Executive Tier · PCF 7.1.1 Develop Human Resources Strategy
Computed from PCF 7.0's confirmed RACI data using the Responsible/Accountable touch rule.
The CHRO holds Accountable on PCF 7.1.1 (Develop human resources strategy) — the only L3 process in PCF 7.0 currently modeled as Executive-tier Accountable. Every other Executive- and Managerial-tier role in the domain sits below this one in scope.
7.1.1 is itself Mixed-pattern — shown below with its own aggregate rollup row (pattern-mix bar), followed by its 10 individual Level 4 activities.
| PCF | Activity | Pattern | M1 UNDESIGNED | M2 EMERGING | M3 ★ DESIGN INTENT | M4 OPTIMIZED | M5 LEADING | Δ M1→M3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7.1.1 | Develop human resources strategy | 82% | 74% | 60% | 47% | 37% | -22% | |
| 7.1.1.1 | Identify strategic HR needs | Knowledge | 85% | 78% | 65% | 52% | 42% | -20% |
| 7.1.1.2 | Define HR and business function roles and accountability | Knowledge | 85% | 78% | 65% | 52% | 42% | -20% |
| 7.1.1.3 | Determine HR function roles and structure | Knowledge | 85% | 78% | 65% | 52% | 42% | -20% |
| 7.1.1.4 | Determine HR delivery model | Knowledge | 85% | 78% | 65% | 52% | 42% | -20% |
| 7.1.1.5 | Determine HR costs | Knowledge | 85% | 78% | 65% | 52% | 42% | -20% |
| 7.1.1.6 | Establish HR measures | Knowledge | 85% | 78% | 65% | 52% | 42% | -20% |
| 7.1.1.7 | Communicate HR strategies | Document | 72% | 58% | 40% | 28% | 18% | -32% |
| 7.1.1.8 | Develop strategy for HR systems/technologies/tools | Knowledge | 85% | 78% | 65% | 52% | 42% | -20% |
| 7.1.1.9 | Manage employer branding | Document | 72% | 58% | 40% | 28% | 18% | -32% |
| 7.1.1.10 | Design the employee experience | Knowledge | 85% | 78% | 65% | 52% | 42% | -20% |
8 of the 10 underlying activities are Knowledge-pattern (judgment, synthesis, and interpretation); the remaining 2 are Document-pattern (communicating strategy and managing employer branding), which is why they show the steepest gap in the set.
This profile is grounded only in PCF 7.0 (Develop and Manage Human Resources), where RACI data currently exists. A real CHRO's strategic remit extends into PCF 1.0 (Develop Vision and Strategy) — enterprise-level strategy linkage that this framework hasn't modeled yet. Nothing above should be read as a complete picture of the CHRO's AI exposure; it's what's groundable in the data today.
HRBP Manager and HRIS Analyst's profiles both told a story about a role's own tasks shifting — gradual expansion for one, genuine reinvention for the other. CHRO's story is structurally different: this is already the most judgment-heavy, least directly automatable role the framework has profiled. The relevant transition isn't what AI takes off the CHRO's own plate — it's that the CHRO becomes accountable for orchestrating the transition happening below, across every other role in the domain.
Josh Bersin's February 2026 CHRO-specific research frames this directly: as ‘superagents’ consolidate what were previously more than 100 separate HR agents into task families, entire workflow segments across recruiting, performance, coaching, and workforce management, this doesn't reduce HR's importance — it repositions HR leadership as the owner of enterprise-wide AI deployment, not just HR's own.
Bersin's 2026 CHRO imperatives collapse into three near-term priorities: training teams to use and build with AI, identifying high-value use cases across employee services, recruiting, performance, coaching, and workforce management, and executing deployment strategies that show measurable return.
Framework connection: These priorities map directly onto the Role Impact Snapshot's single finding — with only one Knowledge/Document-pattern process in scope, the CHRO's own task-level exposure to automation is minimal; the real transition work is enterprise-wide orchestration, not personal task change.
Structural template adapted from AIHR's HR Business Partner Guide; content sourced from Bersin's 2026 CHRO-specific research, not the template itself.
| Getting Started | Established | Future-Focused | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Role focus | Audit current HR agent/tool sprawl across employee services, recruiting, performance, coaching, and workforce management | Consolidate fragmented point-solution agents into a coherent, unified AI architecture | Lead AI-driven leadership development, including ‘digital twin’ coaching built from current or past leaders' own patterns |
| Key activities | Stand up team-wide AI training rather than leaving adoption to individual initiative; identify 2–3 high-value use cases worth a real deployment | Enable a ‘citizen developer’ model; begin formal workforce planning for job transformation (new titles emerging, not just roles disappearing) | Shift L&D from static courseware to continuously generated, personalized learning; own the company's readiness for a coming HR vendor market reshuffle |
| Skills to build | Baseline AI/agent literacy — what superagents actually consolidate and why | Architecture-level thinking; change leadership for a citizen-developer culture shift | Enterprise-level AI transformation leadership, extending past HR's own boundaries |
| Common pitfalls | Treating this as an HR-only initiative — Bersin is explicit that the highest-value move is stepping beyond HR's own function | Under-investing in data quality and governance while over-investing in agent count — volume without validation creates real litigation exposure, per Bersin | Treating ‘future-focused’ as optional — Bersin frames 2026 as the year this shift is already underway, not a future scenario to plan toward |
Source: Josh Bersin, “2026 imperatives for the AI-aware CHRO: Preparing for the superagent,” HRZone, February 18, 2026. Fetched and read in full for this profile, not paraphrased from a snippet.