HR Roles Update
To update my blog on the Ulrich HR Roles topic I have to mention his last publication on HR roles: The HR Value Proposition from June 2005. Chapter 9 is dedicated to “Roles for HR Professionals”. Basically it picks up the roles concept from the book “HR Champions” as referred to in my blog about our HR Organization and updates this concept. Some ideas are given by him and his partner in this articel: HR's New Mandate: Be a Strategic Player. From there I borrow the following table that shows the evolution of HR roles according to Ulrich:
| Mid-1990s | Mid-2000s | Evolution of Thinking |
| Employee champion | Employee advocate (EA), human capital (HC) developer | Employees are increasingly critical to the success of organizations. EA focuses on today's employee; HC developer focuses on how employees prepare for the future. |
| Administrative expert | Functional expert | HR practices are central to HR value. Some HR practices are delivered through administrative efficiency (such as technology), and others through policies, menus, and interventions, expanding the"functional expert" role. |
| Change agent | Strategic partner | Being a strategic partner has multiple dimensions: business expert, change agent, knowledge manager, and consultant. Being a change agent represents only part of the strategic partner role. |
| Strategic Partner | Strategic partner | As above. |
| Leader | The sum of the first four roles equals leadership, but being an HR leader also has implications for leading the HR function, collaborating with other functions, ensuring corporate governance, and monitoring the HR community. | |
The roles description I mentioned in my HR Roles Blog is emphazising some of the areas above, mainly focussing on the strategic aspect (I would put Coach, Architect and Facilitator into that category). Here Ulrich and Brockbank explicitly mention that being the employee advocate, e.g. representing employees in management meetings while major decisions are taken is of crucial importance. How employees are treated internally in a company reflects on their behavior to customers and therefor has a direct impact on shareholders.
I personally find it very useful to go back to theory from time to time as it makes me look at some aspects of my work differently. Anyway, the Ulrich roles can be a foundation for more discussion on this topic, be it around practical or theoretical aspects of HR work.
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Posted at
02:15PM Mar 11, 2007
by Volker Seubert in Human Resources |
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Comments[4]
Posted by Pratik on March 13, 2007 at 04:37 PM CET #
Interesting thoughts! Sorry I just read it today though it was written last year.
Ulrich's notions about HR's role are definitely highlight the direction of contemporary HR practices. When we step forward to HC, our problems are not only the gap between HR professionals business acumen and the expertises needed, but also people's attitude to HR professionals. If line managers and even executives trust HR, and invite HR to attend the business meetings, HR professionals will have more strength to be strategic partners.
Posted by Na Sun on January 08, 2008 at 10:23 PM CET #
Thanks for your comment! You are right there needs to be a relationship of trust between HR and the business and I believe that we need to build this trust from the HR side starting with the little things until we get the opportunity to prove ourselves with a bigger strategic project be it change management or else. I definitly agree that it is crucial to be fully part of the senior management teams to have an impact!
Posted by Volker on January 09, 2008 at 01:41 PM CET #
Hello i agree with your points above but i was wondering if you would shed light on the issue, and your thoughts on if there is room for HR professionals to be both employee advocates as well as strategic partners especially with contemporary HR practices.
Posted by Teshy Patel on May 05, 2009 at 01:08 PM CEST #