来源：《经济学人》
日期：2021年1月30日
When meeting big new challenges, chief executive officers often resort to a convenient tool: creating fresh executive roles. This helps channel resources to pressing problems and attract talent. It signals to staff and the wider world that bosses understand what really matters (and care about it).
当遇到新的重大挑战时，首席执行官们往往诉诸一种方便的工具：创造新的高管角色。这有助于把资源引向紧迫的问题，并吸引人才。它向员工和整个世界发出了这样的信号：老板明白什么才是真正重要的（并关心它）。
Sometimes, it ends up looking farcical—remember the surge of “chief listening officers” a decade ago, as companies sought to react to social-media chatter? But certain new C-suite roles do catch on; no self-respecting corporation can do without a chief sustainability officer these days. A few corporate positions that have gained prominence during a particularly turbulent 2020 are almost certainly here to stay.
有时候，这看起来很滑稽——还记得十年前，当公司试图对社交媒体上的议论做出反应时，“首席倾听官”激增吗？但某些新的高管职位确实很受欢迎；如今，任何有自尊心的大公司都离不开首席永续发展官。在一个特别动荡的2020年，一些在企业中声名鹊起的职位几乎肯定会继续存在。
The most obvious example is “chief medical officer”. Long common in industries where safety is an abiding concern (mining, say), health executives are now being recruited more widely, says Tony Lee of the Society for Human Resource Management. The pandemic is far from over, red tape around sick leave is becoming more tangled as a result of it, and mental-health problems among employees are likely to outlive the plague.
最明显的例子是"首席医务官"。人力资源管理协会的托尼•李说，长期以来，卫生主管在安全问题长期受到关注的行业(比如采矿业)中很常见，现在招聘卫生管理人员的行业范围更广了。疫情远未结束，病假的繁文缛节正因此变得更加复杂，员工的心理健康问题可能会比疫情持续的时间更长。
Another emerging role is that of “chief remote officer”, responsible for designing policies and spreading best practices for home-working. Succeeding could therefore mean making oneself redundant. Mr Lee thinks this role will eventually disappear, especially at smaller companies . As Bhushan Sethi of PwC, a consultancy, points out, something similar happened to chief digital officers, whom firms have recruited over the past decades. Digital executives’ ranks are beginning to thin now that digital technology has become part of most companies’ bread and butter.
另一个新出现的角色是“首席远程官”，负责为在家工作制定政策和推广最佳做法。因此，推广得成功可能意味着让自己变得多余。李先生认为这个角色最终会消失，尤其是在小公司。正如咨询公司普华永道的Sethi指出的那样，在过去几十年里，公司招聘的首席数字官也发生了类似的事情。如今，数字技术已经成为大多数公司赖以生存的一部分，数字高管的队伍开始减少。
Indeed, recruitment trends show that it is bread and butter that continues to preoccupy bosses. Hiring of “chief revenue officers” and “chief growth officers”, charged with coordinating firms’ sales-generating activities, has accelerated as pandemic lockdowns simultaneously restrict economies’ supply and demand sides, according to a survey by LinkedIn, a professional social network. Their share of C-suite hires is now, respectively, twice and nearly three times what it was in 2017.
事实上，招聘趋势表明，公司主营收入仍然是老板们关注的焦点。职场社交平台LinkedIn的一项调查显示，随着新冠大流行封锁同时限制经济体的供需两方面，负责协调企业销售活动的“首席收入官”和“首席增长官”的招聘速度有所加快。目前，他们在高管级别新员工的比例分别是2017年的两倍和近三倍。
However, last year’s hottest executive recruits had nothing to do with covid-19. As protests against racial injustice rocked America last summer, companies rushed to recruit chief diversity officers, who ensure their workforce is representative of society.
然而，去年招聘的最热门高管与新冠疫情没有任何关系。去年夏天，随着针对种族不平等的抗议活动震撼美国，各公司争相招募首席多元化官，以确保自己的员工能代表整个社会。
One risk to diversity chiefs’ future job security is that most of them have not been invited to sit at the corporate top table. Most lack a direct line to the CEO. At worst, the post becomes “a ceremonial role”, with no authority or resources, warns Michael Hyter of Korn Ferry, a consultancy. At best, like other fashionable corporate roles, it may eventually become redundant.
多元化高管未来工作保障面临的一个风险是，他们中的大多数人都没有被邀请参加公司的高层会议。大多数都没有与CEO直接联系的渠道。咨询公司光辉国际的迈克尔•海特警告称，最坏的情况是，这个职位成为一个“礼仪性的职位”，没有权力或资源。在最好的情况下，就像其他时髦的企业角色一样，最终可能会变得多余。