Dave Ulrich on the role of HR in the Digital Age

The most important thing HR can give an employee is a company that wins in the marketplace

After a five week summer sojourn, my guest for the first episode of Series 3 of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast is none other than Dave Ulrich - providing the perfect antidote to the post-holiday blues.

As the 'Father of Modern HR', Dave does not need much of an introduction. He is Professor of Business at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, and co-founder of the RBL Group. With his colleagues he has written over 30 books that have shaped the HR profession, defined organisations' capabilities, and shown the impact of leadership on customers and investors.

With the recent announcement of his Organization Guidance System initiative, Dave continues to be at the forefront of innovation in our field helping to forge the path ahead for HR in an increasingly complex world.

Suffice to say, I learned a lot from my discussion with Dave and can certainly recommend investing the time to listen to the podcast

You can listen by clicking the image below or by visiting the podcast website here.

In our conversation, Dave and I delve into a multitude of topics, including:

• How HR can increase its impact to leaders, organisations, and workers
• The qualities that a great chief HR officer requires
• Criticism of his infamous HR business partner model, and how this model has evolved over time
• The four phases of digital HR: efficiency, innovation, information and connection
• The impact that technology and the future of work is having on strategic workforce planning
• We also delve into some of the surprising, and perhaps worrying findings Dave's researchers unearthed on how companies are using people analytics
• We talk about what Dave calls his new moonshot, an Organization Guidance System that could herald the dawn of next generation HR, and increase the business impact of the function by several multiples
• Lastly, we look into the crystal ball, as we do with all our guests, and look at what the role of HR will be in 2025

This episode is a must listen for HR professionals looking to increase their business impact, as well as business leaders looking to get more out of their HR teams.

Support for this podcast is brought to you by pymetrics, to learn more, visit pymetrics.com.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST

To listen to the Podcast and read the transcript of my interview with Dave, head over to myHRfuture by clicking on this link: The Role of the HR Business Partner in a Digital Age.

WATCH THE VIDEOS

If you'd rather watch the video of the podcast, then headover to the myHRfuture YouTube channel or click on the image below:

A SMALL FAVOUR

If you enjoyed listening to and watching the discussion with Dave, I'd be grateful if you could take the following three steps:

1. Please subscribe to the Digital HR Leaders podcast and weekly newsletter to make sure you don’t miss an episode.
2. Who would you like to see me interview in future episodes? Let me know in the comments below.
3. Lastly, don’t forget to share on LinkedIn and Twitter with your friends and colleagues, your support is always greatly appreciated!

THANK YOU

A huge thank you to Dave for sharing his time and immense expertise. You can follow Dave on LinkedIn where you can also read his bi-weekly articles as well as follow Dave on Twitter. I also recommend checking out the articles Dave has published that formed part of our discussion: 

• Digital HR: What Is It and What’s Next?
• Agility: The New Response to Dynamic Change
• From Workforce to Worktask Planning
• Assessing Your HR Analytics Capability

Thanks also to Ian Bailie, Manpreet Randhawa and the myHRfuture team, and last but not least to pymetrics for sponsoring Series 3 of the Digital HR Leaders podcast and video series.

Next week my guest on the podcast will be Ian O'Keefe, Global Head of Workforce Analytics on the Workforce Analytics journey at JP Morgan Chase. Make sure you tune in for that one.

CATCH UP WITH ALL THE FIRST 25 EPISODES OF THE DIGITAL HR LEADERS PODCAST

If you haven't listened to some of the other episodes of the Digital HR Leaders Podcast, you can catch up now by clicking on the links below:

• EP 25: Julie Digby - How HR Drives Transformation and Org Design at Mars
• EP 24: RJ Milnor - How McKesson uses ONA to identify what drives high performance in sales
• EP 23: Rupert Morrison - Rethinking Workforce Planning & Organisation Design
• EP 22: Dawn Klinghoffer - The Evolution of People Analytics at Microsoft
• EP 21: John Boudreau - Reinventing Jobs: The Future of Work and it's impact on HR
• EP 20: Tanuj Kapilashrami - How Standard Chartered designed an exceptional Employee Experience
• EP 19: Anna Tavis: What is Agile HR and how are companies adopting it?
• EP 18: Sarah Johnson: How to use employee surveys to create strategic value
• EP 17: Leena Nair - How HR drives business value at Unilever
• EP 16: Keith McNulty - HR 3.0: more data driven, more agile and more business focused
• EP 15: Jason Corsello - The Shift From HR Tech to Work Tech
• EP 14: Jill Larsen - How does the CHRO successfully partner with the CEO
• EP 13: Frida Polli - How AI and Behavioural Science can reduce bias in recruiting
• EP 12: Ian O'Keefe - The Workforce Analytics journey at JP Morgan Chase
• EP 11: Dave Ulrich - The role of HR in the Digital Age
• EP 10: Jordan Pettman - How Nestlé uses People Analytics to measure Gender Pay Gap and Equity
• EP 9: Catalina Schveninger - The Evolution of Corporate Learning at Vodafone
• EP 8: Richard Collins - How is Automation, AI and Analytics changing recruiting?
• EP 7: Katarina Berg - Spotify's CHRO on Leading HR in a digital world
• EP 6: Nick Holley - How HR can become more business relevant 
• EP 5: Eden Britt - How to build a People Analytics team in a global organisation | The People Analytics journey at HSBC 
• EP 4: Yvette Cameron - How Blockchain will disrupt the Future of Work and HR Technology 
• EP 3: Didier Elzinga - How to Create a Culture First Company 
• EP 2: Edward Houghton - The Head of Research at the CIPD on Driving Business Performance with People Data 
• EP 1: Sharon Doherty - How to transform HR to be more digital and building a culture of diversity

PRESS PLAY ON YOUR CAREER: JOIN THE myHRfuture ONLINE ACADEMY

Invest in your career and learn the HR skills of the future. The myHRfuture Academy, of which I am part, provides you with an on-demand platform where you can get access to short, bitesized learning content to help you build knowledge in the skills that you need to prepare for the future of HR. Join here to get access to exclusive content on People Analytics, Digital HR & HR Technology, Design Thinking, Workforce Planning, Consulting & Influencing and Stakeholder Management.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David is a globally respected writer, speaker, conference chair, and executive consultant on people analytics, data-driven HR and the future of work. As an Executive Director at Insight222, he helps global organisations create more cultural and economic value through the wise and ethical use of people data and analytics. Prior to joining Insight222 and taking up a board advisor role at TrustSphere, David was the Global Director of People Analytics Solutions at IBM Watson Talent. As such, David has extensive experience in helping organisations embark upon and accelerate their people analytics journeys. 

SEE ME SPEAK AT THESE EVENTS IN 2019

I’ll be chairing and/or speaking about people analytics, data-driven HR and the Nine Dimensions for Excellence in People Analytics model at the following events until the end of November 2019. 

• 3 Sept - New York Strategic HR Analytics MeetUp - Careers in People Analytics: fireside chat with experts, New York
• 5-6 Sept - People Analytics & Future of Work, Philadelphia
• 9 Sept - Leading HR in the New World of Work, Data Driven HR Panel (11.00 EST) - Online Conference, Hacking HR
• 24-26 Sept - Global Executive Retreat, near London, UK (for Insight222 clients only)
• 22-23 Oct - UNLEASH World, Paris
• 4-6 Nov - HR Summit & Expo, Dubai