‘HR should help companies be successful socially too'

Dave Ulrich was one of the star speakers at the recently concluded National HRD Network Conference 2011 held in Bangalore and his keynote address did not disappoint. Ulrich is a prolific author (he has written 23 books), professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, and also a partner with the RBL group, a consulting firm focused on helping organisations and leaders deliver value. Ulrich studies how firms build leadership capabilities and talent by leveraging human resources. HR professionals aver that Ulrich has done a lot to define the HR function as it works today.

At his talk in Bangalore, Ulrich presented a new thought to the audience of nearly 1,500 HR professionals participating in the conference. He said the HR function needs to view itself from the outside in, rather than be focused on internal policies and strategies. Only then will it be more relevant for a firm's customers and also help top leadership achieve key objectives (Business Line, Nov. 19, page 5). In a brief interview after his talk, before he headed out to Infosys to address senior executives, Ulrich emphasised that HR has to redefine itself as the way one works is itself getting redefined. Excerpts:

Companies are going through tumult around the world. The Occupy Wall Street movement is spreading worldwide and leadership is facing uncertain times. What can HR do in these uncertain times?

There is no easy answer. Obviously, what companies need to do is to be successful or they don't continue. But they need to be successful not only in the making of money but also in what we call the making of meaning. So, what a good HR person can do is create an architecture of how a company can be successful commercially as well as socially. Many of the people who protest feel left out because they feel they are not part of the success stories, and a good HR system in the company will make them feel enabled and empowered to make a difference.

So, are the better-run companies reacting to the change around them and also redefining themselves?

The very best companies are constantly changing their identity. IBM was a technology company, now it is a services company — so a big company like that is able to shift its identity and what it does. Infosys started in back-room outsourcing and is now changing to client servicing, partnering and relationships. When companies learn to adapt to the outside world, that's how they will survive. Let me give you a piece of data: the percentage of companies that has been disbanded is 30-40 per cent every 10 years because they don't adapt and they don't change. Companies that adapt and change are more likely to succeed.

In this context, what are the challenges that HR is facing?

HR needs to focus on what they do inside the company based on the value outside. HR needs to be constantly innovating new approaches for new generations. For example, the next generation of employees, 10 years from now, their thinking about work will be different from yours and mine. HR needs to create that new setting. My daughter is a professor, and she said, ‘how come people have to only work 8 am to 5 pm? Work shouldn't be limited to that time.' Work should be when we want to work and technology is enabling the next generation to redefine work. HR should constantly be redefining talent. The other thing HR can do is constantly redefine the culture and pattern of work within the company. Every company builds a culture or a way of doing things; how it manages conflict, how it makes decisions and HR should be saying are we doing it the right way.

Infosys has grown from 8,000 people to 1.30 lakh people in 20 years. So, what is the next step? What should the culture be? How do we build a new identity as we continue to create what the future holds? HR can help business leaders do that and they will add great value to the company.

Technology is changing rapidly. Can companies and HR adapt as fast as technology is changing?

I agree, the half-life of technology is now down to two or three years, 50 per cent is new… but the half-life of human resources or people is 10-15 years, and it may be down to seven or eight years now, before you change people…But it is more than mere technology, so you have to help people recognise that we need to constantly redefine what we do and that is so difficult. You probably have a way you go about writing your articles, maybe there is a new way to do it, we just don't know it yet. For me, teaching, I've got to find new ways to teach and present and it's that ability to constantly learn and grow that we have to have build into the companies and the way we work.

If we don't change, somebody else will change us and the change is going to happen. The issue is how well we respond.

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