Dave Ulrich, Rensis Likert Professor at University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, and author and speaker, shares specifics on developing high-impact HR teams.
Dave Ulrich
Rensis Likert Professor, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan
You’ve long emphasized that HR’s true value lies in delivering business outcomes. How can organizations better connect evidence-based training and employee well-being initiatives to measurable business results in today’s work environment?
There is an abundance of empirical evidence that business financial results (versions revenue minus costs) can be linked to investments in human capability (talent + leadership + organization). Most can appreciate the evolution of these ideas. Customers go back to stores, restaurants, hotels, or other organizations where they feel well-treated. That treatment comes from how they engage with employees. Employee engagement is a lead indicator of customer engagement that is a lead indicator of investor confidence.
As we face rapid technological change, what capabilities (referring to organization-level culture) should HR leaders be developing to ensure their organizations remain both agile and employee friendly?
HR leaders, like other business leaders, need to demonstrate technological acumen, to know to use technology (e.g., genAI and agenticAI) to source information to make better decisions, to measure results in terms of stakeholder value, to offer integrated human capability solutions, to prioritize where to invest to have largest impact, and to have courage to make a difference.
You’ve written extensively on the concept of “human capability.” How should HR leaders rethink traditional talent development models to build capability in a post-pandemic, hybrid world?
There are many people and organization investments that can be made to deliver stakeholder value. The “human capability” logic organizes these into four groups which helps measure, invest in, and prioritize initiatives.
- Talent: individual competence, people, workforce, labor, employee
- Organization: organization capability, team, workplace, system, culture
- Leadership at all levels
- HR function: how HR is organized, designs and delivers practices, measures results, and develops HR professionals
Most see the value of this logic. Individuals play sports; teams win championships.
What’s one common misstep you see organizations make when trying to invest in culture, training, or well-being, and what should they be doing instead?
Many like to measure and track the activities of HR (hiring, training, paying, communicating, etc.). We see the focus more on outcomes or stakeholder value than the activity. For example, when investing in culture or leadership training, the first parts of the investment presentation should be about increasing customer revenue, investor confidence, strategic realization, or community reputation. Then, show how culture, leadership, or other human capital initiatives will deliver these outcomes.
Looking ahead, what do you believe will most distinguish high-impact HR teams from the rest in the next three to five years?
Simple tagline: HR is less about HR work and more about delivering stakeholder value to all stakeholders who engage with the organization: customers, investors, communities, board members — all of whom are “human” in human resources.
