The discussion about “understanding” and “wanting” a modern HR Organization which I have laid out in my last post is not a new one. Since Ulrich has first published his work on transformed HR (check out here) the discussions about what HR should be and do are going off into various directions. The extreme positions are “HR as administrative back-office” on the one end and “HR as strategic value generator” on the other. As laid out in my last post, a transformed HR Organization based on the Ulrich model is only under specific circumstances the right thing to do. However, if those circumstances fit to your company, there is not much which speaks against such a transformation. – however, objective criteria alone are not sufficient to lead the discussion!
In my meetings on Top-Management Level in German and European companies, the knowledge and insecurity about Ulrich’s HR Model is high – although the model is around for more than 10 years. This does not differ whether my meetings are within or outside HR. From my perspective, there is more than one reason for this. The most common are a) lack of knowledge b) knowing, but not understanding the model c) not “wanting” an emancipated HR Function. Interesting is that all of those reasons are spread similar across HR and non-HR Managers.
Many HR colleagues are actually quite happy in their back-office and making-employees-happy role. This is based on my experience neither surprising nor condemnable. But in today’s competitive environment a transformed, value-adding HR function is no longer a nice-to-have, but a must! HR has to support workforce effectiveness through targeted, strategy supporting projects and processes like Performance Management, Strategic Workforce Planning, HR Analytics, etc. As Ulrich said, the workforce is the remaining differentiating competitive advantage – and HR is in the pole position to further foster this advantage. However, to do so, the HR function needs to emancipates itself.
At HR’s customers, the picture differs a bit. The majority did not yet understand the critical factor Human Resource/ Workforce. Although today’s recruiting web-pages of each an every company highlight the criticality of skilled and motivated employees, reality looks different. And… who really wants another player on the “big” strategy table, someone with an opinion? Someone who tells me “how I have to organize my team to be more effective?”, “how I motivate my people best?”, “isn’t all of this common sense?” – and this is where the real issue is: HR is not yet seen as a real function! But this is just normal human behavior – nothing surprising.
However, it is the priority of us HR folks, to actively promote HR as a real, differentiating function! As soon as the HR Management has identified the advantages and calculated the business case of an HR Transformation, they have to start a marketing campaign – and this not only for Shared Services, but for a “bottom-line value-adding, emancipated HR Function!”
There are sufficient reasons for it! More in my next post.
Chief HR Officer 