How to Be and Build Nextgen HR Leaders: Global HR Leadership Experience (GHRLE)

by Dave Ulrich - Rensis Likert Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan, Partner, The RBL Group (dou@umich.edu), Dick Beatty - Professor Emeritus, School of Management & Labor Relations, Rutgers (dickbeatty@comcast.net), Patrick Wright - Associate Dean and Thomas C. Vandiver Bicentennial Chair in Business, Darla Moore School of Business, University of South Carolina (patrick.wright@moore.sc.edu) and Cori Jones - Managing Director, GHRLE (CORI.JONES@moore.sc.edu)

In early 2025, CHRO turnover in the United States was up 15 percent from 2024 and 32 percent over a six year average. Similar results have occurred globally. This change is in part due to the greater expectations for senior HR leaders.

If you are a business leader seeking a high-performing HR leader or an HR professional committed to improving, where would you turn?

No doubt, the best preparation for nextgen HR leaders to have the requisite personal competencies (e.g., courage, relationships, analytics, technology [AI], and business partner skills) comes from experiences on the job and in life. In addition, nextgen HR leaders can learn from the experiences of others who mentor, coach, teach, develop, and guide them.

Over the last few months, we have worked to identify the major HR inflection points and topics nextgen HR leaders will likely face based on research, focus groups, and input from renowned HR leaders. The meta theme for these topics is about how HR can better deliver stakeholder value to all human stakeholders through human capability (talent + leadership + organization + HR function). We have turned these ideas into a unique learning opportunity called Global HR Learning Experience (GHRLE). More importantly, faculty in this program represent the best global thinkers and doers in the HR profession:

• Heads of the six leading global HR associations will share their views of the challenges and opportunities of today’s and tomorrow’s global HR agenda (CIPD, HRCI, HRPA, NHRD, SHRM, WFPMA).

• Ten current or former CHROs who have excelled in delivering value in 30 Fortune 200 firms.

• Researchers, advisors, and teachers who have written over 100 books, delivered thousands of talks, and advised and coached business and HR leaders in most of the Global 500.

The GHRLE 100-day experience includes both in-person and virtual learning about latest insights with a focus on application for each participant’s business and personal growth.

Key Themes and Takeaways

We have designed the content for this experience around four themes that will help nextgen HR leaders deliver more value to all stakeholders and shape the HR profession. These themes and specific learning outcomes are reviewed in figure 1.

 Hesitancy and Response

As we promote the program, we hear agreement on the need and content and enthusiasm about the faculty and design. However, we are meeting with hesitancy as well.

 Let us share the hesitancies we hear and our response. 

The return on this learning investment far outweighs the hesitancies!

Conclusion and Implications

We are committed to preparing a trove of next-generation HR leaders to build a robust HR succession bench.

We are delighted to host the first offering of GHRLE at the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. The in-person session will be held October 28–November 4 (with additional offerings in 2026 and beyond). Participation will be limited and will require sponsorship by senior business and HR leaders from your company. While we welcome individuals, we encourage companies to nominate two candidates so that the learning can be reinforced back in the workplace. For more information regarding the nomination process, contact Pat Wright (patrick.wright@moore.sc.edu) or Cori Jones (cori.jones@moore.sc.edu).

To nominate someone to attend the inaugural cohort, please complete the nomination form and return by July 31.

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Dave Ulrich is the Rensis Likert Professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, and a partner at The RBL Group, a consulting firm focused on helping organizations and leaders deliver value.