Dive Brief:

• While 80% of top HR executives said they're satisfied with their job, 61% said they would leave for the right opportunity in a new survey, according to a new study emailed to HR Dive. Salveson Stetson Group, which polled 382 regional CHROs and HR leaders, found that just half had a successor who was ready to take over if they left, however.
• The poll also shows that nearly 20% of HR leaders cite company culture as the top reason for accepting a job elsewhere. The aspects of the job that are most fulfilling include job responsibilities (46%), work environment (15%) and relationship with their superiors (14%).
• The senior HR leaders in the study represented various industry sectors, including financial services, general services, life sciences, manufacturing and retail. “As the demand for strategic HR leadership grows, it is crucial for employers to both take note of their HR leaders’ job satisfaction and have a formal succession plan in place," Sally Stetson, co-founder and principal at Salveson Stetson Group said.

Dive ​Insight:

Organizations without a successor to fill top HR positions may need to take a second look at their leadership development programs. Strategic goals for recruiting, hiring, training and preparing workers for a digital workplace lack continuity if there's no leadership to see these efforts through. 

Many leadership development programs emerge naturally out of a well-managed company culture based in progression, achievement and appreciation, and the two feed into each other naturally. Culture is easier to identify in smaller work environments, but it remains a continued challenge for larger employers. Proactive companies that build an inclusive leadership pipeline will both create and maintain a strong company culture.

Some studies have shown that HR may be losing influence on the C-suite partly due to a lack of modern business skills, including digital analysis — perhaps another reason HR leadership should reconsider the content of their leadership development programs. The profession requires future leaders that can shake HR's image as merely reactionaries and demonstrate that they can be proactive about achieving companies’ human capital goals.

But organizations must also keep HR executives motivated, well rewarded and engaged just as they would other executives and members of the C-suite. HR leaders know best how to move the workforce forward into a work world of tremendous challenge, as well as change. Without well-prepared successors, organizations can't move forward with these plans.