Human Resource Champions: The Next Agenda for Adding Value and Delivering Results

by Dave Ulrich
Review courtesy of opm.gov

"How can human resources (HR) create value and deliver results?" Turning traditional thinking about HR
management upside down, Dave Ulrich challenges HR professionals to define the value they create for
customers and employees. Delivering results means focusing on the outcomes and results of human resources
work.

Organizational Capabilities. Ulrich notes that the pace of change required by technology, globalization,
profitable growth, and customer demands places workforce competence and organizational capabilities at center
stage. Organizational capabilities are things an organization does better than its competition, a source of
competitive advantage (such as streamlining order-to-remittance process, learning more quickly than
competitors, organizing around customer requirements). He challenges readers to redefine organizational
capabilities to sustain and integrate individual competencies. He insists that HR professionals need to frame
what they do in terms of the organizational capabilities they must create.

Multiple Role Model. Most books on human resources are organized around human resources practices. This
book is organized differently; it is organized around the deliverables or outcomes of human resources work and
the activities required to accomplish these outcomes. Ulrich presents a framework that clearly shows four key
roles that human resources professionals must fulfill in order to add the greatest value to the organization. The
two axes represent focus and activities. HR professionals must focus on both the strategic and the operational,
both long-term and short-term. Activities range from managing processes to managing people. These two axes
delineate four principal roles.
Future/Strategic Focus
Strategic Partner Change Agent
Processes People
Administrative Expert Employee Champion
Day-to-day/Operational Focus

Strategic partners translate business strategy into action. They systematically assess and align HR practices
with business strategy. Organizations have numerous systems. The ability to design, integrate, and operate these
systems is the essence of effective organizations. Building new organizational capabilities call for performance
management programs aligned with the desired outcomes. Deliverable/outcome: executing strategy.

Administrative experts improve processes, apply the principles of reengineering business processes to human
resources processes, rethink value creation, rethink how work is performed, and measure human resources
results in terms of efficiency (cost) and effectiveness (quality). Deliverable/outcome: building an efficient
infrastructure.

Employee champions listen and respond to employees and find the right balance between demands on
employees and resources available to employees. They promote employee contributions. Deliverable/outcome:
increasing employee commitment and capability.

Change agents understand the theory and apply the tools of change. They lead transformation by doing it first
within the human resources function. They serve as catalysts for change, facilitators of change, and designers of
systems for change. Deliverable/outcome: creating a renewed organization.

Ulrich devotes an entire chapter to each role. He provides numerous surveys and assessment tools. Actual
business applications and outcomes permeate the book. His bottom line is that human resources champions
master, align, and leverage these practices so that employees, customers, and investors receive value.
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For companies striving to meet the competitive challenges of today and tomorrow - including globalization,
technology, profitability through growth, and capacity for change - the management of human resources holds
the key to future success.

Ulrich urges a shift of the HR professional's mentality from "what I do" to "what I deliver" and identifies four
distinct roles that human resources staff must assume in order to make the transition: strategic partner,
administrative expert, employee champion, and change agent. Full of examples from dozens of companies that
have transformed their HR functions, Human Resource Champions provides hands-on tools that show HR
professionals how they can operate in all four areas simultaneously. It offers specific recommendations for HR
staff and line managers about how to establish a partnership to deliver value and make their organizations more
competitive.

What is HR business partnering?

The concept of business partnering emerged in the mid 1990s. In Human resource champions1, Ulrich identified
‘in terms of deliverables - four key roles that HR professionals must fulfill to make their business partnership a
reality’ and for HR to transform itself into a 'value adding function'.

These four key roles are indicated in the table below.

Strategic Partner Aligning HR and business strategy: ‘organisational diagnosis’

Administrative Expert Reengineering organisation processes: ‘shared services’
Employee Champion Listening and responding to employees: ‘providing resources to employees’
Change Agent Managing transformation and change: ‘ensuring capacity for change’

The role identified by Ulrich here which has since received a great deal of attention is that of ‘Strategic Partner’
In essence this involves working closely with senior business leaders on strategy execution, in particular
designing HR systems and processes that address strategic business issues: a big departure then for HR from the
responsive approach adopted in the past. Most commentators agree that today’s HR function needs to be much
more business-focused. In practice this means being more customer-focused; cost efficient; innovative, and
structured in such a way that it can quickly respond to changing priorities.

In practice there is often overlap across some of these roles. Strategic Partners for example may also take on the
role of Change Agent. Equally HR practitioners in roles other than Strategic Partner adopt a more strategic
focus. Practitioners operating as Administrative Experts can play a strategic role; an example would be putting
together a business case for implementing a shared service, something which if not implemented effectively can
damage the employee relationship.

Ulrich's identification of the Strategic Partner role has influenced the design of strategic business partner or
business partner roles in many organisations - although in practice there is a great deal of variety in terms of the
nature and level of the work carried out by the job holder.

Not surprisingly HR structures and HR roles are not static. They need to evolve to reflect changing business
priorities. Despite the popularity of the so-called 'Ulrich model', not all organisations have implemented it in its

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‘purest’ form. Research by CIPD into the changing HR function indicates that although Ulrich’s model appears
to be a popular structure adopted for the HR function in the UK, in practice less than 30% of survey respondents
had introduced the model in full. A further 30% indicated that they had partially introduced the Ulrich model.

• Find out more about our Changing HR function research report

The research identified that a variation of Ulrich’s model, referred to as the ‘three-legged stool’ model has been
adopted by several larger organisations when re-structuring their HR function. Broadly these three functional
areas include:

• Shared services – a single, often relatively large, unit that handles all the routine ‘transactional’ services
across the business. Shared services typically provide resourcing, payroll, absence monitoring, and
advice on the simpler employee relations issues. Shared services’ remit is to provide low-cost, effective
HR administration. For further information see our factsheet on HR shared service centres.
o Go to our HR shared service centres factsheet
• Centres of excellence – usually small teams of HR experts with specialist knowledge of leading-edge
HR solutions. The role of centres of excellence is to deliver competitive business advantages through
HR innovations in areas such as reward, learning, engagement and talent management. Some major
multinationals have ‘centres of expertise’ focused purely on developing the HR talent pipeline.
• Strategic business partners – senior HR professionals working closely with business leaders
influencing and steering strategy and strategy implementation. The role can vary enormously depending
on organisational size and business priorities. Some activities that strategic partners are likely to be
involved in include:
o organisational and people capability building
o longer term resource and talent management planning
o using business insights to drive change in people management practices
o intelligence gathering of good people management practices internally and externally, so they
can raise issues that executives may not be aware of.

Few organisations create clear boundaries between these different functional areas and here is often a degree of
overlap. For example, although complex employee relations issues might be handled by a centre of excellence,
strategic partners can find themselves entangled in local employee relations issues, particularly if they do not
have the relevant skills or support from other functional areas. For business partnering to work successfully
there needs to be good working relationships between HR practitioners in different functional teams. If not, the
reputation of the whole HR function will be in jeopardy. As business partners work more closely with seniors
they are the ones that will have to deal with negative feedback about the HR function overall.

Why are organisations embracing business partnering?

Business partners (or Strategic Partners) have been introduced as part of a broader HR transformation agenda.
The key drivers are:

• Cost efficiency. Whilst the introduction of shared services is seen as being particularly important to
achieving savings, these cannot be realised without other roles operating effectively. In the US,
partnering appears driven not by cost pressures but by the need for HR to support a smarter, stronger
organisation. HR services that are distributed across a number of businesses or geographical locations
may be likely candidates for restructuring. Relatively large HR functions are also probable targets,
where ‘large’ is often interpreted as more than one HR professional per 100 employees. HR functions
that can’t show bottom-line business benefits will sooner or later be cut back.

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 • Accelerating competition. HR has become central to business competitiveness. Organisations need HR
functions that can deliver skilled, creative, motivated, flexible and committed employees. Innovative
world-class HR has become a commercial necessity; hence the growth of centres of excellence,
especially in knowledge-based sectors where the expertise and energy of employees is critical.
• Rising expectations of HR. Organisations are beginning to expect more from HR. Business leaders see
HR in other organisations contributing to strategy, enabling the execution of business plans, and
delivering tangible commercial benefits. Inevitably they go on to ask how their own HR functions need
to change to make real differences to their businesses. The popular answer is the appointment of
strategic HR partners who become engaged with and accountable to the business, yet are the eyes and
ears of HR. Strategic partners shape both what the business does and what HR does; they exist to ensure
HR meets the new expectations of business leaders.

Implementing business partnering

Whilst business partnering can bring significant business benefits, organisations often experience a number of
issues implementing the role as part of a broader HR transformation agenda.

Organisations thinking about introducing business partners as part of a broader HR transformation agenda need
to consider:

• Ensure that there is a clear rationale for the proposed changes and that this is a joint decision between
the business and HR, not one that HR tries to foist on the business. Without a clear rationale and clear
vision the expected cost efficiencies may not be realised.
• Assess and prepare the ground for change. Success of the business partner role is very much dependent
on the organisation’s receptiveness to HR practitioners adopting new roles. Sufficient time needs to be
allowed to ensure that there is a common understanding of what the role is and what it is not.
• Ensure sufficient time to openly discuss partnering, what it means and what adjustments are needed both
within HR and across the wider business. As line managers will be most affected by the changes it is
important that they are consulted and adequately prepared for the changes.
• Assess the skills needed to perform the business partner role. It is important to avoid making the
assumption that existing HR managers have the necessary skills and behaviours to move into business
partner roles.
• Think through the likely barriers to achieving a smooth transition to the new structures:
o Line managers’ reluctance to take on more people management responsibilities, or lack of skills
to do so.
o Poor, or slow transactional HR services and intranets.
o The absence of a consistent business strategy with which HR can work.

Strengthening partnering

Very few organisations get partnering right first time. It is important that the relationship is reviewed on a
regular basis, both informally and formally. HR functions can strengthen partnering through the following:

• Taking an interest in the key business performance measures, for example, sales, costs, production,
utilisation.
• Making sure that business partners are involved in the business planning process at the outset and that
they are well prepared for planning meetings. This requires spending time reading up on broader
economic, social and political trends affecting the business.

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 • Setting the personal objectives of strategic HR partners (and perhaps those in centres of excellence) so
that they are aligned to those of managers in the business areas that they are assigned to. Maintaining an
on-going debate about how HR is performing. Ask the organisation’s leaders, line managers, HR
professionals and other functions. All of HR should be listening to, and responding to, its stakeholders.
Use tools like 360 degree feedback and customer satisfaction surveys to obtain a broad range of views
on how well the HR function, including business partners, are fulfilling their role. See our factsheet on
360 feedback for more information on that topic.
o Go to our factsheet on 360 feedback
• Building teamwork within HR through joint projects, knowledge sharing, away-days, peer coaching and
celebrating successes. Where partnering seems to be faltering, get all the HR professionals involved in
addressing the problem.
• Making HR a role model for other functions by benchmarking HR team performance against HR teams
in competitor organisations.

Appointing and developing business partners

Finding good business partners is proving difficult. Some US research concluded half of HR professionals lack
the skill sets needed2. In the UK, demand for, and salaries offered to, business partners have risen significantly3.

The appointment of business partners presents special challenges. The capabilities required by business partners
are different to those required in other HR roles. They need to develop different skill sets, such as strategic
thinker, consultancy skills, relationship management, expert networker, business and financial understanding,
change management, as well as influencing and political awareness skills. Recognising that the skills and
behaviours needed by business partners are different to those found in traditional HR manager roles many
organisations are using assessment centres to select the right people - see our factsheet on Assessment centres in
recruitment and selection.

• Go to our factsheet on Assessment centres

Those in the role often have to ‘hit the ground running’. Though they may need development, if business
partners don’t deliver successes in their first few months, their credibility and confidence falls and they can
revert to being helpful HR generalists, so it is important that development covers business and personal
development.

Implications for HR careers

Partnering implies big changes in HR careers.

• Whilst there will always be jobs for HR generalists, in the future there may be fewer of them. An
increasing number of HR professionals will have to choose which specialist role is right for them. HR
professionals will need to actively manage their own careers. Our research report Managing and
developing HR careers shows that career paths may not be as clear as in the past and individuals may
need to pursue ‘zig-zag’ careers to progress. In addition more attention may be needed to create
pathways by which individuals can acquire the experience to perform senior HR roles.
o Find out more about our Managing and developing HR careers report
• HR directors and line managers will want HR professionals who have added significant value to
organisations. Qualifications, years of experience and leading-edge projects may count for little, unless
practitioners can demonstrate how they have added value.

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 • Branding is crucial. HR functions that shape and implement business strategy will attract the most able
HR professionals, whereas those that tinker with a strategy largely decided by managers will struggle to
get good people.
• Ulrich has commented on the importance of ensuring the right HR leadership to lead the HR function: a
role that involves:
o leading the HR function
o collaborating with other functions
o setting and enhancing the standards for strategic thinking, as well as ensuring corporate
governance.
• In addition the HR leader will need to ensure that there is a robust talent management programme for the
HR function ensuring a future supply of skilled and agile HR professionals.

CIPD viewpoint

The key value of Ulrich’s model does not lie in outlining new structures but in his analysis of HR roles.
Business partnering refocuses attention on some basic issues about how HR is to achieve its aims: supporting
line managers, aligning HR activities with the business and delivering efficient services. However, partnering is
not simply a repackaging of good HR practice. Partnering is a ‘paradigm shift’ for most HR functions, one that
requires a step change in HR’s values, operation and skills. The function must ensure that it has the right
structures and roles in place to meet organisational and employee needs rather than slavishly following a
specific model because it seems fashionable to do so.

Many of today’s interpretations of partnering could mean a diminution of Ulrich’s ‘Employee Champion’ role.
Some writers have commented how HR, with its increasing allegiance to strategic business partnering, is taking
its eye off employee needs4. It's important that the need to engage employees, so they are willing to give
discretionary effort, is not overlooked (see our factsheet on employee engagement).

• Go to our factsheet on Employee engagement

If organisational performance would benefit from more emphasis on the ‘Employee Champion’ role, an
effective HR function needs to provide it.

References

1. ULRICH, D. (1997) Human resource champions: the next agenda for adding value and delivering
results. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
2. MOHRMAN, S.A., LAWLER, L.E. and MCMAHAN, G.C. (1996) New directions for the human
resources organization. New York: Human Resource Planning Society.
3. BECKETT, H. (2005) Perfect partners. People Management supplement: The Guide to Recruitment
Consultancies. April. pp16-17,19-20,23.
4. FRANCIS, H. and KEEGAN, A. (2005) Slippery slope. People Management. 30 June. pp26-28,30-31.

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INTERVIEW WITH DAVE ULRICH
by DAVID CREELMAN OF HR.COM

DC- David Creelman of HR.COM

DU - Dave Ulrich

DC- Tell us about your views on the roles HR should play?

DU- There are four roles I talked about in the book, HR Champions. The key is to really be a business partner
and create real value to a business. There are 4 roles you can play to accomplish this:
1. 1. a strategic partner role, where you help turn strategy into results by building organizations that create
value;
2. 2. the second is the “change agent role”, where you help make change happen and, in particular, you help it
happen fast;
3. 3. the third is the “employee champion role”, where you manage the talent or the intellectual capital within a
firm; and,
4. 4. the fourth would be an “administrative role” where you try to get things to happen better, faster, cheaper.

DC- Let’s take these roles and apply them to a case study. Let’s say I am a bank manager and I think I do a
pretty good job. I take my job seriously, I take people seriously, and I am selective with who I hire. Why on
earth do I need any HR person coming in with their systems and forms to help me do my job?

DU- Well, if we look at this in terms of the roles (and I will do this rather erratically), with the “strategic partner
role”, what the HR manager should help you do is figure out how to deal with the organization and brass to help
you succeed. Are there things my branch needs to do? Are there things we can learn from other branches? Do
we need to make decisions faster? Do we need a better work culture? And, how can we focus to help the branch
be more efficient and effective at what I need it to do?

In the “change agent role” we have to ask: What are the changes going on in my branch? What are the customer
expectations? What are the new technologies in banking and how do I get people ready and skilled to do it?

In the “employee champion role” where HR is looking at the talent, they need to ask: Do my people have the
skills my customer’s expect? Do they interact the way the customers’ would want them to or when a customer
comes into my branch are they getting their needs met the way the expected?

And the “administrative role”: Are all the administrative things relating to the 20 people in my branch being
done? Are payroll, benefits, and work hours being done in a way that helps me succeed?

DC- As the branch manager I think I’m already managing the HR issues myself; I don’t really want an HR
person coming in from HQ to tell me what to do.

DU- Well, the HR person has to explain I am from corporate and I am here to help. The reality is the branch
manager has ultimate responsibility for everything that goes in and out of his or her branch, but what an HR
person does is bring in a particular expertise. For example an HR person may say: “You have a turnover rate of
over 140%, so something must be going on here because you are not able to keep the people in place and,
therefore, you spend a lot of your time recruiting and re-engaging people. Maybe we could go do some research
and see what we could do to get that turnover down to about 30% a year, so you could spend your time doing
other things.” My job as the HR person is to bring some expertise and some knowledge to the table. I am not
going to do your job that is silly; but I also may have some expertise that may allow you to do your job better.

DC- The role you just described sounds like a consulting role, as the HR people are trying to understand and
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help with the business issues. My experience with HR is that they come into a branch with some new system
that they have, such as a performance management system, and they say, “We want you to implement this.”
Any comment on that?

DU- Yes, I think what you are describing is the old HR, and the HR role is changing. The old HR was there to
make sure you, the branch manager, do everything we ask you to do. In the new HR, there are still some of the
administrative things to get done—hopefully through technology—you know, your people will be paid on time,
benefits administration, all that stuff, but my job as the HR person is to figure out how I get your organization to
do its best.

DC- Let me give you another situation: Our company has decided to open a branch office in Taiwan. Now, of
course, we will hire a local HR person to do the hiring, deal with local laws and stuff, but how can corporate
HR help with the opening of the office in Taiwan?

DU- Well, there’s really a whole series of organizational diagnostics you need to do. One would be, what kind
of organization are we going to need? What will be the culture and the values? How will people work together
and what will be the work environment? What kind of capabilities is the staffer going to need to be successful?
Are we going to need to be fast? Are we going to have to have quality? What are the organizational
characteristics that the firm will need to succeed?

Secondly, what are the HR systems that will help us achieve these capabilities? One system is staffing: Do we
want to hire local or do we want to hire expatriates? Do we want to hire part-time or full-time? A second system
would be training and development: Do we want to bring in people from other sites and have them on part-time
to train the new staff? That’s what Nordstrom’s does.

A third organizational diagnostic is compensation: What is going to be our compensation philosophy?

A fourth would be the broader recognition of philosophy and rewards: Do we give flexible hours? Flexible
benefits? And if so, is what we do based on strategy and/or geographic conditions?

A fifth would be communication: How do we begin to build a common form of communication and culture
within the plant?

A sixth might be policies and procedures: What are the policies and procedures within this plant?

Again, all of those six things and the HR systems will build a set of capabilities that will allow the plant to
succeed in Taiwan. And the corporate HR person there really becomes an organizational diagnostician, as what
they are really doing is redefining the role of HR, redefining the view of HR. HR is not the person who comes
in and says, “Let’s get payroll processed.” It’s really an organizational consultant or diagnostician who helps
build the entire organization to help a business succeed.

DC- So if we talk of HR as a consultant or diagnostician/change agent, do you think some of the other staff
functions play a similar role? For example, is a finance director also a change agent?

DU- Absolutely. In fact, what you often have are teams. If you are opening a plant in Taiwan (if that’s where
you are going to), you probably have a team of people: a legal person who understands local laws and
restrictions, a finance person, an HR person, probably a geographic person. What often gets talked about is
creating centers of expertise in each of those areas, which come together in virtual teams to help a company
succeed. HR is just one of the members of those virtual teams.

DC- Everyone I talk to likes being a strategic partner. Whether an economist at a bank or an IT specialist, they
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all want to be part of that team. Are you concerned about there being too many people crowded around the
table?

DU- Actually, I would argue that every employee should be able to say how his or her work relates to the
business and, in some ways, that’s what you are probably hearing from economists. They want to know that
when they are doing economic analysis they are helping their business succeed and not just throwing out
paperwork.

DC- That’s true. But if we go back, who should be around the table for a company that’s trying to grow whether
it be in Taiwan, or in manufacturing or whatever?

DU- Whether it’s a new division or whatever, there are usually three resources that every business needs to
have at the table in order to succeed: One resource is money, and that’s your financial person; the other is
people—the talent and the people to do it—and that is HR; and the third, which is getting woven in there quite
aggressively now, is data and information. Usually you need architects of those three resources, data, people,
and technology to succeed. And, of course, you need to weave those together in a way to serve customers. So I
see these resources as ones that would be around any table.

DC- Now this all sounds very exciting and interesting; it’s what people want, but imagine I am the “Comp and
Ben” guy: I have “Comp and Ben” stamped all on my forehead. I am administering all these existing programs
and there are always new programs to manage. Frankly, I don’t see my job changing.

DU- I think there is going to be a bifurcation in the HR job. If I am the benefits manager and all I see myself as
is admin, passing on and disseminating information, I will be blocked out I think. Some of that information is
going to put over the web, some of that will be outsourced. If all I am is a transfer of knowledge from A to B,
we will find more efficient ways to do that rather than having people in that value chain. Disintermediation is
the buzzword, and you’ll just disintermediate people in the transfer of knowledge.

Back to compensation and benefits and your branch example: What are the goals of the business? If they are
productivity and our turnover is over 140% we will never meet our productivity goals. If I can change the
“Comp & Ben” program 20%, I think this will assist with our retention-bringing turnover from 140% down to
80%. Based on my costs, I think this will add value. It is then that I bring value to the business.
So this is the bifurcation, the transformational part of HR versus the administering part of HR—which is where
everyone’s mind goes; you know, show me an HR person and I’ll show you the great eyeshade guy. All of this
administrative work is going to get handled by technology. The transformational part, where value is created for
the business, is where I think HR will have to move. Some will be able to make that move some won’t.

Some of the traditional “Comp & Ben” folks are really computers with shoes, because they are really
transaction people. If they can’t make that shift they very well could lose some of their opportunities.

BD- I teach a course in Labor Market Economics.

DU- Sorry to hear that.

BD- What?!

DU- It’s a joke.

BD- What would you see as a key role for teaching Labor Market Economics to future HR managers?

DU- Give me an example of what you teach.

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BD- For example the hours of work/pay and individual decision making around it.

DU- It is hard to answer your question. I mean what should a good HR person know in the future? I think the
whole question begins, and it is the question I would ask it if I was looking at all at your course, “What is the
business requirement?” Labor economics data is wonderful and it is certainly good to know, but I don’t think it
is necessary unless I can deal with it as a value equation for the business. You are trying to win on productivity.
Your utility for northeast Canada is clearly a commodity business and if you can’t get your costs down, you’re
in trouble. Clearly your biggest variable is labor given the fixed costs of materials and equipment. Some of that
data around productivity numbers will be central to your ability to ensure your operation is competitive. The
question to me as a labor economist is not what I know, but rather what would the business need to know in
order to do the job more effectively.

IT- Mergers and acquisitions are all the rage today. What is the impact from an HR perspective?

DU- The buzzword I am hearing is “conversion”. Mergers and acquisitions create convergence on two levels:
one is industry convergence, and the second level of conversion is cultural conversion. For instance, AOL is
merging with Time Warner and there’s a convergence of the creation of entertainment and information with
distribution, and the auto industry has converged all over the place.

The question is how do we put the parts together. Just because we put two pieces together doesn’t mean they are
going to work. I think how HR can play a major part is not at the industry level (How do you become the global
automotive maker of Jeeps?), but in the way you make these two parts that you have got work in an integrated
and efficient way. This gets very much into the area of culture; how we make decisions, how we manage
people, how we manage compensation.

The other level of convergence that I think is key is when you build a house, the electrical system, the plumbing
system, etc.; all really work together to make your housework. If you didn’t have heating in a Canadian house,
it wouldn’t be a very nice house. I think in a merger you really have two heating systems coming together. Now
you have to bring together those two systems so they are invisible to the outside world, and that’s your HR
system—payroll, benefits, staffing. All the administration systems in a merger need to come together in order to
have a unified voice.

DC- You’ve done some important work in the past, what are you working on now; what issues are you
interested in?

DU- Three or four things and I will get into more detail with them in a moment. One is a leadership role, and I
am more and more intrigued than ever with the quality of leadership. Businesses succeed because they have a
quality of leadership at every level of the hierarchy. You want to brand your leaders, like a firm brands its
identity, like Nordstrom’s has a service brand and Harley Davidson has a brand. The leaders really embody
those brands and make the companies better to work with.

The second thing we are working on is employee commitment: how do you ensure an organization has a high
percentage (90-99%) of it’s workers identifying with the firm, giving discretionary energy, and giving what
they can every day.

A third piece is an HR measurement or score card system. How do you know that HR is providing value, and
the buzzwords around that seem to be getting around the intangible aspects shareholders seem to value. Two
firms may have different stock values even though they make the same cash, and some of that is an intangible
difference. HR creates those intangibles. So those are the areas we are working on.

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IT- I would like to follow up on that. One of the people we are planning on following up with is Jac Fitz-Enz.
Do you think that’s the direction we need to move HR (Jac’s kind of measurements) or are there other ways of
assessing?

DU- The kind of work he was doing at the Saratoga Institute was related more to the transaction side of the job
—how much does it cost to hire somebody. Jac’s now moving more into the strategic work of HR, and
measures around that. I think he’s asking, “How does HR build value?”

DC- A lot of the academic research on leadership doesn’t amount to much.

DU- Agreed. I think what’s happened is we have been asking the wrong question. We have been asking, “What
are the generic characteristics of an effective leader?” They have energy; they energize others. What we are now
intrigued with is the concept of a brand. You don’t want a generic list of attributes. What you want to do is turn
those attributes into results. The question we have been trying to figure out is that leadership is not just about
character—leadership is about turning a set of behaviors into a clear set of business outcomes.

HR.com would like to thank David Ulrich for this interview. We all know his great work in HR but it seems
that he’s a great driver as well: he conducted this flawless interview while driving to the university and never
missed a beat coping with traffic and our questions simultaneously.

HR professional, who is considered necessary by line managers, is a strategic partner, an employee sponsor or
advocate and a change mentor.

Strategic Partner

In today’s organizations, to guarantee their viability and ability to contribute, HR managers need to think of
themselves as strategic partners. In this role, the HR person contributes to the development of and the
accomplishment of the organization-wide business plan and objectives.

The HR business objectives are established to support the attainment of the overall strategic business plan and
objectives. The tactical HR representative is deeply knowledgeable about the design of work systems in which
people succeed and contribute. This strategic partnership impacts HR services such as the design of work
positions; hiring; reward, recognition and strategic pay; performance development and appraisal systems; career
and succession planning; and employee development.

Employee Advocate

As an employee sponsor or advocate, the HR manager plays an integral role in organizational success via his
knowledge about and advocacy of people. This advocacy includes expertise in how to create a work
environment in which people will choose to be motivated, contributing, and happy.

Fostering effective methods of goal setting, communication and empowerment through responsibility, builds
employee ownership of the organization. The HR professional helps establish the organizational culture and
climate in which people have the competency, concern and commitment to serve customers well.

In this role, the HR manager provides employee development opportunities, employee assistance programs,
gainsharing and profit-sharing strategies, organization development interventions, due process approaches to
problem solving and regularly scheduled communication opportunities.

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Change Champion

The constant evaluation of the effectiveness of the organization results in the need for the HR professional to
frequently champion change. Both knowledge about and the ability to execute successful change strategies
make the HR professional exceptionally valued. Knowing how to link change to the strategic needs of the
organization will minimize employee dissatisfaction and resistance to change.

The HR professional contributes to the organization by constantly assessing the effectiveness of the HR
function. He also sponsors change in other departments and in work practices. To promote the overall success
of his organization, he champions the identification of the organizational mission, vision, values, goals and
action plans. Finally, he helps determine the measures that will tell his organization how well it is succeeding in
all of this.

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