Cornerstone study backs shared CHRO-CIO workforce planning

Cornerstone has published research suggesting companies make workforce decisions faster when Chief Human Resources Officers and Chief Information Officers share responsibility for workforce readiness. The study surveyed 2,000 HR leaders, IT leaders and employees across the US, Europe, Australia and New Zealand.

The findings point to a gap between how many boards view workforce readiness in the AI era and how companies are actually making decisions. While 94% of HR and IT leaders said a more adaptive, shared approach to workforce planning is now essential, only 35% of decision-makers said AI decisions are made jointly by HR and IT, and 48% said they work towards shared goals.

Organisations with shared ownership between the CHRO and CIO act on workforce changes 13% faster, according to the research. They were also 67% more likely to say they felt equipped to make decisions at the pace required by AI-driven change.

The pressure is not limited to technology adoption. Leaders identified the introduction of AI tools or AI-driven ways of working as the biggest area of change at 45%, followed by new digital tools beyond AI at 44%, new skills required to perform jobs at 41%, and increased productivity expectations at 35%.

That pace is already affecting internal planning. Some 65% of leaders said their organisation had experienced a high level of change over the past 12 months, and 69% expected that rate to continue.

Decision gap

The study found that limited coordination between HR and IT is carrying operational costs. Half of leaders said skills gaps were going unaddressed for too long, 44% reported delays in decisions on hiring, redeployment and restructuring, and 41% said productivity targets were being missed.

More than half, 54%, identified a lack of alignment between IT and HR as one of the main barriers to acting on workforce data. Respondents pointed to a lack of joint planning between AI strategy and workforce development, slow upskilling and reskilling processes, limited visibility into future skills needs, difficulty predicting future roles, and fragmented workforce data.

The research also linked AI use in workforce planning to stronger organisational readiness. Companies using AI for workforce planning were more than twice as likely to say they had the processes, data and tools needed to make workforce decisions quickly: 63% versus 30% among those that did not.

Guna Jayaraman, Chief AI Officer at Cornerstone, said the underlying issue is often the separation of workforce and technology planning across different systems.

"The organisations making progress bring workforce and technology decisions together from the start, rather than trying to sort out alignment after decisions have already been made," said Guna Jayaraman, Chief AI Officer at Cornerstone.

"CIOs and CHROs need a shared view of current skills, changing roles and future needs so they can make decisions faster and with more confidence. For most organisations, workforce information is spread across systems that do not work well together, if at all. AI can help connect those signals, but only if it gives leaders one clear view of their workforce, shared priorities and the ability to act on what they see," Jayaraman said.

Employee strain

The study found that the effects of organisational change are also visible among employees. Some 65% said their day-to-day responsibilities had changed meaningfully in the past year, while 89% said more support from their employer would help them keep up.

Only 17% said they felt completely prepared for how their role would evolve over the next 12 to 24 months. A majority, 60%, described their employer's approach to skills development as reactive, with support arriving during or after change rather than beforehand.

The figures also suggest a mismatch between employee effort and organisational backing. While 58% said they were learning new skills to support their current role, only 39% said they were receiving support from their employer to do so. Just 22% strongly agreed that they receive the support they need for continued development.

Organisations where HR and IT work from shared data and in close coordination are nearly three times more likely to report that employees are better prepared for change than they were a year earlier, the research found.

Carina Cortez, Chief People Officer at Cornerstone, said the issue now extends beyond talent management to broader business adaptation.

"CHROs are being asked to keep talent moving at the pace of technology, and that is becoming harder to do with fragmented data and disconnected planning," said Carina Cortez, Chief People Officer at Cornerstone.

"This is now a board-level mandate because workforce readiness is measured by how well organisations adapt as work changes and how quickly employees can succeed in new realities. Employees will embrace AI when they understand how it will improve their work and when they have the support to adapt. That requires HR and IT to act as one team with the right data to make it possible," Cortez said.

The survey covered respondents at organisations with 1,000 or more employees across sectors including financial services, manufacturing, healthcare, higher education, retail, energy, technology and telecommunications.