Not the boss interview leader: the tasks of a CHRO are significantly greater. Thomas Barwick/Getty
“There is no business without people.” With a single, short sentence, Lindsay Ross explains why the “People” department, i.e. personnel, is so important in a company and why it is in the top management, at the C-level. belongs represented. Ross has been Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) at the Austrian unicorn Bitpanda since June 2021.
It is all the more surprising that, like many of her colleagues, she also reports that she often has to fight for attention and recognition. There is a widespread misconception: HR can be done by anyone. And somehow there is something soft about the human resources department, as if it were the easy-peasy department. What girls. Friderike Schröder, CHRO at Berlin-based fintech Ratepay, says: “As an HR person, you often fall and then have to get up again and straighten your crown. Working with headwinds or having to take a detour is part of the job.”
So it seems to be a hard and very underestimated job, managing the human resources department. In fact, HR professionals are currently in huge demand, especially in the startup sector. So let’s take a closer look: What does a Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO), Chief People Officer or Chief People and Culture Officer (the terms are used more or less synonymously) actually do? How do you become that, what do you have to be particularly good at? Where are the pitfalls and where are the opportunities?