What Makes an Effective HR Function? | Dave Ulrich and The RBL Group

Human resources leaders and their teams continue to find ways for the HR function to create value for the business and its stakeholders, such as employees, customers, investors, communities, and boards. But with so many choices on how that value can be created, it raises the question: what factors disproportionately impact HR’s effectiveness and ability to deliver value to its stakeholders? In this new article by Dave Ulrich and his colleagues at The RBL Group, they help answer this question. While there are many insights in this article, one of them is the identification of 10 dimensions of HR functional excellence that make up the HR value logic, as highlighted in figure 5. For each dimension, a key question is highlighted and guidance is provided on how these questions can be answered. The article includes a diagnostic (Figure 9) that HR leaders can use to assess their HR organizations’ effectiveness in the 10 dimensions. HR Leaders can use this diagnostic as a starting point for determining their HR functions’ current effectiveness on the 10 dimensions and identifying actions for improving those areas. Other ideas are discussed.