In my recent posts, I started to elaborate and outline NEW HR – a new understanding, definition and approach to HR. It is meant as the after-Ulrich idea on what comes next for HR. While I still believe that this is needed and true for many companies out there, during the recent weeks I had the chance to talk to different clients – varying in size, home-country, industry, etc. But they all had one thing in common: Their HR organizations were in a pre-Ulrich stage. – and I believe that there are many more companies out there in a pre-Ulrich HR stage.
At first I have to admit, I was surprised, but after speaking to them, the picture got clearer:
- Some of these companies are size-wise at the border where the full Ulrich model makes sense
- Some of these companies had major (non-HR) transformations in the recent years and HR did just not have a chance to get their own house in order
- Some companies have failed HR outsourcing deals in their history that needed to be rolled back in
- Some companies don’t think that this “Ulrich-model” is applicable for them
- Some companies have heard stories of failed implementations at competitors
- Some companies were not able to show the Business Case for a transformed HR to get the business sign off (and funding)
And I am sure that there are many more reasons why companies did not yet transform their HR Organization. But what should these companies now do? – should they stay as they are? – should they leapfrog? – should they just start the transformation road with step 1?
The answer is again not one-size-fits-all. As there are different reasons why firms did not transform yet, there are different approaches that fit best. Each case should be looked at individually to find the best suitable solution. For example the “failed Business Case” issue is one that can easily be tackled. The Business Case for an HR Transformation in most cases is valid – of course, payback is not as fast as for example in Finance Transformations, but it is a positive ROI. And it is not only about the direct costs and savings, but also about business enablement. The indirect value of an HR Transformation is the real Business Case! – reduced time-to-hire, impactful training, etc.
But what to do once you have proven the value? – which route should you take? Answering this question, many consulting firms leave clients alone – their thought leadership is focused around HR of the future, the newest, latest and greatest, often not considering the whole industry, but just the spearhead.
Of course, there are companies out there with state-of-the art HR Organizations and Services and these want to and need know the way forward – and also, from the marketing perspective, it seems more relevant to sketch the colorful, imaginative future rather than the grey reality of today. So no one to blame.
However, for the companies out there in the pre-Ulrich state the question “what to do” is open – and I will try to answer this in a general fashion in my next posts. Again, there is no one-size-fits-all – but there are clear tendencies that can be identified and provide you with the general direction depending on your situation.
Chief HR Officer 