Top HR Influencers in 2020: The Most Inclusive HR Influencer List

There's a few reasons why organizations make "most influential" or "influencer" lists. Usually, they are pay to play or a clickbait list used to generate leads for a vendor. The problem with those lists, however, is they are often pretty homogenous. When done in this way for this purpose, they contribute to societal norms and are pretty monochromatic and single-gendered (aka full of lots of white men). And, it's done so in a way that's pretty harmful to achieve diversity and inclusion.

Last year, I came up with the idea to publish "The Most Inclusive HR Influencer List™," which would be a list full of amazing HR leaders from all segments of HR from all over the world. The idea was to create a nominations-based list that would allow people to submit nominations for people who have made an impact on their Human Resources careers and organizations. In addition to the nomination form, nominees were required to meet minimal criteria to ensure influencers were making a difference both inside organizations as well as sharing best practices and lessons online with the HR community.

In October of 2019, I launched the first ever The Most Inclusive HR Influencer List. What I saw was incredible: over 200 nominations for over 150 HR leaders from 15 countries on 6 continents. Even more, the list was roughly 60/40 women to men and 65/35 White to BIPOC HR leaders. Needless to say, I was shocked by the immediate and forceful response.

Over the next year, I launched two more lists (as promised). The first relaunch in May 2020 and the second update just one short week ago. The May 2020 Top HR Influencers List update celebrated over 180 HR leaders, adding 20 new members to The List. And, as promised, increased the diversity of the list.

The most recent list, December 2020's list, is one I'm most proud of, though. Last week, The Most Inclusive HR Influencer List™ relaunched and featured over 250 HR leaders from 17 countries around the world. The list, once again, continued to equalize with 57/43 women to men ratio and 60/40 White to BIPOC.

Beyond that, kicking off our inaugural list last year, we started off with one sponsor - Ultimate Software. By last week, more organizations have gotten involved and we're thrilled today to be sponsored by SMB HCM solution GoCo.io, Mid-Market and Enterprise HCM suite UKG, as well as HR consulting firm Humareso.

Needless to say, something that started as an offshoot idea shared on Twitter for market feedback has quickly spiraled into an industry movement - working toward diversifying and amplifying voices of influence in HR. As we look forward to 2021, we cannot wait to see what's in store for the HR industry and The Most Inclusive HR Influencer List.

See how you can get involved here.