By Deborah Kops
Let’s start with a scenario that’s played out in too many boardrooms and GBS leadership teams:
You’ve spent months building the case for a new GBS leadership role. You’ve shortlisted a killer candidate—sharp, credible, transformation-minded. The business warms to them. Finance signs off. But just as you’re prepping the offer, the CHRO steps in. Smile in place, they ask for “a quick conversation.” The candidate obliges. Thirty minutes later, you get a text: “Let’s hold off on next steps. Something’s not sitting right.”
You blink. Wait, what just happened?
Welcome to the quietly colossal influence of the Chief Human Resources Officer.
In the global business services world, we often obsess over CFOs, COOs, and digital czars. But if you’re not paying close attention to your CHRO—how they think, what they value, where they draw invisible lines—you’re operating with blind spots. Big ones.
This isn’t a hit job. Some CHROs are true allies to GBS, enabling growth, helping it attract talent, championing new org models. But many are at best indifferent, at worst obstructive, intentional or not. And most GBS leaders don’t have a playbook for managing the dynamic.
Let’s change that.
The CHRO: not just a supporting character
Too often, GBS leaders treat the CHRO like a soft power. They are seen as courteous, well-meaning, but ultimately peripheral to the real machinery of business services transformation.
That’s a mistake. A big mistake.
The CHRO often:
- Shapes who gets hired
- Decides how the organization is structured
- Sets policies that govern performance, progression, and mobility
- Controls the levers of internal credibility
- Determines how much scope GBS gets—and how long it keeps it
In short: if GBS wants to move from function to force, the CHRO can make or break that journey.
Let’s unpack the four critical arenas where CHROs wield influence—whether we like it or not.
1. Appointments: the gatekeeper you can’t ignore
No meaningful GBS leadership appointment happens without the CHRO’s nod. Sure, you may drive the search. You may even get talent acquisition on side. But the CHRO has veto power, whether it’s formal or informal, and they wield it.
Here’s where GBS leaders stumble: they treat the CHRO interview like a tick-the-box formality. A quick coffee, a few pleasantries, and done.
Wrong.
That “casual chat”? It’s often a deep read on:
- Cultural fit: Will this candidate “play well” with the enterprise DNA?
- Allegiance: Does this person feel like one of “us” (i.e., corporate) or an alien from Planet Operations?
- Threat level: Will they agitate for independence, or stay within the institutional sandbox?
CHROs don’t just interview for skills. They assess risk, optics, and alignment with HR’s own vision of what leadership should look like.
In the majority of cases, that’s helpful. But in others, it creates a chilling effect—candidates who are too bold, too different, too “delivery” get quietly shelved.
The result? GBS ends up with safe hands, not transformative ones.
2. Workforce design: the invisible hand
Do you want to redesign the operating model? Globalize roles? Consolidate spans and layers? Build agile squads or gig models or AI-powered decision pods?
Guess who owns the framework that says what’s possible?
The CHRO.
Modern workforce design is a tangle of rules, traditions, and turf—most of which fall under HR’s purview:
- Job architecture: What roles exist, what they’re called, and how they’re leveled
- Location strategy: Where talent can sit, and how mobile they can be
- Comp frameworks: What you’re allowed to pay, how you bonus, and how equity works
- Work mode policies: Remote, hybrid, co-located, or…none of the above
GBS may have ambitions to be bold. But if your workforce strategy doesn’t align with the CHRO’s vision (or worse, if it threatens their signature programs), you’ll find yourself slowed, blocked, or asked to “pilot and revisit” indefinitely.
Worse still, you may inherit legacy decisions that hamstring your ambitions. “We can’t hire GBS talent at that level in Manila because of internal parity.” Or: “We don’t support cross-functional double hatting. It confuses accountability.” Or “Do we really have to go outside when Sam from Controlling has the same skills?”
Translation? You’re boxed in by someone else’s blueprint.
3. HR scope: they say the right things. Until they don’t.
If you’ve been around GBS long enough, you’ve heard it before:
“Let’s move all non-strategic HR work into GBS.”
“Shared onboarding, learning ops, talent acquisition—GBS is the perfect home.”
“Let’s focus HR on strategic advisory, not process.”
Sounds great, right?
But here’s the rub: CHROs often say the right things, only to renege when the rubber meets the road. Why?
Because giving up HR scope to GBS can feel like:
- A loss of control
- A threat to HR’s internal power base
- A risk to talent brand and employee experience
- A dilution of credit for delivery outcomes
So they backtrack. Pull processes back in. Or create “HR shared services” inside HR, completely bypassing the enterprise GBS model.
CHROs rarely say “no” outright. They just… don’t commit. And GBS gets stuck holding the bag—subscale, under-leveraged, and invisible on the HR roadmap.
4. The GBS customer: whose narrative wins?
This one’s subtle—but powerful.
In organizations where GBS is still evolving, perception matters as much as performance. And CHROs are often the unofficial narrators of internal transformation. They sit on steering committees. They brief the board. They whisper in the CEO’s ear about what’s “working.”
If the CHRO doesn’t believe in the GBS model—doesn’t see it as strategic, empowering, progressive—they’re unlikely to position it positively in those informal forums.
That affects:
- What GBS gets asked to do
- Whether GBS is seen as a career builder or a talent graveyard
- Whether GBS leaders are included in enterprise strategy discussions or left out in the cold
Put bluntly: if your CHRO sees GBS as a necessary evil, that smell sticks. Even if your dashboard is green and your SLAs are sparkling.
The elephant in the room: CHROs can take down GBS models
Let’s say it with more emphasis: CHROs have taken down more GBS models than almost any other executive.
Quietly. Incrementally. Very politely.
They’ve:
- Pulled back HR scope
- Reclassified roles and eroded scale
- Blocked key hires or leader transitions
- Out-competed GBS with internal HR delivery units
Sometimes it’s because they genuinely don’t believe in the model. Other times, it’s political: why let another unit “own” something HR has historically controlled?
Whatever the reason, the effect is the same: GBS shrinks back into a transactional corner, never quite earning its place at the table.
Why this dynamic gets almost no airtime
There are several reasons why GBS leaders don’t talk openly about CHRO influence:
- It feels political: No one wants to suggest the CHRO is a blocker, especially if they sign your paycheck or sit close to the CEO.
- It’s fuzzy: Unlike budget or headcount, CHRO influence is often informal. It’s hard to pin down, so we don’t challenge it.
- It’s a blind spot: Many GBS leaders come up through finance, ops, or tech—not HR. They assume HR’s job is to support, not steer.
But ignoring it doesn’t make it go away.
In fact, in an age where talent strategy is the differentiator, the CHRO’s role is only getting bigger.
So, what’s a GBS leader to do?
Here’s the good news: the CHRO doesn’t have to be your frenemy. With intent, alignment, and a little savvy, they can be your biggest enabler.
- Treat the CHRO like a stakeholder, not an approver
Stop thinking of HR as a box to check. Include them early—in design conversations, in role definition, in leadership bench planning. Make it their model too. - Build joint talent narratives
Co-develop the GBS talent value proposition. Don’t just say “we’re the future enterprise talent.” Show how GBS can be a crucible for next-gen enterprise leaders. And let HR take credit for that. - Map out friction points before they stall you
Figure out where HR policies constrain GBS evolution. What are the sacred cows (job leveling, pay bands, hybrid policy) that need to be challenged? Bring data. Offer test cases. - Enlist their help in storytelling
If your CHRO sits on the executive committee, they can be your megaphone. Feed them language that frames GBS as strategic, talent-rich, and forward-looking. Coach them if necessary. - Pick your battles
You may not win every debate. But don’t cede the whole battlefield. Focus on the two or three policies or appointments that matter most to GBS performance—and push hard there.
Parting words: no more casual coffee chats
Let’s stop pretending the CHRO is a neutral observer in the GBS story. They’re a lead character. They have the power to cast, shape, and rewrite your entire script.
If you ignore them, you risk building a GBS model that’s technically sound but culturally sidelined.
If you engage them with clarity, urgency, and the potential for mutual benefit, you can turn the CHRO from passive gatekeeper to active champion.
Just don’t leave it to chance. Because in GBS, as in life, your friend can quickly become your frenemy—and vice versa.