Companies are tapping managers from outside human resources to run their HR departments in recent years.
In 2005, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer asked Lisa Brummel--then running a billion-dollar consumer and retail division--to take over HR. "'We really don't have anybody who has deep experience to connect that great HR work with the employee base,'" Ms. Brummel recalls Mr. Ballmer telling her. Since then, she has sought suggestions from Microsoft employees in more than 50 meetings and streamlined the firm's career-development programs.
Of the 15 large-company chief HR officer changes that consultant Brian Wilkerson has tracked in the past five years, about one-third have been filled by non-HR executives, he says. That compares with maybe 10% of such appointments before, says Mr. Wilkerson, global practice director for talent management at Watson Wyatt Worldwide.
The shift reflects the increased importance that chief executives and boards place on recruiting, retaining and grooming employees. It also reflects a perception that some traditional HR professionals lack the deep understanding of business and financial issues that CEOs increasingly want, say consultants and recruiters.
"Many organizations are looking for their HR leader to be able to understand in great detail the business and the challenges of the business," says Fran Luisi, principal of Charleston Partners, a Rumson, NJ search firm that specializes in HR executives.
Source: Wall Street Journal, June 23, 2008