David Ulrich, a speaker at the marcus evans HR Summit 2014, responds to six questions on HR.

1. 6 Questions to HR Management Thought Leader David Ulrich
unique insights: finance has economic
numbers, marketing has customer data,
manufacturing has delivery schedules
and IT has technology and process
systems.
Interview with: David Ulrich, HR
Management Thought Leader
Human Resources (HR) has always
had to deliver value, but it now has to
focus on the outside/in to maximise
benefit for stakeholders, advises David
Ulrich, HR Management Thought Leader.
“This is a great time to be in HR, not
because we in HR believe it, but
because customers, investors, and
communities can receive unique value
when HR does its work well,” he adds.
A keynote speaker at the marcus
evans HR Summit 2014 in the Gold
Coast, Australia, 31 March - 2 April,
Ulrich discusses the “new normal” for
HR and what it can bring to the table.
What is the “new normal” for HR?
What should HR directors plan for?
What’s new is sometimes old. HR has
always had to “deliver value.” This is old
news. The new news is that the value
HR has to deliver is less administrative
efficiency, functional excellence, or even
strategic HR. HR now has to also focus
on the outside/in, which means using
HR work to deliver value to customers,
investors, and communities. As these
external stakeholders face enormous
social and technological change, HR
must build talent, leadership and
capabilities that help them get value
from the company. Old news, value still
exists; new news, value is outside in.
How could the HR function build
competitive advantage for the
organisation?
When there are strategic discussions in
a company, each functional area brings
So, what does HR bring to this
discussion? We believe it is insight on
three things: Talent, Leadership, and
Culture or Capability. Talent is about the
productivity of people. Leadership is the
shared agenda of defining a future. And
Culture is the external identity of the
firm translated into internal organisation
actions. When Talent, Leadership and
Culture connect to customers and
investors, long-term competitiveness is
enhanced.
What opportunities do HR directors
overlook that could help achieve/
foster a culture of innovation?
HR can help deliver culture in some very
significant ways. First, it can help define
innovation as more than products or
services to include governance model,
workplace practices, customer interface,
and other business processes. Second,
HR can ensure that people have both
discovery and delivery skills to foster
innovation. Third, HR can make sure
that organisation practices like staffing,
training, compensation, promotion,
organisation structure and communication reinforce innovation. Fourth, HR
can make sure that leaders who preach
innovation practice it in their personal
work.
How could HR make better use of
metrics? What HR metrics do
successful organisations look at?
HR metrics are a critical source of
information. Deciding what information
is most essential to making the right
talent, leadership and culture decisions
should drive metrics. For example, in
retail, revenue per store is a key
outcome. In one chain, they worked to
identify which management practices
had the most impact on store revenue
and discovered that leadership skills
were the largest predictor, so they
focused on developing leaders to be
more effective. Metrics should follow a
chain of data that comes from
information that comes from insight that
comes from decision clarity. Start with
clarity about the business decision that
needs to be made, then find HR data to
improve that decision.
What are employees looking for?
Employees want to feel respected and
they want to find meaning from the
work that they do.
We discovered in our book The Why of
Work that employee meaning can be
increased when managers pay attention
to seven factors: Identity, Purpose,
Relationships, Work Environment, Work
itself, Learning, and Fun.
How
could
empowered?
employees
be
We found that there are four keys to
empowerment: Information (make sure
employees know what is happening and
w hy ), C o m p e te nc e (m a k e s ur e
employees have skills to do what they
are asked to do), Authority (give
employees decision rights to get things
done) and Rewards (make sure that
there are positive financial and/or nonfinancial rewards).
You can follow David Ulrich on Twitter:
@dave_ulrich
HR now
has to also
focus on the
outside/in

2. The
HR
Network
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trends
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About the HR Summit 2014
This unique forum will take place at the Surfers Paradise Marriott Resort & Spa, Gold
Coast, Queensland, Australia, 31 March - 2 April 2014. Offering much more than any
conference, exhibition or trade show, this exclusive meeting will bring together
esteemed industry thought leaders and solution providers to a highly focused and
interactive networking event. The Summit includes presentations on winning HR
strategies, the HR leader of the future, fostering a high-performance culture, and
achieving long-term success.
www.hranzsummit.com
Please note that the Summit is a
closed
number
business
of
event
participants
and
the
strictly
limited.
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