Human Resource is very important department for any organization. And Chief Executive Officers are also important for any organization. One CEO spent many years working in HR; the others have less experience with human resource management. Despite these varied backgrounds, the comments from all five CEOs reveal common themes and common areas where HR can stand to improve.

A Unique Relationship

All the CEOs interviewed for this article agree that of all the members of their management teams their relationship with the top HR professional may be the most important. The amount of time CEOs spend with HR executives underlines the importance of this relationship. All five CEOs say that as HR has gained more access to their offices, the head of HR has assumed a unique relationship with the CEO. “The key to a good relationship between the CEO and the head of HR is honesty”, believes Craig Sturken, chief executive officer of Farmer Jack Supermarkets in Detroit.

The Strategic Role of HR

The other CEOs agree that HR executives must understand and embrace their involving strategic role, which includes helping track the skills of the workforce and matching them up with the organizations needs. “HR management is one of the critical resources that we have to carry on our business plan”, says Bowlin.

The Bottom-Line Approach

The CEOs interviewed for this article emphasized that although HR has improved its understanding of financial issues more work needs to be done. “When it comes to the bottom line, I would say that HR generally has been a bit out to lunch”, says Macdonald. “But their understanding of the bottom line has improved over the past few years, and I do believe most HR executives are striving to better understand how their decisions and actions can truly affect the bottom line”.

Other Skills

“At my company, we have a saying that you need to push the envelope”, says Goodrich.
Part of being a good consultant, says Bowlin, is being persuasive. “This is a skill that HR needs to work on, I believe,” he says. “To succeed, you must have the ability to be persuasive and move the organization forward and to influence key business decisions”. To be more persuasive, however, many HR professionals need more education in business fundamentals.

Beyond Skills
The CEOs interviewed for this article tend to agree that the best and most successful HR professionals have a real passion for their jobs. Bowlin agrees that true success comes from a passion for your job.

The Future of HR
All five of the CEOs have to think strategically about the short and long term issues that confront their organizations. Bowlin believes that effectively managing multicultural diversity is the primary challenge that faces HR and corporate America. The workplace challenges of multicultural diversity only emphasize the importance of developing a global focus when dealing with HR issues, according to Macdonald. “The challenges of HR are cross cultural. It is a huge job to make that cultural bridge,” he says. “HR professionals can prepare to meet these challenges by making themselves available for international assignments, and by that I mean living outside the country for three to four years. International mobility is key. Today’s economy is a global economy, and HR has to be ready to accept the roles and challenges that the global marketplace brings.”

On the above through summary we can know what do Chief Executive Officers want from Human Resource.