In the last post I have talked about the Shared Service Center as well as the Centers of expertise – one very important role, actually a completely new role for HR at the time Ulrich hast started his ideas, is the HR Business Partner. The Business Partner are in their job pretty close to consultants.
They are analyzing and diagnosing the organization of their clients (may it be a function or a business unit) and (a) brokering services from the SSCs and CoEs to the line as well as (b) supporting the CoEs and SSCs to design the right (meaning fitting) HR products. HR Business Partner have to first understand their clients business: How does it work? What are key trends? Where does this organization want to go in the next year, 2-3 and 5 years? – this is essential knowledge to diagnose and consult effectively. This is very easy to understand for consultants – they do that every day!
But for HR professionals, which are often heart & soul HR people, this is a 180 degree different understanding from what they have learned and executed for most of their HR life.
These three roles are the core roles of Ulrich’s model. However, there are two more to understand Ulrich’s concept. He himself only got to them later, but they are essential for the model to work. I will talk about these roles in my next post.
Chief HR Officer 