CHROs have long helped organizations navigate economic cycles, market disruption, and changing workforce expectations. What feels different now, says Corinna Refsgaard, CHRO at GXO Logistics, is the convergence of pressures that organizations are asking their employees to absorb.
For the US multinational, which operates across 27 countries and generated $13.2bn in revenue in 2025, managing the human impact of these pressures is a test of culture at scale.
Post-COVID changes and the rapid rise of AI are reshaping the way we work, leaving employees uncertain about the validity of their existing skills and the future of their jobs. Against a backdrop of ongoing geopolitical tension, social change, and the climate crisis, uncertainty and unease extend far beyond the workplace.
“People know things are changing,” Refsgaard explains. “But when change feels too big, it creates a perceived lack of control. That impacts people’s lives and they bring that anxiety into the workplace.”
Employers cannot take all the uncertainty out of their employees’ lives, but they can empower them to take an active role in shaping the future of work.
By helping employees understand what is changing, why it matters and what behaviors will help them succeed, CHROs can transform how employees view change, from something that happens to them, into something they help create.
“Every company has a culture by default. But employers need to be intentional about what they want to achieve,” says Refsgaard.
At GXO, culture is now a strategic issue. Under the direction of new CEO Patrick Kelleher, who took up the post in August 2025, the business has sharpened its strategic priorities, including to accelerate organic growth and embrace the opportunities that automation and AI are creating.
Refsgaard explains that a review of organizational culture was a key aspect of GXO’s strategic repositioning: “We asked ourselves what our culture looks like today, which behaviors we want to carry forward, and where we need to improve.”
This makes culture more than a set of values. It becomes a shared language for how to behave, how to learn, and how to maintain a sense of purpose in a changing organization.
In periods of uncertainty, therefore, a strong culture offers a stable frame of reference. As work becomes more fluid, task-oriented, and skills-based, employees may question their future relevance.
A strong work culture and offering opportunities for skills development provides reassurance. “People need to know what they must let go of, which new capabilities they need, and how this will impact their contribution to the business,” explains Refsgaard.
A strong culture also fosters psychological safety. It gives employees the confidence to speak up when they have questions and concerns and to experiment without fear of punishment for mistakes. “This helps people feel like they are part of a team and not alone in navigating change,” she comments.
Asking for help, seeking feedback or admitting you do not have all the answers shows employees that uncertainty does not need to be hidden.
At GXO, culture starts at the top. “Leaders bring culture to life,” says Refsgaard. “Our new leadership framework defines the capabilities leaders need to deliver today, prepare for what’s coming and, critically, support their teams through this transition.”
In practice, this means leaders communicating openly and modelling the behaviors they want their teams to adopt. “Asking for help, seeking feedback or admitting you do not have all the answers shows employees that uncertainty does not need to be hidden,” she adds. “It can be discussed, explored and worked through collectively.”
Cultural change cannot just happen in pockets. In periods of change, Refsgaard argues, employees need to be able to share knowledge, scale good ideas and draw on the capabilities of the whole organization in a connected support system.
But collaboration will only become the default if it is reinforced. That’s why incentives are an important part of the CHRO’s cultural work. Refsgaard explains that aligned goals help connect individual and local performance to the success of the wider business.
Recognition is another important motivating tool. Refsgaard points to the power of celebrating teams that work across functions and regions, as well as people who are able to scale ideas successfully.
By practicing such positive reinforcement of the values and characteristics the organization wants employees to repeat, leaders can establish a virtuous, self-perpetuating circle of behaviors.
Our listening strategy gives us early indicators of where we may see a yellow light.
How do companies know whether culture is actually landing with the workforce? For Refsgaard, measurement needs to combine lagging indicators with active listening.
“Metrics such as turnover and absenteeism are important because they tell us where something may be going wrong and where additional support is needed,” says Refsgaard. But these signs often appear when employees are already disengaged.
Active listening mechanisms help organizations identify problems and intervene earlier. GXO recently launched its first global employee sentiment survey. And it is using spot surveys to check in with employees during some of the most impactful moments in the employee lifecycle to understand where issues could arise and proactively implement solutions.
These include onboarding, performance conversations, learning, and exit, as well as critical business touchpoints such as contract implementation.
“Our listening strategy gives us early indicators of where we may see a yellow light,” says Refsgaard. “That gives us the chance to help leaders improve the environment for our people to perform.” Critically, listening must lead to action. Employees need to see their feedback translated into positive practical measures, Refsgaard says.
Your learning strategy – a key driver of growth
GXO’s experience points to a broader lesson for CHROs. Culture gives employees the clarity, safety, and agency they need to keep moving forward in an environment that shows no signs of imminent stabilization.
But it must be the product of intentional design that leadership reflects in its behaviors, reinforces through recognition, and tests through active listening.
This makes the CHRO’s role both more challenging and more important.
The opportunity for CHROs, then, is to build cultures that are clear enough to guide behavior, safe enough to support learning, and strong enough to carry employees through change.
It is about creating an intuitive supporting framework that guides, reassures, and supports innovation and ambition to make the most of what the future has to offer. “We are business enablers,” says Refsgaard. “Everything is linked to people.”
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