HR leaders say increased board interest in talent strategy is a pain point. They should view it as an opportunity.

During the holidays, you have to interact with relatives you’d rather avoid. During the course of business, CHROs have to interact with leaders they’d rather avoid.

At least, that’s the case for some HR leaders and their company’s board members.

Great power, great responsibilities. The CHRO’s C-suite clout has risen in recent years thanks to the challenges brought on by and following the pandemic. Their role has been extra critical in 2025: 79% of the 300 director-level or higher HR leaders surveyed by executive search firm DSG Global and Harris Poll said the CHRO role is rising in importance at their organization, amid the increasingly complex political and business environment.

“The CHRO role is not only evolving, but it’s also expanding in terms of its mandate,” Aileen Alexander, DSG Global’s CEO, told HR Brew. “The role itself is at a critical inflection point, just given the demand set, and some of that’s due to the macro environment in which we’re operating in, both geopolitically as well as economically. It’s a complex business environment.”

At the same time, HR leaders reported headaches dealing with their company’s board. Nearly two-thirds (61%) of respondents believe their corporate board has too much power over their talent strategy. Another 51% said their board’s expanded role in talent strategy is a major pain point for their organization.

Getting on board. HR leaders should view the board’s interest in talent strategy as an opportunity to strengthen their relationships with its members, Alexander said. Many of the top challenges cited by HR leaders in the survey—including succession planning, talent strategy, and AI’s impact on workflows—are also priorities for board members.

“I look at it less from a pain point and more as an opportunity and a signal send from the boardroom that what the CHRO has within their purview…is a strategic imperative for the business and from a governance perspective as well,” Alexander said.

Other research has found an increased interest in human capital issues at the board level, as well as expanded CHRO-board relationships. A November 2024 survey of more than 500 board directors conducted by WTW and Directors & Boards Magazine identified leadership and succession development, talent attraction and retention, and workforce planning and skilling for the future as respondents’ top three human capital-related issues. Yet, just one-third of respondents agreed that their companies have robust processes of identifying, assessing, and monitoring human capital-associated risks.

“Boards believe there is room for improvement in how their role of human capital governance is carried out,” the survey authors wrote.

Separately, an April 2025 survey from The Conference Board found that nearly seven in ten respondents said CHROs had become moderately to significantly more engaged with their corporate board over the prior three years. Nearly six in ten said that CHROs attend most or every full board meeting at their company.

Alexander said that there has been “much more interaction” between CHROs and boards in the last five years, “but there can always continue to be more.” She recommended HR executives prioritize creating more proactive relationships with board members. And, for boards, she also recommended they consider placing a CHRO when the next board seat opens up.

“I’ve been involved in conversations just looking at board governance broadly, and this topic is coming up,” she said about HR-related issues. “Having that experience, that insight, that expertise, would be value-add in a board.”