The HR Value Proposition

After the transactional work of HR has been automated, centralized, eliminated, or outsourced, what is left, and of greatest value, forms the core of this book. In brief, the book is about creating a business-oriented HR function. The book's springboard is a range of future-focused questions such as: - Why does HR matter so much today? - How can HR get line managers to be concerned about HR issues? - What can HR do to connect with the interests of all stakeholders? - How to create a strong line-of-sight between business strategy and HR. - How does HR contribute to intangible value creation? - What are the evolving roles of HR? How can HR be organized to be strategically focused? The authors confront these challenges with clarity and insightfulness. The central message is that HR must deliver value in the eyes of line management, investors, customers, and employees. The book is organized around an "integrated HR blueprint" consisting of five elements: - external realities; - stakeholders, - HR practices, - HR resources, and - HR professionals) From these the authors have set forth 14 criteria that profile an effective HR function. To bring these criteria to life the authors present a four-phase process for transforming the HR function-this process integrates and applies the book's central themes. The book is broad-ranging and compelling. We very highly recommended this work. Every HR practitioner should consider this book must-reading.'

This book is ideal for the high-level HR executive who wants to redevelop or transform an HR department into a forward-thinking, strategic part of the parent company. While all HR professionals should read it for the knowledge it offers, creating a value proposition for HR is not simple, as authors Dave Ulrich and Wayne Brockbank would be the first to acknowledge. Even the most innovative, progressive HR professionals would find this extensive menu of changes hard to activate independently. Creating an HR value proposition is an intense, all encompassing reform that requires support and direction from the top down. While HR professionals at any level can see the relevance, wisdom and potential of this new blueprint, a CEO and an HR department head would have to march together to carry out the book's mission: implementing an HR transformation totally aligned with corporate strategy. We recommend this tremendous resource to any HR manager or adviser; the higher you are on the HR totem pole, the more you need to read it.

The authors' formulations in The HR Value Proposition draw on their 18-year study, which involved more than 29,000 HR professionals and line managers worldwide. On the basis of this study, they have come out with value-focused criteria for HR department, which suggests actions that HR must take to achieve them. The criteria range from monitoring external business realities to creating a clear connection between HR actions and stakeholders' value. The book's prescriptions are meant for HR professionals as well as line managers, even as it highlights the path that HR must take to earn its position in the organization. It also seeks to provide a justification as to why a company should invest in HR--a question that CFOs (Chief Finance Officers) frequently ask about the HR function. The book has argued that for creating value for the business, it has to know what value is." This in turn necessitates understanding the external business environment. The external context impacts business realities, including realities of technology, regulatory issues, and workforce demographics. The book no doubt gives important insights into the changing roles of HR in the 21st century, and differentiates them from those performed by HR managers a decade ago. It has succeeded in building a useful framework for aligning human resource strategy with organizational strategy so that it enables the organization to efficaciously march towards its vision. It should be read not just by HR managers but by all line managers, who are key HR managers in today's context, so that they can help in organizational capacity-building and performance excellence. The book has outlined a strategic HR agenda in a comprehensive yet lucid way. The roadmap outlined is clear and helpful for different types of readers. It contains many intriguing ideas worth experimenting by practitioners of people management, and well succeeds in outlining the practices and competencies that make a difference in leveraging people potential for realizing organizational goals. The immense experience of the two eminent authors who have built tremendous credibility for themselves for academics as well as practitioners is amply reflected in the structuring of the book. So far as HR literature for managers in concerned, it is going to be a classic and will become a dominant HR book in the next five to ten years. Debi S. Saini Professor of Human Resource Management Management Development Institute Mehrauli Road, Sukhrali, Gurgaon-1220 001, Haryana.

In their comprehensive new book, Dave Ulrich and Wayne Brockbank synthesize years of their research, writing, and practice which have shaped the HR field and take it a significant step forward. They provide a highly useful framework for building and aligning organizational capability with business strategy so that it significantly impacts business results. They model their own prescription for integrating theory and action; the book is both conceptually powerful and rich in practical, outcome-based approaches to creating value for investors, customers, managers, and employees. It is a must-read not just for HR leaders but for all leaders interested in generating high performance through the strategic people and organizational agenda.

In their new book, The HR Value Proposition, Dave Ulrich and Wayne Brockbank once again remind us why they are widely considered the deans of HR strategy. This book is a conceptually and practically rich operating manual for creating the strategic HR function. In it, they describe what it takes for any business to create a clear line of sight, and powerful alignment, between the strategy of the business and its human resource management foundation. And, they do so in a style that will appeal to as much to line managers as to HR professionals and consultants. If you only pick up one business book this summer, this is the one to read.