Across the Middle East, the role of the Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) is being redefined. Once regarded as custodians of compliance and payroll, today’s HR leaders are shaping transformation agendas, workforce strategies, and organizational culture at board level.
In a recent conversation, Ghada Salah, CHRO and board member at Al-Bathar Engineering Group, reflected on what this shift means in practice. Recognised as HR Director of the Year 2024 at the HR ME Excellence Awards, Ghada draws on two decades of HR transformation experience to explore:
- Why CHROs need to unlearn what they once knew
- How CHROs are turning human capital into growth drivers
- How to balance between HR transformation and culture in the region
- Why CHROs now belong at the strategy table
- Ghada’s advice on the qualities that future HR leaders should develop
Why Do CHROs Need to Unlearn Traditional HR Rules?
“You cannot rely on yesterday’s playbook,” Ghada says. “We need to unlearn rigid policies, the concept of one-size-fit-all approaches, and the idea that HR is just transactional.”
She compares the process to updating a phone: “If you don’t delete old apps, you will never have space to update or to add new sophisticated apps.”
She explains that unlearning is all about freeing HR from comfort zones and creating space for agility, innovation, and people-first strategies: a critical mindset in a multi-cultural, dynamic region as the Middle East.
How Are CHROs Turning Human Capital Into Growth?
“Human capital is no longer seen as a cost. It’s a growth driver,” Ghada says. “Budgets that once focused on payroll and compliance now support AI-powered learning academies, wellness programmes, and leadership labs.”
CHROs, she adds, are no longer asking for investment — “they are making the business case that talent is the investment.”
It’s a message that resonates across industries adopting AI and automation technologies: the most valuable capital is still human.
How Can HR Drive Transformation Without Losing Culture?
Ghada calls this the region’s biggest HR challenge: “The UAE has grown massively in the past 20 years. HR has to hustle behind with the people’s strategy to cope.”
But growth, she says, must remain sensitive to context. “When we tailor our strategy, it must address everyone in the organisation, including gender, nationality, and age.”
Cultural intelligence and empathy have become competitive advantages that all HR leaders must develop, in order to manage diverse, hybrid, and tech-augmented teams.
What Does It Mean for CHROs to Have a Seat at the Table?
“We had to fight our way to demand a seat on the table,” Ghada recalls. “Because HR in the Middle East 20 years back was like an admin — a personnel function to process paperwork and requests.”
That has changed. “Now CHROs sit at the board table driving strategy, not just supporting it,” she says. “People strategy is business strategy.”
It’s a transformation accelerated by AI, analytics, and the need for human-led decision-making in digital workplaces.
What Qualities Should Future HR Leaders Develop?
Ghada sums it up:
“My encouragement to every HR leader listening to this, don't be afraid to unlearn, experiment with new tools. Joy is very important. We need to bring joy back to the employee and to the employee experience because when people love where they work, they don't just stay, they thrive — and that's how businesses win."
Listen to the greytFM podcast here:
Explore greytHR, the Full-Suite HRMS Trusted by 30,000+ Businesses
Discover how greytHR simplifies HR, payroll, and workforce management - so CHROs can focus on strategy, not spreadsheets: Book a demo
