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Partner In Strategy Execution

Ulrich doesn’t argue that HR alone should develop the business strategy, this he argues is the joint responsibility of an organisation’s executive, which hopefully HR should be part of. HR’s role in strategy making should be that of guiding the discussion about how the organisation should be organised in order to carry out its strategy. In essence this means HR taking on the role of architect, advising on what organisational systems and processes already support the organisation’s strategic goals and which ones need some attention, and how best to set about changing these.

The Executive Director of group resources at Xerox Europe argues that if HR wants to have an equal seat at the table they have to have things that they can contribute. Part of that contribution means adding directly to the productivity of the business.

Ulrich argues that HR also needs to take stock of its own workloads, setting clear priorities, which are aligned with the real operational needs of the business. To become accepted as a business partner, HR may need to acquire new skills and capabilities and may need to acquire new tools for their toolbox.

Linda Holbeche, Director of Research at Roffey Park Institute, argues that a strategic agenda for HR is likely to include a number of key areas: recruitment and retention of talent; improving the quality of management; enabling high performance and creating and building organisational climates and culture which supports what the organisation wants to do (Holbeche, 1999).

Administrative Expert

HR has traditionally performed an administrative role within organisations. However, Ulrich argues that in their new administrative role HR need to shed their traditional image of policeman and instead seek to improve the administrative procedures both within their own function, as well as within the business as a whole. They need to seek out the inefficient processes that get in the way of the organisation excelling and suggest ways in which these processes can be improved. In essence what HR needs to do is identify the bottlenecks in the organisation’s core processes and then work with their business colleagues to find ways of removing these.

Employee Champion

Ulrich argues that with the changing psychological contract of employment HR should be made accountable for ensuring that employees are fully motivated and engaged. He argues that it is HR’s role to ensure that line managers understand the critical link between employee motivation and organisational performance and how this link can be sustained.

HR also have to play the role of employee champion. This requires delivering development programmes that ensure personal growth, helping employees meet the demands placed on them in the workplace, as well as taking on an advocacy role, i.e. acting as the voice of employees in discussions with management, ensuring that this is heard and understood .

Change Agent

The final area of expertise that HR needs to address to be a strategic partner is helping the organisation build its capability to embrace and manage change. Here then HR need to demonstrate their knowledge of how successful change can be brought about. This requires HR to ask their business colleagues some basic questions:

What? – What are we trying to achieve? What will it look like when we have changed?

Why? – Why do we need to change? What will happen if we don’t change?

Who? – Who is going to be responsible overall for the change programme? Who else needs to be involved?

When? – When will we get started? When will the necessary resources be made available?

How? – How should we get started? How will we know if the changes are working?

What does this changing role of HR mean in terms of the key competencies that HR professionals need to demonstrate?

Based upon extensive research among 2000 HR professionals, in three separate studies, Dave Ulrich (1998) has identified five key high-level competencies needed for HR professionals working at the strategic level. These are: understanding of the business, knowledge of HR practices, ability to manage culture, ability to manage change and personal credibility.

Test yourself against the five core competences needed to perform at a strategic HR level.

For each of the competencies defined below, rate yourself on a scale of 1–5 where 5 = highly developed and 1 = needs attention.

Core HR competencies	Personal rating	How others might rate you
Business awareness and understanding
Understands the financial indicators of business success (e.g. balance sheet, profit and loss, return on assets)
Understands customer success measures (e.g. satisfaction surveys, segmentation criteria)
Understands and applies competitor analysis techniques (e.g. industry trends)
Able to translate own work into the same financial and customer-focused language used in the business
Able to describe HR’s impact in terms that business leaders will understand
Delivery of HR practices
Able to identify the value of different HR practices
Able to diagnose business problems and translate these into effective HR solutions
Able to benchmark own organisation’s HRM systems against those of other high-performing organisations
Able to develop strategies for attracting and retaining key people
Enables the business to put in place the right structures to meet operational needs
Knowledgeable about HR systems and practices, internally and externally
Management of culture
Able clearly to articulate the desired culture needed to support the business strategy
Provides credible explanations as to why employee commitment is a critical success criteria for culture change
Able to build employee commitment to the desired cultural shift
Understands the learning interventions needed to kick-start culture change process
Identifies the behaviours needed to support cultural change
Change management
Understands the business case for strategic change
Identifies and articulates the key measures and success criteria
Understands and applies different theories of change to bring about successful change
Persuades people at all levels of the need to change
Develops the necessary support infrastructure for change
Has the confidence to challenge issues that are getting in the way of change
Builds personal credibility
Has an established track record of success
Commands the respect and trust of colleagues
Regularly sought out for opinions and insights about HR matters
Demonstrates willingness to take personal risks
Lives the organisation’s values
Developed from the work of Becker, Huselid and Ulrich (2001) on The HR Balanced Scorecard.

Self-reliant: initiative, vision, creativity, risk-taker, selfmotivation
Expert: enthusiastic, professional, intellectual curiosity ; lifelong learner
Networked: communication skills, negotiation skills, problemsolving skills, project management, open -minded
Resilient: stress tolerance, flexibility, team-worker, adaptable, determination

However, as Ulrich points out, it is not enough for HR to be competent at what they do, they also need to demonstrate attitude (Ulrich, 2000). ‘HR with attitude’ involves:
turning knowledge into action;
making informed choices about how to invest in HR practices to assure business results;
associating with peers in the HR profession and line management with the confidence that you have something of value to offer;
demonstrate confidence, decisiveness, risk-taking and actionorientation.

Does everyone in HR need to demonstrate all of the competencies and attributes outlined above? Does everyone need to be working in the strategic partner role? After IBM had transformed the way that its HR services were delivered, as part of their overall business transformation in the 1990s, several different skill levels of work emerged (Leighton). These include:
The strategic level – this encompasses policy and process owners , who are responsible for specific policy and processes and HR strategy partners , who are responsible for focusing on the strategic issues of the business units.
The complex interaction level – dealt with by HR professionals who specialise in a particular HR process.
The simple interaction level – which could be non-HR professionals, who are able to answer simple questions on current policy and process.

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