View the document [pdf].

This year’s survey engaged nearly 400 Chief HR Officers to assess how artificial intelligence is reshaping leadership expectations. The study examined current leadership strengths, gaps in critical competencies, the evolving role of leaders in an AI-driven environment, and how organizations are developing the skills required for future success. Findings reveal that while leaders excel in ethics and customer focus, they lag in strategic thinking, change management, talent development, and digital fluency—capabilities CHROs view as essential in an AI world. Resulting reports will be available soon. Read the results [pdf].

AI is a powerful and accessible tool with multifaceted, enterprise wide implications on how work gets done . Therefore, it is important that CHROs have a leadership role in its development and adoption, while promoting AI’s alignment with organizational culture and purpose. Given the innovative ways AI can impact work, we, as experienced CHROs and academic leaders, recommend the following core principles for responsible use and optimization of AI in organizations. This framework is designed as “open source” to allow for customization based on an organization’s purpose and business goals.  Read the report [pdf].

The Center for Executive Succession is joining forces with the HR Policy Association to learn more about how CHROs can better serve the CEO succession process, understanding what is most important to Boards and CEOs during the process, and what CHROs can do to more effectively facilitate that process. In the study, the team will be conducting interviews with board members, and current and former CEOs. Those willing to participate in an interview should contact CES@moore.sc.edu.

This year’s survey will go out to more than 400 Chief HR Officers and explored how CHROs allocate their time to various aspects of the role, the capability of the HR function they lead, how current external challenges and trends are impacting executive succession efforts and movement of talent, and managing company culture and conflict. Resulting reports will be available soon.

The 2023 HR@Moore Survey of Chief HR Officers explored how CHROs allocate their time to various aspects of the role, the capability of the HR function they lead, how current external challenges and trends are impacting executive succession efforts, diversity in the C-suite and board, the CHRO’s role in ESG, and how companies are navigating and responding to socio-political issues.  The resulting reports are below:

The CHRO Role in 2023

This report focuses on the most critical and differentiating roles CHROs play according to the updated Gartner “Model of a World Class CHRO,” the path to the C-role, and the changing demographic makeup of CHROs today.

Navigating the Political and Cultural Landscape: How Companies Decide When to Engage

This report explores how companies typically go about making decisions on potentially divisive sociopolitical topics. We explain in detail the data collected and the results they point to, then beginning on page 18 you will see a new section that provides our recommendations to practitioners called “Beyond the Data: The CES Perspective”.  .

The CHRO's Role in ESG

The third report examines a series of questions about ESG efforts in companies, the roles primarily responsible for each the three ESG domains, the level of involvement the CHRO has in each domain, and the extent to which the CHRO has engaged the HR function across a variety of critical ESG activities. 

This study examines how potential candidates for the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) role are identified, the approaches commonly used to increase a candidate’s readiness, the procedures used to make the final selection, best practices in onboarding and obstacles that may arise at each stage. In the spirit of our highly esteemed “CEO Succession Planning Playbook”, the outcome of this study will be a comprehensive guide specifically geared toward the unique succession planning process for the critical role of CFO. Our research team is in the process of interviewing current and former CFOs, members of the Board of Directors and CHROs to capture and consider every vantage point. If you have this level of experience with CFO selection and would like to be part of the interview process, please contact us at CES@moore.sc.edu.

This study examines the practices of building a new executive leadership team when a new CEO and/or C-suite executive is placed. The transition process is extremely important, yet there are few processes established to help effectively accelerate executive team development. If you have this level of experience with building the ELT and would like to contribute to our research, please contact us at CES@moore.sc.edu.

This study focuses on differences in the effectiveness of succession planning activities performed across companies with different board governance structures, with a primary focus on the differences between companies who have an independent board chair vs. those with a non-independent (CEO or Executive) chair and a lead director. The goal of the project is to identify if different board governance structures influence the effectiveness of succession planning activities conducted by the board and management.

In this study, we are focused on how experience in HR among board members influences the board's engagement with CEO succession planning and the effectiveness of such efforts. We also examine whether the existence of HR expertise among board members enhances the effectiveness and attentional engagement of other directors on the board, particularly those who have been CEOs of other companies in the past.  

The pandemic has exacerbated challenges faced by working parents, particularly straining many working mothers. At the same time, building diverse talent pipelines has taken center stage. In this study, we explore two aspects of organizations and their ability to retain and attract employees. First, we conducted a pilot study examining whether working mothers, in particular, have their impressions of their employer positively influenced based on the parenthood status of the CEO. Initial results suggest that working mothers and women who would like to become mothers perceive their employer more favorably when the employer has a woman CEO with children. In a follow up, we are leveraging data on CEO parenthood status and Glassdoor reviews to determine whether employees more positively rate their companies depending on the parenthood status of the CEO.

In this study, we are building a database of executive leadership team turnover over a 10-year period. The end goal is to illustrate how a focus on the turnover of a wider group of top executives than often discussed (typically the Named Executive Officers in the proxy statement) influences future organizational performance. In particular, we will explore how the quantity and timing of turnover might have differential impacts of subsequent performance.