| Detail | For this role |
|---|---|
| Department | Leadership and Senior Management |
| Level | Leadership |
| Reports to | Chief Executive Officer |
| Direct reports | HR Business Partners, Head of Talent Acquisition, Head of Compensation and Benefits, Head of Learning and Development |
| Experience | 15+ years in HR, with 5 years leading HR for a business unit or company |
Chief Human Resources Officer job description template
Copy this job description, replace the text in square brackets and post it on your careers page or a job portal.
Job title: Chief Human Resources Officer
Department: Leadership and Senior Management
Reports to: Chief Executive Officer
Location: [City], [office, branch or site]
About the role
A Chief Human Resources Officer owns the people strategy of the company. They lead talent acquisition, compensation, learning, employee relations and HR compliance, and make sure the company has the right people, paid fairly and set up to perform. The role sits on the leadership team and turns the business plan into an org and hiring plan. A good CHRO builds a strong leadership bench, keeps attrition healthy, keeps the company compliant with labour law, and shapes a culture people want to stay in.
Key responsibilities
- Set the people strategy and the annual org and hiring plan in line with the business plan.
- Own leadership hiring and succession, and keep a bench ready for key roles.
- Design the compensation and benefits structure, and run the annual increment and promotion cycle.
- Lead employee relations, disciplinary matters and any union or industrial relations issues.
- Keep the company compliant with labour law, including the new labour codes and POSH.
- Build the performance framework, and make sure goals, reviews and ratings are fair and on time.
- Own learning and leadership development, and grow the skills the business will need next.
- Track attrition, engagement and cost per hire, and act on the trends behind the numbers.
- Advise the CEO and leadership team on org design, spans, layers and difficult people decisions.
- Set HR policy, and keep the HRMS, records and letters accurate and audit-ready.
Requirements
- MBA or PGDM in HR, or MSW
- Strong grounding in Indian labour law and compliance
- Certification in compensation or OD is an advantage
- 15+ years in HR, with 5 years leading HR for a business unit or company
KRAs and KPIs for a Chief Human Resources Officer
Key result areas for the appraisal form, each with a KPI you can measure every month or quarter.
| Key result area | How to measure it |
|---|---|
| Talent supply | Key roles filled within the agreed hiring timeline through the year |
| Retention | Regretted attrition held at or below the target for the year |
| Leadership bench | Successors identified and ready for the agreed share of critical roles |
| Compliance | Labour, PF, ESI and POSH obligations met with no major findings |
| Performance cycle | Goal setting and reviews completed on time across the company |
| Engagement | Employee engagement score at or above the planned level |
Skills and tools
Tools used day to day: HRMS software, Applicant tracking system, MS Excel, Compensation survey data, Engagement survey tools.
Reporting line and career path
Next roles: Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer
Interview questions for a Chief Human Resources Officer
- How would you cut regretted attrition in a team that keeps losing its best people?
- Walk me through how you would design the salary structure under the new wage definition rules.
- A senior leader is a strong performer but a poor manager. How do you handle it?
- How do you build a succession plan for critical roles in a company that has never had one?
- How do you make sure a performance rating cycle stays fair across different managers?
- How would you handle a POSH complaint against a senior leader while protecting the complainant?
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What does a Chief Human Resources Officer do?
A Chief Human Resources Officer owns the people strategy: hiring, compensation, learning, employee relations and HR compliance. They build the org and hiring plan, run the performance and increment cycles, keep the company compliant with labour law, and advise the CEO on org design and difficult people decisions. They are measured on talent, retention and engagement.
What is the difference between a CHRO and an HR manager?
An HR manager runs day-to-day HR for a team or site: hiring, payroll inputs, records and grievances. A Chief Human Resources Officer sets the people strategy for the whole company, owns leadership hiring, compensation design and labour compliance, and sits on the leadership team. HR managers usually report up to the CHRO.
Who does a Chief Human Resources Officer report to?
A Chief Human Resources Officer usually reports to the Chief Executive Officer or Managing Director and sits on the leadership team. On matters like executive pay, succession and conduct they also work closely with the board's nomination and remuneration committee, especially in listed companies.