{"id":877734,"date":"2025-12-16T22:15:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T04:15:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/16\/behind-the-rise-of-the-chief-productivity-officer-and-what-it-means-for-companies-and-employees\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T22:15:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T04:15:16","slug":"behind-the-rise-of-the-chief-productivity-officer-and-what-it-means-for-companies-and-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/16\/behind-the-rise-of-the-chief-productivity-officer-and-what-it-means-for-companies-and-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the rise of the chief productivity officer and what it means for companies and employees"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Tony Case<\/a><\/span> \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 December 3, 2025<\/span> \u00a0\u2022<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\n Ivy Liu <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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A recent prediction in a Fast Company article<\/a> raised some eyebrows in the HR profession, proposing that by 2026 the traditional HR director title will begin to give way to another executive role: chief productivity officer.<\/p>\n

Rather than simply merging HR and IT, the newly created position of CPO (not to be confused with the already common chief people officer) is envisioned as the leader who orchestrates people and technology together to drive business outcomes. Moderna and the British government are among early adopters, but does the shift make sense for most other organizations?<\/p>\n

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Some people management experts say yes \u2014\u00a0if companies understand what the job is truly meant to solve for.<\/p>\n

Cliff Jurkiewicz, the author of the Fast Company article and vp of global strategy and GM of the Customer Advisory Council at tech company Phenom, said the rise of the CPO is a correction to a problem employers created: turning \u201chumans-in-the-loop\u201d into a job description rather than a technical safeguard. \u201cEmployees became the final catch for broken processes and half-built workflows,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s where work becomes draining instead of meaningful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jurkiewicz argues that the chief productivity officer title puts people back in the lead. The role establishes shared ownership of productivity across HR, IT and business teams, aligning skills development, workflow design and intelligent automation. \u201cPeople and technology now operate as one system,\u201d he explains. \u201cWithout someone stewarding that system, organizations drift into inefficiency.\u201d<\/p>\n

He points to three forces driving the shift: outdated leadership models, HR\u2019s struggle to redefine its strategic purpose and the realization that human and digital work must be managed as an integrated whole. \u201cThis isn\u2019t HR disappearing,\u201d he emphasizes. \u201cIt\u2019s HR being redefined around measurable productivity and intentional work design.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mark Onisk, chief content officer at the ed tech company Skillsoft, agrees that tighter integration is needed but cautions that merging HR and IT is only beneficial if it aligns with strategy and digital maturity. \u201cWhen these functions collaborate, organizations can better use skills data, AI-driven analytics, and integrated platforms to close skill gaps and boost productivity,\u201d he says. But without tech fluency, governance, and clear accountability, combining functions can create more confusion than clarity.<\/p>\n

Onisk notes that the shift is being accelerated by the move from role-based to skills-based models. HR and IT can no longer afford to operate in silos, yet collaboration, not necessarily a new C-suite title, may be the more effective solution.<\/p>\n

According to Erika Duncan, co-founder of HCM advisory People On Point, the prediction of a CPO replacing the HR director oversimplifies what\u2019s really happening. \u201cStrategic HR leaders have always been responsible for talent, performance, culture, and organizational effectiveness,\u201d she says. \u201cAI and workflow automation simply expand the toolkit.\u201d The real opportunity is integrating human capital strategy with technology enablement, not collapsing functions into one executive, she proposes.<\/p>\n

Neil Morrison, global chief people officer at EX platform Staffbase, shares that cautious view. He says organizations shouldn\u2019t assume a hybrid role is necessary if the CHRO and CIO are already aligned. \u201cDon\u2019t let gaps in focus convince you that you need a new role,\u201d he warns. \u201cMerging functions can risk bias toward one discipline, leaving blind spots in people strategy or technical enablement.\u201d<\/p>\n

For many organizations, Morrison believes the deeper message is that strategic alignment, not structural overhaul, is what\u2019s overdue.<\/p>\n

Some say the debate is mis-framed entirely, meanwhile. Gia Lacqua, CEO of marketing agency network elivate, argues that companies don\u2019t have productivity problems but, rather, capacity problems. \u201cPeople aren\u2019t drowning because they\u2019re not productive enough; they\u2019re drowning because they\u2019re overloaded and operating in survival mode,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

If a chief productivity officer simply demands more output, the role will fail, she suggests. But if it focuses on reducing friction and enabling meaningful work, it could represent a new era of human-centered leadership. \u201cIn that case, let\u2019s call it what it is: maybe chief performance officer,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

For Jan Hendrik von Ahlen, founder and managing director of JobLeads, a coaching and job listings platform, the CPO makes sense only if productivity is defined as outcomes, not oversight. \u201cAI is reshaping workflows, and growth comes from enablement, not headcount,\u201d he says. A strong CPO can connect skills to real work and simplify processes, he suggests.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t HR disappearing,\u201d he stresses. \u201cIt\u2019s HR gaining teeth and velocity.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

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\n More in Marketing<\/span>
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Read More<\/a>
\n Tony Case<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tony Case \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 December 3, 2025 \u00a0\u2022 Ivy Liu A recent prediction in a Fast Company article raised some eyebrows in the HR profession, proposing that by 2026 the traditional HR director title will begin to give way to another executive role: chief productivity officer. Rather than simply merging HR and IT, the newly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":877735,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1846,71,46],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-877734","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-behind","8":"category-chief","9":"category-technology"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=877734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/877735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=877734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=877734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=877734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}