From CHRO to CPCO:
The new Strategic Force at C‑level

Where is the role of HR respon­si­bil­i­ty at C‑level head­ing? What qual­i­ties and skills will be in demand in the future? And who are the most impor­tant partners?

With these topics, we contin­ue our series on polymath­ic lead­er­ship in prac­tice in this Lead­er­ship­Im­pulse feature. The future demands a new, broad­er under­stand­ing of roles that is often diffi­cult to recon­cile with the clas­sic profile of the Chief Human Resources Offi­cer or CHRO: the Chief People & Culture Offi­cer, or CPCO for short, stands for a holis­tic, strate­gic approach that empow­ers the compa­ny for the work­ing world of the future and thus also helps to secure its existence.

After the pandem­ic: every­thing will be different

Under the impact of the pandem­ic, a Deloitte study¹published in 2022 describes the changes that the work of the CHRO is like­ly to under­go in the future: it will become “more demand­ing and influ­en­tial” and require more strate­gic deci­sions and close coor­di­na­tion with the CEO and C‑level colleagues. In addi­tion, there are a number of areas in which the CHRO should be able to navi­gate confi­dent­ly and play a forma­tive role in the future:

• Start­ing with the formu­la­tion of an employ­er value propo­si­tion, it is impor­tant to define a strate­gic frame­work that describes the compa­ny’s purpose and culture and trans­lates it into prac­tice – as central elements for attract­ing and retain­ing employees.
• Close­ly linked to this is the grow­ing desire of employ­ees to feel that their person­al contri­bu­tion is mean­ing­ful. Here, too, the CHRO is called upon to create the neces­sary condi­tions at a strate­gic level: such a purpose only becomes cred­i­ble and thus effec­tive if it can be expe­ri­enced in real life.
• Anoth­er step away from the bene­fit-orient­ed concept of “human resources” towards a “people & culture” self-image is mind­ful­ness for issues of phys­i­cal and mental health of the people in the company.
• Due to tech­no­log­i­cal change, upskilling and reskilling are becom­ing increas­ing­ly impor­tant elements of a sustain­able people strategy.
• Younger employ­ees in partic­u­lar are increas­ing­ly valu­ing respon­si­ble behav­iour on the part of their employ­er in terms of envi­ron­men­tal and social aspects, both inter­nal­ly and exter­nal­ly. In this area in partic­u­lar, ideas can also come from the work­force itself. The CHRO can take on the role of medi­a­tor, for exam­ple by coor­di­nat­ing with colleagues from the sustain­abil­i­ty and commu­ni­ca­tions depart­ments and the CEO and work­ing with them to create the neces­sary frame­work conditions.

The new role: keep­ing an eye on the big picture

For sever­al years now, it has been appar­ent that in future, CHROs and CPCOs will no longer be respon­si­ble for a clear­ly defined admin­is­tra­tive silo. In the same vein, a follow-up study²  from 2025 empha­sis­es how much the tasks and respon­si­bil­i­ties of HR manage­ment today also encom­pass “tech­nol­o­gy, strat­e­gy and corpo­rate growth”.

This brings two key features of the new role into focus: a poly­math­ic expan­sion of one’s own knowl­edge and skills in order to act as a compe­tent deci­sion-maker in vari­ous subject areas. And increased collab­o­ra­tion in “dynam­ic, compe­tence-based networks (…) that must be flex­i­ble in their approach depend­ing on the issue at hand,” as a recent Kien­baum gover­nance study³also describes.

Above all, strate­gic think­ing and coor­di­na­tion with all rele­vant stake­hold­ers are among the basic skills of future CPCOs. This is confirmed not least by the skills sought in job adver­tise­ments for this posi­tion in 2025: expe­ri­ence in busi­ness manage­ment (64%), busi­ness oper­a­tions (54%) and busi­ness strat­e­gy (49%)²was in demand.

Where “People & Culture” is head­ing: Outlook for 2035

A recent study⁴  by the consult­ing firm Robert Half takes a look at the future of the C‑suite. Based on the assess­ments of board members and deci­sion-makers from the finan­cial world, it paints a detailed profile of the CPCO in 2035.

In 2035, a CPCO should not only be profi­cient in trans­for­ma­tion process­es and crisis manage­ment; exper­tise in social poli­cy and digi­tal tech­nol­o­gy is also expect­ed. In order to imple­ment changes inter­nal­ly and commu­ni­cate them exter­nal­ly, knowl­edge of change manage­ment, corpo­rate social respon­si­bil­i­ty (CSR) and ESG compli­ance is neces­sary. Other require­ments include emotion­al intel­li­gence, empa­thy and the abil­i­ty to commu­ni­cate persua­sive­ly and make complex messages under­stand­able through storytelling.

Over­all, respon­dents expect that the opti­mal lead­er­ship style of the CPCO in 2035 will consist of empa­thy, coach­ing and promot­ing the well-being of employ­ees (“compas­sion­ate, coach­ing, servant”). They will remain the “guardian of corpo­rate culture“²  and moder­ate a struc­tured succes­sion programme for the board and top management.

Culture and trans­for­ma­tion: team­work for the C‑level

This also gives the inter­ac­tion at C‑level a new qual­i­ty. Accord­ing­ly, the study describes in great detail the increased coop­er­a­tion with other areas of the board of direc­tors⁴:

• The CPCO works with the Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer to align the recruit­ment and devel­op­ment strat­e­gy with the compa­ny’s vision and long-term goals.
• Togeth­er with the Chief Finan­cial Offi­cer, he coor­di­nates strate­gic person­nel and cost plan­ning with regard to produc­tiv­i­ty targets.
• Togeth­er with the Chief Oper­at­ing Offi­cer, it devel­ops oper­a­tional person­nel deploy­ment plan­ning and accom­pa­ny­ing measures during trans­for­ma­tion phases.
• The CPCO works with the Chief Commu­ni­ca­tions Offi­cer on commu­ni­cat­ing the inter­nal culture, change process­es and crisis management.
• In consul­ta­tion with a Chief AI & Data, IT or Tech­nol­o­gy Offi­cer, the CPCO inte­grates ethi­cal AI into HR systems, devel­ops analy­ses, leads the digi­tal trans­for­ma­tion and promotes employ­ee readi­ness for the use of new technologies.
• With the help of a Chief Sustain­abil­i­ty Offi­cer, he imple­ments sustain­abil­i­ty goals and relat­ed measures among the workforce.

Conclu­sion

The image of human resources as a pure­ly admin­is­tra­tive task has been chang­ing for some time. Current factors such as the short­age of skilled work­ers, new ways of work­ing and the fear of losing jobs to AI have great­ly accel­er­at­ed this devel­op­ment. What was consid­ered unthink­able or utopi­an before 2020 is now every­day real­i­ty in many indus­tries and compa­nies, includ­ing the real estate sector.

This puts the Chief People & Culture Offi­cer’s area of respon­si­bil­i­ty at the centre of exter­nal and inter­nal changes that need to be strate­gi­cal­ly managed. But the CPCO is not alone in facing these upheavals: where colle­gial coop­er­a­tion works at C‑level, people and culture can make a signif­i­cant contri­bu­tion to the resilience and success of the company.

Sources

1. “The Elevat­ed Talent and Culture Agen­da in the Board­room,” Deloitte, 2022
2. “Reimag­in­ing CHRO roles and respon­si­bil­i­ties for strate­gic growth”, Deloitte Insights, 2025
3. “Corpo­rate Gover­nance 2025”, Kienbaum/Flick Gocke Schaum­burg law firm, June 2025
4. “Towards the C‑Suite 2035”, Robert Half Board Room Navi­ga­tor, 2025

(Image source: istockphotos.com)