The New Reality of the Healthcare CHRO Role

Healthcare organizations are asking more of their Chief Human Resources Officers (CHROs) than at any point in recent memory. The role has become significantly more complex, shaped by geopolitics, the need to think in systems, and the expectation to serve as a true steward of culture and people. Workforce scarcity persists, regulation intensifies, and technology continues to accelerate decision cycles across the enterprise. At the same time, leadership teams face growing scrutiny around execution, resilience, and succession. 

Across Europe, these pressures are reshaping the CHRO role in the healthcare industry. To understand how leaders are responding, we spoke with Human Resources leaders based in Europe and working in large healthcare organizations.  

In this article, we explore five central themes they emphasized most consistently, and what they signal for how boards and CEOs should think about CHRO development going forward.

Across interviews, CHROs describe a widening gap between what the role now demands and how future incumbents are prepared for it. The scope has expanded toward enterprise leadership, governance, AI, and succession, with CHROs increasingly expected to operate as true business partners. As Aurélie Dalbiez, Chief People Officer of Evotec, notes, “CHROs have been expected to be business partners for decades, but they are increasingly expected to be true enterprise leaders,” co-owning strategy, representing the company externally, and being accountable for outcomes beyond the function rather than simply enabling. 

But development pathways remain anchored in more traditional functional HR skills, creating a mismatch between what the role requires and how leaders are prepared. Several interviewees describe this as a structural development gap. Beatrix Henseler, Head of Human Resources at Sartorius AG, emphasizes that “some specialist knowledge is necessary, but senior leadership capabilities matter most,” underscoring the shift away from purely functional depth. Dalbiez notes that “CHROs do not learn how to fully assume the enterprise leader role,” highlighting how few development paths are designed to build that broader orientation early enough.  

At the same time, interviewees stress that this readiness can be built. Henseler of Sartorius AG adds, “Above a certain management level, you need strategic and forward-thinking capabilities,” pointing to the need for broader, more deliberate development beyond traditional HR tracks. Dr. Reiner Piske, Executive Board Member, Chief Human Resources Officer and Chief Sales Officer at Dräger, points out that “CEO commitment to CHRO development is decisive” on creating these pathways. 

Where that commitment exists, organizations are better positioned to equip CHROs for the expanded role and unlock greater enterprise impact earlier. Those that deliberately expose their top HR talent pool to broader business contexts, strategic conversations, and cross-functional leadership, are creating more effective pathways to sustained leadership impact.

Even as the CHRO role broadens significantly, many HR leaders argue that strong functional depth has become more critical, not less. Areas such as compensation, talent strategy, and workforce development remain central to organizational performance.  

The difference is that functional expertise on its own is no longer sufficient. Purely linear HR careers, especially those concentrated in a single sub‑discipline, were also described as limiting. Natalia Kozmina, CHRO of LivaNova, for example, points to financial fluency as a recurring gap, noting that weak understanding of ROI, accountability, and financial tradeoffs remains a blind spot in many HR leadership pipelines. Compensation also comes up as a pressure point. Caroline Barth, CHRO of Syngenta Group, notes that “compensation and benefits can account for up to 50% of the CHRO role.” She adds that many future CHROs lack sufficient depth in this area, despite its impact on credibility with boards and senior leaders. 

Maximilian d’Huc, Group Human Resources Executive, observes that business leaders rotating into HR frequently “underestimate the depth and systemic nature of human processes,” particularly in large and complex organizations. Without that depth, he suggests, leaders risk losing credibility precisely when people decisions carry enterprise‑level consequences. 

The strongest CHROs are those who combine enough functional mastery to ask difficult questions and intervene when needed, with the enterprise perspective to connect people decisions to strategy, execution, and risk.

For many CHROs, the clearest opportunity to elevate their capabilities sits at the boardroom. Many described board interaction as fundamentally different from day‑to‑day executive work, testing judgment, credibility, and influence in ways few other settings do. For some CHROs, this exposure arrives early and accelerates readiness. But for others, it comes later, often after being appointed. 

Camille Alpi, Chief Human Resources & Talent Officer of Grifols, underscores how unfamiliar the full governance environment can be, noting that “interaction with the Board of Directors is often new for CHROs.” As a result, HR leaders may face complex situations without having had the opportunity to develop earlier experience interacting with boards.  

Others emphasize how decisive board credibility becomes at senior levels. Regis Mulot, CHRO of Ipsen, shares the sentiment. “Exposure to boards, formal and informal, is essential,” he says, encouraging HR leaders to seek these environments deliberately, including through external board roles, well before stepping into the CHRO position. 

Additionally, board exposure has a direct link to the changing nature of the HR role. Etienne Claessens, Chief People Officer of Mundipharma, observes that governance expectations are rising, describing “increasing complexity of board dynamics and influence,” particularly in regulated environments. As boards become more engaged and more demanding, he suggests, “CHROs need to master the governance with more sophistication, confidence (and stamina!) to influence board members in the right direction.” 

For some leaders, having that early exposure proves formative. Alpi traces the acceleration of his own development to time spent in subsidiary leadership, where proximity to senior stakeholders and boards shaped his confidence operating at the top of the organization. Dr. Jaana Saarteinen-Erben, former CHRO of Klosterfrau Group, reinforces the importance of this experience. As she explains, “CHROs are often the stabilizing force when everything else shifts. The role is built on trust and confidence, particularly in relationships with boards and senior leaders, and that trust becomes increasingly critical during periods of leadership transition."

Ultimately, board governance is emerging as a threshold capability for CHROs. Organizations that intentionally expose their future HR leaders to boards and committees earlier in their careers are not only reducing transition risk but also enabling CHROs to contribute at an oversight level that is much needed today.

In an age defined by rapid technological disruptions in tech, workforce, and the economy, a defining hallmark of effective CHROs is their judgement skill. In other words, how they adapt to change, sense emerging trends, and make decisions that balance organizational needs with employee well-being. 

Particularly with the rise of AI, “the amount of demand on CHROs is higher than ever,” says Claessens, of Mundipharma. In healthcare and beyond, AI has placed the HR function at the center of one of the biggest organizational shifts in decades. While the benefits are clear, they come with sharper edges particularly in regulated healthcare, as many interviewees believe. Christian Doeringer, former Chief HR Officer at Ascensia Diabetes, points to a growing blind spot. “AI use is sometimes too casual and too fast, without healthy awareness of regulatory consequences,” he says.  

Adapting and leading in these new waters comes with specific challenges. Workforce fears, resistance, anxiety, and the need for reskilling workers are all realities facing HR leaders. What is needed more than ever, as Kim Martin, CHRO of Alcon, puts it, is “good instincts, good insights, and good influencing skills” to rise to the moment.  

In this context, the most effective CHROs are the ones who can read context, weigh tradeoffs, and act with confidence when there is no clear precedent. That shift is stretching traditional competency models, underscoring the need for healthcare organizations to reconsider how they recognize and develop their HR talent.

Across conversations, CHROs candidly spoke about the “emotional” load the role brings, pointing to loneliness as a defining feature of the job. As Christelle Beneteau, Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer of Ferring Pharmaceuticals, describes, “the CHRO role is lonely and requires diplomacy,” particularly when navigating between executives, boards, and the wider organization. She emphasizes that much of the work happens in tension, balancing what leaders ask for, what the organization can absorb, and what feels right. 

For others, the strain comes from providing continuity through repeated moments of change. Saarteinen-Erben, former CHRO of Klosterfrau, notes that “As CEOs and executive teams change, CHROs frequently remain a steadying influence. They carry institutional memory and provide strategic continuity through transitions that test leadership teams and organizations alike.”

Ingrid Purgstaller, Chief People Officer of Tecan, highlights the psychological load, describing the importance of creating safety and trust while operating under sustained pressure. She ties resilience directly to performance, underscoring that psychological safety is foundational to productivity. 

Several CHROs stressed that sustaining effectiveness over time requires deliberate counterweights. Networks and peer exchange were described as helpful. Rachel King, Group Chief People Officer of IVC Evidensia, reflects on maintaining perspective in a frontline‑heavy environment, emphasizing that staying grounded is essential when decisions have real consequences for employees, customers, and patients.

Taken together, these five themes point to a CHRO role that has fundamentally shifted in substance, exposure, and expectation. Today’s healthcare CHRO operates at the intersection of execution, governance, technology, and human judgment, often absorbing pressure that was once distributed elsewhere in the organization.  

For boards and CEOs, this raises a timely question on whether the systems used to identify, develop, and support HR leaders are keeping pace with the role’s reality. For CHROs themselves, it clarifies where impact now lies: in judgment under pressure, credibility in the boardroom, functional command, and the ability to sustain leadership over time. Treating the role accordingly is a present‑day business imperative.