Beyond the Ulrich model
– HR in the people-
centric organisation
In this second part of a two-part series looking at organisation
and HR models, JON INGHAM explains how HR models are
finally beginning to develop beyond Ulrich
Abstract
The Ulrich model has provided a best-practice template for HR organisation design for
more than 20 years. During this time there have been numerous suggestions for
alternative models, which still all look largely similar to the original Ulrich model. However,
given increased focus on innovative business models, it’s possible to see how HR models
are also starting to change. The emerging new model incorporates teams, communities
and networks, and looks distinctly different to Ulrich’s three-legged stool.
As can be seen, an HR network
organisation will be much more
complex than the archetypal
three-legged stool. The
boundary separating HR from
the rest of the business will
become much more blurred.
Functional centres
Even as HR and the rest of the
business increasingly use other
types of organisation, it will still
be relevant to use functional
centres for some aspects of HR.
In particular, given the growing
importance of people, it makes
sense to have a functional centre
focused on people strategy. It is
also likely that responsibility for
maintaining the organisation
model be formalised within
another functional group to
maintain tight control of this
important asset.
These two centres could be
linked to broader business groups
leading the overall business
strategy, and other business
assets such as financial
investments, property, knowledge
and technology.
Much of the work of existing
service centres will be taken on by
automation, AI, chatbots, apps,
and by employees and managers
themselves, often with the help of
support communities or
networks. There may still be a
need for service advisors and
perhaps local employee relations
advisors too.
However, it is no longer
necessary to bring all these
activities and people together in a
physical service centre. It is
therefore more likely that
activities will be co-ordinated and
enabled using digital platforms,
supported by greater use of
analytics and a focus on employee
experience. A new HR platform
group will focus on the
management of these platforms,
often providing tailored
approaches to different parts of a
business through the use of varied
service levels and linked internal
charge rates. Increasingly the
centre will also be integrated with
other central services (finance,
procurement, IT, etc.) across
the business.
HR project teams
Many HR organisations are
bringing together people with
different specialisms to act on
often complex and crossdisciplinary
challenges. The
increasing projectisation of HR
has already been noted by Dave
Ulrich and it is likely that more
HR work will be undertaken
through projects in future.
These projects can take place
within HR for people and
organisation work, although they
may involve staff from outside
HR. Alternatively, they can sit in
the rest of the business, with HR
contributing to a broader agenda
that includes a focus on people.
This shift is likely to mean that
HR will need to develop specialist
project manager and consultant
roles and a separate project
management pool, rather than
Strategic HR A different slant
What’s new
Many HR transformations over
the past 20 years have been
informed by the archetypal Ulrich
model, consisting of centres of
expertise, service centres and
embedded business partners.
Although there have been quite a
few attempts to develop a model
more appropriate to the
knowledge era, most are still
based on the same basic threelegged
stool, with perhaps a few
more legs.
This lack of innovation is a
consequence of the way
businesses are organised also not
having changed much. The design
of HR needs to follow the design
of the rest of the organisation so if
these models have not changed
then HR won’t do so either.
However, as I suggested in The
Social Organization (Ingham,
2017) and summarised in last
month’s Different Slant, we are
now seeing moves to build on
the traditional, functional,
hierarchical design that most
businesses have been based on to
also incorporate horizontal
(process/project/agile) teams,
communities and networks.
Key findings
So what can we expect from the
future design of our HR models?
As I suggested in an article I coauthored
with Dave Ulrich
(Ingham and Ulrich, 2016), we
expect more use of projects,
communities and networks in
HR too.
This leads to a new HR network
model, shown in the diagram
opposite, with the various groups
and networks superimposed on
the two-by-two matrix introduced
in part one of this piece. The
outer ring contains all of the
different groups within an
organisation and the inner ring
contains the associated groups
within HR. The hashed shading
shows particular roles and
business groups supported by HR
that may also form part of the
broader HR network.
38 HR November 2019 hrmagazine.co.uk
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