Interim CHROs: A Growing Trend Fueled by Flexibility and Business Needs

When Jill Piggott decided to take her first role as an interim CHRO, she became part of a growing trend among HR executives. Piggott, who previously served only in permanent HR leadership positions, sought a career change that would provide more flexibility while also allowing her to continue doing the kind of HR work she loved.

“I wanted to leverage my expertise but do it in a way where I wasn’t committed for a long period of time as I was making some decisions about my future both from a career perspective and a geography standpoint,” said Piggott.

She is one of a growing number of HR executives taking interim roles. A study by global executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles found a 225% growth in the demand for interim CHROs between 2022 and 2023, and that high demand continued into 2024.

“We’re seeing strong demand for interim CHROs, particularly when companies are scaling their HR functions, undergoing major changes like cultural transformations, or dealing with mergers and acquisitions [M&As],” said Sunny Ackerman, global managing partner of On-Demand Talent at Heidrick & Struggles. The duration of interim assignments can range from a few months to a year to fill in the gap after the departure of an HR leader.

In Piggott’s case, she was brought into a three-month interim CHRO role at a title insurance company while its CHRO was out on a temporary leave of absence. The company was not only seeking a seasoned CHRO to fill that role, but someone with specific expertise around managing mergers and acquisitions because it needed to integrate workers of a recently acquired company.

“I had to quickly get up to speed and not let HR strategy and operations skip a beat, but also manage the integration and assimilate new employees in a productive way,” Piggott said.

The experience left a positive impression on Piggott, convincing her to pursue other interim CHRO jobs in the future.

“It provides more work/life balance in the sense you can take a short-term assignment, perhaps take some time off for family or other interests, and then take another short-term assignment when you’re ready,” Piggott said. “If you want to stay in a career space you love, and continue solving interesting problems and making an impact, interim CHRO can be a good way to go.”

An Increasingly Popular Role

Experts say this demand is being driven by a handful of factors. Startups and small organizations often see hiring interim CHROs as a cost-effective option to stand up or scale HR functions. Companies undergoing transformations—such as M&As, initial public offerings (IPOs), and adoption of artificial intelligence—seek HR executives with specific expertise in those areas. In other cases, interim CHROs are needed when incumbent HR executives abruptly retire or take new jobs without suitable internal successors in place.

“Among the benefits of hiring interim CHROs is they can isolate where the need or opportunity for HR expertise is and have an impact on organizations pretty quickly,” said Ackerman. “CEOs often value the fresh set of eyes and unbiased approach interim CHROs can bring to HR challenges, whether it’s a cultural issue, a leadership development issue, or a recruiting and retention challenge.”

The growing trend toward seeking external HR executives—both interim and permanent—is reflected in the Heidrick & Struggles’ study, which found that 57% of CHROs were external hires through the first three quarters of 2024, up from 42% in 2022.

“We also often see small or even mid-cap organizations whose growth warrants hiring interim CHROs,” Ackerman said. “Sometimes they’re building the HR function from the ground up or they’re eyeing future growth, and they hire HR expertise on a short-term basis because they’re not yet in a position to hire a permanent CHRO.”

An interim CHRO might be hired to conduct a detailed assessment of an existing HR function and establish new strategies or policies where needed—such as modernizing outdated functions with new processes and technologies—and then hand the reins to a permanent HR executive to run the revamped department.

That was partly the case in Piggott’s interim CHRO job, where she saw a need to update M&A policies and practices to help facilitate the integration of a new company. “That may not have happened had a fresh set of eyes not come in,” Piggott said.

Why HR Leaders Like Interim Gigs

Those who have served as interim CHROs say the job appealed to them for a variety of reasons, often because of the flexibility and variety in the role. Eric Mochnacz, director of operations for Red Clover, a New Jersey-based provider of HR outsourcing services, has served as an interim CHRO for a number of organizations.

“I’ve enjoyed the roles because they’ve given me a chance to drive impactful change over a short period of time,” said Mochnacz, who set HR strategy and culture in his temporary HR executive jobs. “It also often allows CHROs to choose the kind of work or projects they’re passionate about.”

The role can also appeal to CHROs approaching retirement or who are considering returning to work after being retired for short periods, he said. “People who are later in their HR careers see it as a good opportunity to remain active in the field, contribute their expertise, and maintain connections, while having more flexibility and freedom in their work,” he said.

Taking an interim CHRO job can also be more a matter of circumstance than of choice.

“There are a lot of experienced HR professionals who’ve been impacted by layoffs,” said Mochnacz. “Going forward, some want more control of their own destiny and to sell themselves as a valuable resource that isn’t a permanent investment for a company.”

Challenges of Interim CHRO Roles

Taking on an interim executive role isn’t without its challenges. Given their short tenures, interim CHROs have to be prepared to hit the ground running.

“You need to establish yourself quickly as an interim CHRO,” Mochnacz said. “That can be challenging because employees or even executive peers often don’t see you as a permanent solution, so they may not buy into your ideas because they’re thinking, ‘Well, in six months, he’ll be gone and we can change things back anyway.’ ”

That challenge can extend to an interim CHRO’s own mindset.

“In the back of their minds, they may be thinking, ‘Will everything I do here stick and will my efforts be worth it?’ ”  he said. “ ‘Will the company continue to use what I’ve instituted and follow my advice after I leave and they hire a permanent CHRO?’ You can only control so much of that.”

Piggott said that, while she thoroughly enjoyed her first interim CHRO job, there were obstacles to overcome. “I had some level of hesitancy around being able to fully own things and make them what I believe they should be,” she said. “In an interim role, you can’t always put your stamp on operations the way you would as a permanent CHRO.”

Dave Zielinski is a freelance business journalist and a frequent contributor to SHRM publications.