How HR Can Help Organizations Succeed- Insights from Dave Ulrich

Introduction

In this section, the host introduces the live stream and welcomes the audience. The goal of the platform is to bring in a critical mass of people into their leadership awareness.

• The host encourages the audience to tag someone who may benefit from the conversation.

• The host explains that they will cover HR management, leadership management, and personal or career conversations.

• The host sets a goal to reach out to a minimum of 300 million people across several tools developed over ten years.

• The guest, Dave Horridge, is introduced as a co-founder and partner at RBL Group and professor of business administration at Ross School of Business.

Guest Introduction

In this section, Dave Horridge introduces himself and shares some personal information with the audience.

• Dave Horridge thanks Adi Doyin for letting him join and introduces himself as a professor at Ross School of Business at University of Michigan.

• Dave Horridge shares that he is also a partner in RBL Group and shows his office where he works from home. He mentions being a father of three children and ten grandchildren.

Trends in HR

In this section, Adi Doyin asks Dave Horridge about trends in HR over the last 100 years.

• Adi Doyin asks about new business realities that HR professionals will contend with going forward.

• Dave Horridge responds by saying that it's important to start with context before jumping into specific topics like hybrid work or employee engagement. Context is like the kingdom in which the king or queen works.

Conclusion

In this section, Adi Doyin concludes the live stream and thanks the audience for watching.

• Adi Doyin thanks Dave Horridge for joining and the audience for watching.

Context and Opportunity

In this section, the speaker discusses the context of the world today, which includes crises such as racial injustice, political turmoil, global recession, emotional challenges, and digital 4.0. The speaker then talks about how to discover opportunities in this context through HR.

• The world is facing enormous crises.

• Discovering opportunity through HR is key.

• HR has been put in the middle of contextual situations.

• The most important thing for employees and organizations to do right now is to respond to these crises.

HR's Role in Responding to Crises

• Response #1: People in organization is the response to crisis.

• Response #2: HR is not about HR but creating value for stakeholders.

• Response #3: Everything done inside an organization should be designed to help it succeed in the marketplace outside of it.

What HR Contributes

• Three things that HR contributes are great talent (represented by fingers), people coming together (represented by a fist), and leadership (represented by a combination of fingers and fist).

HR's Role in Business Success

In this section, the speaker discusses the role of HR in business success and how it can contribute to discovering opportunities in the marketplace.

The Relevance of HR

• Many thought leaders have shown that HR makes a difference, including John Boudreau, Mark Cusid, Peter Capelli, Ed Lawler, Jeff Pfeffer, and Linda Gratton.

• HR helps discover opportunity in the marketplace by focusing outside-in.

• The unique contribution of HR is helping organizations succeed with customers, communities, and investors.

Navigating Resistance to HR

• Some business leaders do not accept people as a critical advantage.

• There will always be a percentage of naysayers who are not open to change or appreciating HR's contribution.

• Focus on helping the middle 60% appreciate HR's contribution rather than trying to convert the bottom 20% who are resistant to change.

Starting with Outcomes

• When meeting with business leaders or their teams, start by asking about their outcomes and goals on their scorecard.

• Avoid starting with knowledge about performance appraisals or employee engagement.

HR's Role in Improving Patient Satisfaction

In this section, the speaker emphasizes that HR should focus on creating value for the organization by helping to achieve its goals. He advises against starting discussions with HR activities but rather with the value they create.

Importance of Employee Engagement

• The speaker advises HR colleagues not to talk about HR but instead focus on how they can help improve customer experience, financial performance, investor confidence, and strategic realignment.

• The speaker highlights that employee engagement is correlated with customer engagement and satisfaction. A 10-point increase in employee engagement leads to a five-point increase in customer engagement or satisfaction and a 2.5% increase in financial performance.

• The speaker suggests that when meeting with business leaders, HR should start by asking how important it is for them to get employee engagement higher before discussing ways to achieve it.

The Four Roles of an HR Business Partner

In this section, the speaker discusses the four roles of an HR business partner (HRBP), which were introduced in his book published in 1997.

The Four Roles of an HRBP

• The four roles of an HRBP are strategic positioner or change agent, administrative expert, employee champion, and human capital developer.

• These roles are designed to help create value for the organization by improving people management practices and aligning them with business objectives.

The Evolution of HR Roles

In this section, the speaker discusses how HR roles have evolved over time and identifies nine dimensions of effective HR.

Nine Dimensions of Effective HR

• Clear purpose, strategy, and set of customers

• Right organization, capabilities, analytics, systems, and people

• Specialists with deep expertise in staffing and training linked with generalists who sit inside a business unit to deliver talent leadership and organization

• Relationships within the function (specialists and generalists working together) and outside the function (working with business leaders, employees, and customers)

• Other dimensions include clear policies and practices, effective communication channels, continuous learning culture, and ability to execute strategies.

Importance of Building Relationships in HR

In this section, the speaker emphasizes that building relationships is more important than defining roles for achieving business results.

Relationship Dimension in Effective HR

• How do we build relationships both within the function (specialists and generalists working together) and outside the function (working with business leaders, employees, and customers)?

• Relationships are key to creating activities that create value.

• The speaker gives an example from his personal life where he has never defined roles but has a relationship that works well.

Rethinking Role Definitions in HR

In this section, the speaker talks about how role definitions have changed over time from being worried about roles to focusing on activities that create value.

Activities That Create Value

• Defining roles is not as important as identifying activities that create value.

• The focus should be on relationships that create those activities.

• The speaker emphasizes the importance of the relationship dimension in effective HR.

The Importance of Aligning HR with Business Structure

In this section, the speaker discusses how to align HR with business structure. He explains that HR should match the way a business is organized, whether it is centralized or decentralized.

Organizing HR Based on Business Structure

• The way to organize HR is to match it with the way a business is organized.

• If a business is centralized, then its HR should be hierarchical and structured.

• For holding companies like Tata, decentralization of HR makes more sense because they have multiple divisions.

• Multi-divisional firms need centers of expertise that adapt their knowledge to unique business requirements.

Automation in HR

In this section, the speaker talks about automation in HR and how robots are coming. He mentions that payroll services vendor management talent acquisition and learning and development can all be partially or fully automated.

Automation in Different Areas of HR

• Virtually all areas of HR can be partially or fully automated.

• Payroll services can be automated using software like ADP or Paychex.

• Vendor management can also be automated using software like SAP Ariba or Coupa.

• Talent acquisition can use AI-powered tools for resume screening and candidate matching.

• Learning and development can use e-learning platforms like Udemy or Coursera.

Introduction to Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence

In this section, the speaker introduces the topic of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), and discusses how technology is enabling digitization.

The Impact of Technology on HR

• Routine tasks in HR are likely to be replaced by automation.

• Artificial intelligence can help with tasks such as resume screening, but human judgment is still necessary for final selection.

• Workforce planning should shift from focusing on the number of people needed to the specific tasks that need to be done.

Using Technology for Task Management

• Companies should focus on work tasks rather than workforce planning.

• Tasks can often be done better through technology, such as using algorithms to find office locations that meet specific criteria.

• Routine administrative tasks in HR, such as benefits administration and payroll, will inevitably be automated.

Should Administrative HR Tasks Be Automated or Outsourced?

In this section, the speaker discusses whether routine administrative tasks in HR should be automated or outsourced.

Automating Administrative Tasks

• Routine administrative tasks in HR will inevitably be automated.

• Automation frees up time for HR professionals to focus on more strategic initiatives.

Outsourcing Administrative Tasks

• Outsourcing administrative tasks can provide cost savings and access to specialized expertise.

• However, outsourcing may result in a loss of control over sensitive data and processes.

Balancing Automation and Human Expertise

• The key is finding the right balance between automation and human expertise.

• HR professionals should focus on developing skills that cannot be easily automated, such as emotional intelligence and critical thinking.

Four Waves of HR Activity

In this section, the speaker discusses the four waves of HR activity and their importance.

The Four Waves of HR Activity

• The first wave is operational efficiency, which focuses on making a company more efficient.

• The second wave is functional excellence, which involves best practices in areas such as compensation and leadership training.

• The third wave is strategic, which links HR to a company's strategy.

• The fourth wave is outside-in, which helps HR succeed in the marketplace.

Where Does HR Create the Most Value?

In this section, the speaker discusses where HR creates the most value for a company.

Value Creation by Wave

• A study found that most companies today focus on operational efficiency as it creates the highest value added.

• Business leaders expect good HR to focus on outside-in activities that help succeed in the marketplace.

Importance of Operational Efficiency

In this section, the speaker emphasizes the importance of operational efficiency before moving onto other waves of HR activity.

Focus on Operational Efficiency

• Before focusing on other waves such as best practices or strategic activities, it is important to ensure that operational efficiency is achieved.

• Technology can be used to achieve operational efficiency.

Employee Experience as Corporate Strategy

In this section, employee experience is discussed as a corporate strategy.

Employee Experience

• Employee experience has become an important corporate strategy.

• Josh Berson believes that employee experience is now a corporate strategy.

The Importance of Connecting Employee Experience to Customer Experience

In this section, the speaker discusses the importance of connecting employee experience to customer experience and how they are interrelated.

Josh Person's Expertise in HR Technology

• Josh Person is an expert in HR technology and digital HR.

• He understands these areas much better than the speaker.

• They both agree that employee experience without leading to customer experience becomes a moot point.

Connecting Employee Experience to Strategy, Customer, Investor, and Community

• If employee experience doesn't create value for customers, why do it?

• The speaker believes that connecting employee experience to strategy, customer, investor, and community creates a virtuous cycle.

• Employee experience should not be a standalone event but rather linked to a better strategy, customer, investor, and community.

Culture and Financial Results

• A study showed that companies with a stronger set of values had a significant financial increase in profitability measured by market value and return on sales.

• When you live your values as an organization or company, the financial results go up.

Sales Example

• The focus should not just be on activities but also on different stakeholders such as employees, communities, organizations, leaders.

• The speaker gives an example from sales where both making more sales calls and getting more revenue are important.

The Importance of Performance Management

In this section, the speaker discusses the importance of performance management and how it should be focused on achieving results. They also touch on the issue of performance management not working in most organizations.

Performance Management Steps

• Traditional performance management involves three steps: setting expectations, measuring progress, and determining consequences.

• The debate is not about whether to use rankings or ratings but rather how to implement these steps effectively.

• However, none of these steps work unless there is a positive conversation between the leader and employee.

The Importance of Conversation

• The key to effective performance management is having a good conversation between leaders and employees.

• This conversation should focus on strategy, goals, measures, behaviors, outcomes, and consequences.

• Without this conversation, no system will work effectively.

Tips for Effective Conversations

• Three tips for having an effective conversation include asking for help to understand the situation from the employee's perspective, presenting data objectively without criticism or judgment, and working together to find solutions to problems.

Building a Career in HR

In this section, the speaker talks about how she got into HR and built her career over the years.

How She Got Into HR

• The speaker was captivated by organizational behavior during a course in college.

• Her professor encouraged her to study organizational behavior instead of going to law school.

• She has been passionate about organizations ever since.

Building a Global Career in HR

• The speaker has written books, articles, and done speaking and consulting on the topic of organizational behavior.

• Her recent book is about what's happening in China with companies like Alibaba, Tensor, Huawei, etc.

• She advises those entering a career to find something that captures their intellectual curiosity and emotional passion.

Value of Learning

In this section, the interviewer asks the speaker what she hopes listeners get from her discussions.

What Listeners Should Get from Discussions

• The interviewer hopes listeners value learning and can implement what they learn in their organizations.

• The speaker agrees with the interviewer's answer and thinks it's sweet.

• The speaker loves looking at organizations and always wants to improve them.

Finding Passion in Work

In this section, the speaker talks about finding passion in work.

Finding Passion

• The speaker found her passion for organizational behavior during a course in college.

• Her passion for organizations has lasted 40 years.

• She advises those entering a career to find something that captures their intellectual curiosity and emotional passion.

Final Thoughts

In this section, the speaker shares her final thoughts.

Final Thoughts

• The speaker advises those entering a career to find something that captures their intellectual curiosity and emotional passion.

• She thinks it could be finance, technology, or in her case, organizational behavior.

The Value of the Gift Business Leader

In this section, the speaker discusses how the value of a business leader is defined by how others respond to their actions. They emphasize that it's not just about what you do, but also about what others receive because of your actions.

Defining Value as a Business Leader

• The value of a business leader is defined by how others respond to their actions.

• It's not just about what you do, but also about what others receive because of your actions.

• Always think about the next step and what value you're creating for someone else.

Listening as a Key Skill

• Listening means that the other person feels understood, not just that you understand them.

• Interrupting people and multitasking during conversations can prevent them from feeling understood.

Conclusion

• The success of a teacher or consultant is not just in what they teach, but also in how they benefit their students or clients.

• The speaker thanks the audience for their time and emphasizes the importance of creating value for others.