The rapid shift in business functions that was accelerated by the pandemic has been possible because of the convergence between IT and human resources. In the remote and hybrid world of work, both the chief information officer (CIO) and chief human resource officer (CHRO) play key functions in enhancing  employee experience and driving productivity. In 2019, Gartner predicted that within two years, CIOs would share equal responsibility as CHROs in terms of the resulting cultural change.

Traditionally, the CIO oversees an organization's information technology needs, oversees the development and maintenance of customer service platforms, establishes IT policies and standards, and handles information risk management. Since the advent of the hybrid workforce, the CIO must now also plan for the IT needs of remote and in-office employees. This shift placed an increased demand on the CIO to ensure that all employees have the technology and hardware to effectively perform their job regardless of their location. Employee engagement, productivity, and job satisfaction are all affected by the decisions the CIO makes. The CHRO’s role has expanded from merely creating and executing the company's human resource strategy, to ensuring employees have the skills, tools, and work environment they need to perform.

After the initial hiring freezes when companies started adapting to the new normal, CHROs turned to the CIOs for an overall digital transformation of the end-to-end employee lifecycle. Technology, people, and processes aligned for efficient and effective remote hiring, onboarding, appraisals, and offboarding functions.

Driving productivity with CIO-CHRO Partnership

The partnership between these two leaders has now become a requirement if a company doesn’t want to be left behind in the race of digital transformation. There are many ways these two can complement each other to ensure a productive work environment.  A constant dialogue between the two functions will ensure that IT has a better understanding of the technology, overall goals, and objectives. Many industry experts agree that having HR present can help IT define its future skill set requirements, talent gaps, and overall personnel strategies. Their partnership can help unleash curiosity and build a company culture that motivates employees to do their best work. This collaboration will also enhance streamlined workflows to improve employee engagement with the help of new learning and development approaches.

With hybrid work-from-home and office working becoming the future of work, IT and HR teams need to collaborate even further to make the systems more flexible, robust, and secure to accommodate this multifaceted style of working. There is a need to re-design workspaces and ensure that employees develop and improve their skills through continued learning.

The CIO and CHRO should work together to ensure every employee has the tools and technology to be productive and engaged, and the training and opportunity to progress their career within the company. The combination of those two improves the employee journey from the beginning to the end.

To know more about how CIO-CHRO partnership can contribute to workforce productivity in the new world of work join us for People Matters' Workforce Productivity Conference. Join the daylong conference on 10th February, 2022, where top corporate leaders delineate the challenges they envisage and the strategies that can be deployed to buoy productivity and performance as we enter a new era of what can be called ‘compassionate competition’.