practice, said. Today, “We don’t really let [that] happen.”

Board directors have become much more involved, too, due to the new dynamic they share with the CHRO. HR leaders used to meet with the board on a quarterly basis for a “data dump,” Kaplan said. Now, he added, “There is an expectation that the board and the CHRO are going to be in a regular cadence of communication…so, we’re now seeing much greater involvement of board members.” Keep reading here.—AK

Do you work in HR or have information about your HR department we should know? Email [email protected] or DM @AmanfromCT on Twitter. For completely confidential conversations, ask Aman for his number on Signal.

Disabled Americans are employed at higher rates than ever before, and according to a new survey by disability nonprofit Kessler Foundation and the University of New Hampshire Center for Research on Disability, employers have made significant changes in recent years to be more inclusive of workers with disabilities.

Companies’ embrace of remote and flexible work and prioritization of hiring more disabled workers have contributed to the progress, but disabled people still face higher rates of unemployment and workplace discrimination than their non-disabled peers, and experts say HR leaders need to address this within their organizations.

By the numbers. The study gauged supervisors’ and senior managers’ sentiment and efforts around hiring disabled workers, and compared them with data collected the last time this survey was conducted, in 2017. It found that US-based employers now have a greater commitment to employing disabled people and accommodating them in the workplace than they did in 2017. Some 32% of supervisors said hiring people with disabilities was “very” important, up 10% from five years ago, and nearly half of respondents said it’s at least “somewhat” important.

Remote work flexibility. The most significant finding from this year’s survey was the surge in remote work options, with 84% of respondents saying they now allow employees to work remotely some or most of the time. In 2017, so few employers reported allowing remote work that John O’Neill, director at the Center for Employment and Disability Research and a co-author of the study, told HR Brew that he and his colleagues didn’t publish the numbers.

A recent analysis by public policy organization the Economic Innovation Group (EIG) identified remote work as one of the major factors improving the disabled employment rate. Keep reading here.—KP

Do you work in HR or have information about your HR department we should know? Email [email protected] or DM @Kris10Parisi on Twitter. For completely confidential conversations, ask Kristen for her number on Signal.

Welcome to our regular HR advice column, Ask a Resourceful Human. Here to answer all of your burning questions is Erin Grau, the co-founder and COO of Charter, a media and services company that aims to transform the workplace. Erin has over 15 years of experience at the intersection of talent and operations in global organizations and startups, including the New York Times and Away. You can sign up for the free Charter newsletter about the future of work here.

If you’ve been reading the economic tea leaves, chances are you’ve been preparing your organization to weather an economic downturn for some time. Is maintaining employee morale part of your plan? It should be. But how can HR keep employees’ spirits up amid economic uncertainty?

Layoffs, wage freezes, and hiring slowdowns can hurt employee morale and productivity, not to mention HR departments’ ability to retain and support them. The good news is that many of the high-impact levers you can pull to keep employees’ spirits up are virtually free.

Build a culture of trust and transparency. Some 65% of US executives who responded to a survey by PwC said they’re focused on developing or refining their trust strategy with stakeholders, including employees. Ensure it extends to your corporate culture by:

• Making sure leaders follow through and that their words and actions line up.
• Listening to employees, turning their feedback into actions, and sharing the actions and results.
• Talking about what’s working—and what’s not.

Connect to purpose. The Covid-19 pandemic led nearly two-thirds of US workers to reflect on their purpose in life, according to a 2021 McKinsey survey. As 70% of respondents said their sense of purpose is defined by their job, managers have an important role to play in helping employees find—and live—their purpose. Keep reading here.—EG

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Today’s top HR reads.

Stat: 63% of employers have dedicated “little to no” resources to DE&I efforts. (SHRM)

Quote: “We have a nurse staffing crisis, and we need a whole-of-government response to address this public health crisis.”—Katie Boston-Leary, director of nursing programs at the American Nursing Association, on the healthcare worker shortage (CNN)

Read: Railroad workers are again threatening to strike as they fight for better sick time under their new contract. (the New York Times)

Learn: Since you might not have time to interview incredible industry pros everyday, we did it for you. With our newest series, we asked leaders about their approach to leadership. Sign up to get their insights here.

Study buddy: Become an effective HR business partner with a Master’s in Human Resources Management from Georgetown. Attend their virtual sample class on November 15.*

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