Women Replaced Men As HR Heads In 60 Per Cent Of The Companies In Last Few Years, Says Report 

In its recently released report, Xpheno, a specialised staffing company, has noted that women have replaced their male counterparts as the heads of human resource (HR) departments in sixty per cent of the companies over the last few years, reports Economic Times (ET).

“Till about the last decade, we saw a lot of women in HR, primarily at junior levels though. The CHRO position was usually held by a male employee. This could be attributed to a supply situation as the pipeline was not available back then. Today, we are seeing a shift with several of the HR leader posts being occupied by women, particularly in the metros. One of the reasons for this is, of course, that the pipeline is now available, which was not the case a decade ago,” said Shabnam Jussa Gaitonde, HR head of Alembic Pharmaceuticals.

The survey mapped the 200 movements of women HR officers over the past few years. However, it should be noted only 15 per cent of the women were promoted vertically in an organisation to occupy the top HR position. Eighty-five per cent of the heads were hired from external sources.

Companies and their CEOs are slowly waking up to the important role played by their HR departments. “To be a good business leader, you need to understand HR. I hope we’ll see more CEOs coming from the HR function, and we’ll see more line leaders spending time in HR. There has to be a transformation there ,” said Quartz’s Oliver Staley.

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