Human Resource Champions:

The Next Agenda for Adding Value and Delivering Results

By Dave Ulrich; Harvard Business School Press, 1997

"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.
He states that managers and HR professionals should constantly seek the capabilities
necessary for success. They should routinely ask themselves and each other the
following questions:

What capabilities currently exist within the firm?

* What capabilities will be required for the future success of the firm?
* How can we align capabilities with business strategies?
* How can we design HR practices to create the needed capabilities?
* How can we measure the accomplishment of the needed capabilities?

Old Myths:
1. People go into HR because they like people.
2. Anyone can do HR.
3. HR deals with the soft side of a business and is therefore not accountable.
4. HR focuses on costs, which must be controlled.
5. HR's job is to be policy police and the health-and-happiness patrol.
6. HR is full of fads.
7. HR is staffed by nice people.
8. HR is HR's job.

Excerpt from Human Resource Champions, Dave Ulrich

New Realities:
1. HR departments are not designed to provide corporate therapy or as social or
health-and- happiness retreats. HR professionals must create the practices that
make employees more competitive, not more comfortable.
2. HR activities are based on theory and research. HR professionals must master both
theory and practice.
3. The impact of HR practices on business results can and must be measured. HR
professionals must learn how to translate their work into financial performance.
4. HR practices must create value by increasing the intellectual capital within the firm.
HR professionals must add value, not reduce costs.
5. The HR function does not own compliance-managers do. HR practices do not exist
to make employees happy but to help them become committed. HR professionals
must help managers commit employees and administer policies.
6. HR practices have evolved over time. HR professionals must see their current work
as part of an evolutionary chain and explain their work with less jargon and more
authority.
7. At times, HR practices should force vigorous debates. HR professionals should be
confrontative and challenging as well as supportive.
8. HR work is as important to line managers as are finance, strategy, and other
business domains. HR professionals should join with managers in championing HR
issues. Delivering results means focusing on the outcomes and results of human
resources work.

Organizational Capabilities

Multiple Role Model

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
Excerpt from Human Resource Champions, Dave Ulrich

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.

HR roles in building a
competitive organisation
Strategic Focus
Management of strategic
human resources - aligning
HR and business strategy by
organisational diagnosis

Management of transformationrenewing the organisation

People

Processes
Management of infrastructure
- processes to deliver services

Management of employee
contribution - listening and
responding

Operational Focus

Excerpt from Human Resource Champions, Dave Ulrich

He maps out new roles for HR. Each role combines to focus on delivering improvement
within the function and within the business

Definition of HR Roles

According to Dave Ulrich, there are 4 major roles played by the HR Department in
respective HR management functions:
1. Technical Expert
2. Employee Champion
3. Change Consultant
4. Strategic Partner

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HR as a Technical Expert
HR applies expertise in full range of HR arena to support organizations mission and
needs. It uses surveys and other tools to provide information to help create an efficient
and effective work environment. It adapts information technology to HR management.
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.
HR as an Employee Champion
HR focus on develop others talent to maximise human potential. It mentors individuals
to develop talent. It assesses and balances competing values e.g. policies and mission
needs. It builds trust relationship. 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.
HR as a Change Consultant
HR applies organizational development strategies. It innovative strategies including
identifying and recommending solutions to various personnel and HR issues. It works in
a team and communicates well. 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.
HR as a Strategic Partner
HR contributes to problem solving and decision making of the organization. It develop
relevant policies and programmes according to the organisations vision. It designs
and/or carries out HR service incorporate business system applications. Strategic

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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.
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.

Excerpt from Human Resource Champions, Dave Ulrich