This text was written by Doug Dennerline, CEO of Betterworks
If you happen to’re a Chief Human Assets or Chief Folks Officer, then you possibly can request to hitch a model new neighborhood I put collectively known as Future Of Work Leaders which focuses on the way forward for work and worker expertise. Be a part of leaders from Tractor Provide, Johnson & Johnson, Lego, Dow, Northrop Grumman and lots of others. We come collectively nearly every month and annually in-person to deal with large themes that transcend conventional HR.
Let me make a daring assertion: If you happen to’re a CEO and also you’re not deeply aligned together with your CHRO, you’re going to lose. You’re going to lose the race for expertise, the race for innovation, and in the end, the race for development. Not as a result of your technique was flawed or your product wasn’t sturdy sufficient,however as a result of your folks technique was disconnected from your online business technique and also you didn’t repair it quick sufficient.
All through my profession, I’ve watched too many organizations deal with HR like a service heart moderately than a strategic perform. That mindset is damaged. When CEOs and HR leaders align, efficiency transformation isn’t theoretical — it’s operational.
Alignment seems like HR bringing ahead not simply engagement knowledge, however insight-rich dashboards that reveal the place expertise is blocked, the place potential is hidden, and the place managers have to develop. It seems just like the CEO reviewing these insights weekly (not annually) and utilizing them to form enterprise technique.
Alignment seems like objectives that join the C-suite to the entrance line, suggestions that’s ongoing and actionable, and recognition that isn’t performative, however tied to actual efficiency. When HR and the CEO function as a unified power, you don’t simply create higher tradition — you unlock sooner execution. Higher selections. Stronger management at each stage. And a workforce that doesn’t simply present up, however can reply with agility as your group grows.
Alignment between HR and the C-suite is a development engine. Organizations that scale quickest are those the place HR will not be solely on the desk, however driving change, steering the tradition, and difficult management with exhausting truths backed by exhausting knowledge.
Your Folks Technique Is Your Enterprise Technique
Each CEO I do know is below strain to ship sooner outcomes with fewer assets. And now, market volatility and an unsure international enterprise setting compound that urgency. However right here’s the reality we don’t discuss sufficient: That strain cascades and it doesn’t simply land in your product or gross sales leaders. It lands in your folks. With a contemporary efficiency administration system, you additionally know who your prime performers are and might remember to nurture these relationships. In in the present day’s financial setting, you additionally know who your non-performers are and might take motion from there.
If you happen to’re not enabling efficiency with the identical rigor and urgency you apply to income development or market growth, you’re holding your online business again. Your CHRO needs to be your co-pilot in driving organizational agility. Not a compliance checkpoint, not an occasion planner, however a strategic architect of a high-performance tradition that may assist your online business carry out optimally in each enterprise situation. The one that can let you know whether or not your managers are literally main or simply surviving.
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This text is sponsored by Betterworks:
At EmpowerHR Europe 2025 hosted by Betterworks, prime HR innovators are coming collectively to discover the way forward for efficiency administration, breakthrough management methods, and the newest HR tech improvements. Try the action-packed agenda right here that includes a number of the brightest minds in HR.
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A Name to Motion for HR Leaders
If you happen to’re in HR, don’t look ahead to the CEO to come back knocking. Stroll into the room such as you personal the enterprise, since you do. You personal its future. Know your CEO’s prime priorities. Not what was on the board deck final quarter, however what’s holding them up at night time proper now? After which present how your folks technique accelerates these objectives.
Use the info. Betterworks clients, as an example, aren’t simply measuring efficiency. They’re connecting it to engagement, aim achievement, studying outcomes, and real-time suggestions. They’re surfacing hidden expertise and tying suggestions loops to enterprise objectives. That is the extent of perception CEOs are ravenous for and the extent of management HR should present.
Tradition Strikes on the Pace of Belief — And Fact
When leaders insulate themselves from suggestions, the enterprise slows down. We’ve all heard the story of the chief nobody dares to appropriate. The chief whose calendar is full of well mannered nodding and 0 pushback. That’s not management. That’s stagnation with a nook workplace.
At Betterworks, I depend on the folks round me to inform me after I’m fallacious. To problem my assumptions. To point out me the place the tradition wants work — even when it means calling out my very own blind spots. As a result of accountability, actual accountability, permits you to course-correct earlier than it’s too late.
If you happen to’re a CEO studying this, ask your self: Who in my firm has permission to push again on me and do they really use it? If not, you’ve constructed a tradition of concern, not suggestions.
The Future Belongs to Aligned Leaders
The perfect-performing organizations don’t simply have sturdy particular person leaders. They’ve aligned management groups the place HR and the CEO function as a united entrance. When your online business technique and folks technique transfer as one, the entire firm strikes with you.
These corporations make sooner selections as a result of they’re working from a shared understanding of expertise knowledge. They’re growing folks in actual time, not simply throughout an annual assessment cycle. They’re surfacing efficiency developments early, to allow them to double down on what’s working and intervene the place it’s not. They’re constructing belief and engagement with workers as a result of accountability isn’t a one-time occasion, it’s a cultural fixed.
It’s Time to Lead Collectively
Right here’s my problem to each CEO and CHRO studying this: Cease considering of alignment as a gathering. It’s a mindset. A shared obsession with unlocking potential, eradicating friction, and making work higher collectively. Tradition doesn’t scale from the underside up. It scales from the middle: when the CEO and HR are rowing in the identical path, powered by efficiency, fueled by suggestions, and unapologetically targeted on development.
