Dave Ulrich - Victory through organization why the war for talent is failing your company and what you can do about it

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The Human Resources Competency Study is the result of countless hours of work from many in the HR profession. We would like to dedicate this book to the sponsors and partners who made this work possible. In particular, we thank the Stephen M. Ross Executive Education Program at the University of Michigan and the RBL Group for financial sponsorship and administrative support of the study.

We also thank our 22 regional partners who diligently contributed to logic and administration of this round of the study. We are deeply indebted to them as listed below:

We are observers, advocates, provocateurs, researchers, and agitators for the HR profession. For over 30 years, Wayne Brockbank and Dave Ulrich have studied, written about, and trained HR professionals at the Ross School at the University of Michigan and in their private consulting practice. Dave Kryscynski (DK) and Mike Ulrich have more recently received their PhDs in organization and HR science, bringing rigorous theory and research to the improvement of HR.

As seasoned and emerging HR promoters, we have come to share some assumptions about the state of HR today. The following six assumptions form much of the basis and context for this book:

1. HR matters: We firmly believe through personal experience and empirical data that HR matters to a business. Waynes in-depth advisory work with leading global companies has shown that HR work today shapes business strategy and helps the business to deliver results. His current work on information and culture highlights some of the emerging ways for HR to deliver real value. Daves recent work on leadership capital shows that quality of leadership impacts shareholder value, thus giving HR professionals a line of sight to market valuation of their work. DK and Mikes work shows the empirical impact of HR on desired firm outcomes.

2. HR research is imperative: We strongly believe in empirical and qualitative information. We see the recent push in HR for more analytics as a good sign as long as the analytics focus is on information that will improve the business. Too often HR analytics are about HR for HR, not HR for the business. DK and Mike bring exceptional rigor to the information that provides valid insight to how HR decisions impact business results. Academic studies on HR, human capital, and strategic HR are emerging in the HR, strategic, and organization literatures. These studies are helpful when they connect to HR phenomena and deliver insights with rigor. DK and Daves paper on the importance of timely and rigorous HR research won the Academy of Management Perspectives Best Article award in 2016.

3. HR professionals are changing: After having trained tens of thousands of HR professionals, we are coming to realize that progress is being made in quality of HR departments, professionals, and practicesalbeit slower than we would hope. We continue to see the 20-60-20 distribution of HR professionals. Twenty percent are exceptional and deliver real value. We need to stay out of their way and learn from them. Twenty percent are laggards, not able or willing to use HR to drive business results. We need to not let them deter us. Sixty percent are open to learning and making progress toward more impactful HR. We are committed to these aspiring HR professionals who want to learn and make a difference.

4. HR departments and practices are becoming more important: We have worked on the transformation of HR departments and HR practices for many years. We have been advocates for HR structure matching the business structure and for HR practices offering integrated solutions to business problems. Just as HR departments combine individual HR professional competencies into a stronger HR function, we have also advocated that an organizations capability (or culture) is more important than the competencies of individuals.

5. HR colleagues are incredibly gifted: We have been privileged to work with outstanding HR colleagues in over 80 countries in the world. Some of these colleagues are among the 22 partner associations in the Human Resources Competency Study (HRCS) who have partnered with us before. Other colleagues are thought leaders whose insights continually inform us. We hope that as we absorb their work into ours, we give adequate credit and build on their insights and ideas.