What Are the Fastest Growing New C-Suite Leadership Titles?

The news that there have been a proliferation of C-Suite titles of late may generate a lot of eye-rolling among cynical corporate veterans who remember Chief Knowledge Officers, Chief Information Officers and other titles subsumed by the relentless impact of technology. 

But in an economy which has, for years, witnessed earnest CEO's proclaiming that people are their most important asset, it is noteworthy that two of the top three C-Suite growth categories are Chief Inclusion Officer and Chief People Officer. Whether this will result in a more talent-friendly or oriented workplace still remains to be seen, but it is a signal about priorities for optimizing results, at least in the short term. JL 

George Anders reports in LinkedIn:

Each year at LinkedIn, we analyze U.S. hiring decisions involving people with “chief” in their job titles. The traditional Big Three roles -- chief executive officer, chief operating officer and chief finance officer -- remain the areas seeing the most hiring. But the C-suite keeps getting wider, with lots of action in 51 other C-suite roles.  Hiring of chief diversity and inclusion officers soared 111% during the 12-month period ended August 31, even faster than last year’s tempo, when hiring of chief diversity officers soared 84%.  Among the other in-demand job titles are chief people officers (+61%) and chief talent officers (+36%.)

What does today’s C-suite look like at major employers? And more importantly, how is this inner circle of leaders evolving, year by year?

Each year at LinkedIn, we analyze 100,000 or more U.S. hiring decisions involving people with “chief” in their job titles. The traditional Big Three roles -- chief executive officer, chief operating officer and chief finance officer -- remain the areas seeing the most hiring. But the C-suite keeps getting wider, with lots of action in 51 (yes, 51!) other C-suite roles we analyzed. 

For the second year in a row, the most intense hiring push involves chief diversity and inclusion officers (or slight variants on that title. In recent months, high-profile companies such as Citi, UnitedHealth and private-equity giant KKR all have announced such hires. So, too, have academic institutions such as Carnegie Mellon and the University of North Texas.

All told, hiring of chief diversity and inclusion officers soared 111% (as a share of all hires) during the 12-month period ended August 31, as seen in the chart below. That’s even faster than last year’s tempo, when hiring of chief diversity officers soared 84%.  

These rankings aren’t just a tip sheet for ambitious people looking to rocket into top leadership. They also provide clues about companies’ ever-changing priorities. No matter what the domain, when companies want to fix problems fast or make the most of new opportunities -- it’s common to signal those ambitions by adding a C-suite leader. 

Diversity titles’ new prominence in the C-suite is a perfect example. A generation ago, diversity roles tended to be farther down in the organization, focused mostly on assuring compliance with federal regulations. Not anymore. As leadership strategists Gena Cox and David Lancefield wrote recently in Harvard Business Review, “The killing of George Floyd in May 2020 was a clarifying catalyst that helped business leaders see the enormous inequities that have always existed.”

As a result, newly hired C-suite diversity leaders such as Erica Irish Brown at Citi are gaining wide mandates to drive change. Pay scales, hiring practices and internal cultures are being reexamined in a big way, with equity in mind.

Can a single hire change everything? Not by itself, especially “in the face of institutional pushback,” as Bloomberg journalist Jeff Green noted this spring. But chief diversity and inclusion officers may find more C-suite allies than ever before. 

Among the other in-demand job titles making LinkedIn’s Top 10 list are chief people officers (+61%) and chief talent officers (+36%.) Both these titles reflect the multi-decade evolution of the old personnel office, or even the human relations department, into something more strategic. 

Chief people officers keep a prominent seat at the table when issues such as geographic expansion and even acquisitions are being considered. That’s been especially true in the past 19 months, as companies wrestle with the complexities of work-from-home, hybrid work and other fundamental readjustments brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions. 

Chief people officers are flexing new powers, leading strategy discussions that span other departments ranging from legal to real estate.

Meanwhile, C-suite titles related to the complexities of keeping businesses on track continue to rise, too, as seen in the hiring increases for chief legal officers (53%) and chief accounting officers (43%).

Also worth noting: the growing popularity of titles such as chief growth officer (+43%), chief customer officer (+38%) and chief revenue officer (+37%). This often reflects fresh thinking on how to connect outward facing functions such as sales and marketing with the company’s ultimate strategic goals. One way or another, these newer, grander-sounding titles are meant to get multiple departments pulling together more effectively. 

Chief data officer (+29%) is a title gaining popularity in intriguing ways. Some of its earliest appearances were in finance nearly 20 years ago, but it’s now becoming common at consumer-facing internet companies such as Intuit and GoDaddy. Responsibilities can include everything from data quality and governance to business analytics.

For practically any C-suite title that’s soaring in demand, creating a coherent pipeline of candidates becomes daunting. Internal talent development can’t keep pace. So companies trying to find the right new leader in a hurry are more likely to go outside, with these likely ripple effects:

Often, more powerful organizations raid smaller ones, plucking out a C-suite leader with the same title. (A case in point: Citi’s Erica Irish Brown used to be Goldman Sachs’s chief diversity officer.) That creates second-order or perhaps even third-order hiring needs that must be filled quickly.

In other situations, highly regarded managers at top-tier organizations, get their chance to leap into the C-suite somewhere else. That was the case for Danetta Bland, a key part of Deloitte’s diversity team, who was recruited to be chief diversity officer for the University of North Texas system.

The net effect: career opportunities are huge for people in fields with booming C-suite demand. But the endless hiring hunts can create strains on continuity. That makes it even harder for key leaders to stick around long enough to turn big ideas into enduring transformations.