HR PRACTICES IN ORGANIZATION
Increasingly diversified businesses require more complex human resources operations, Dave Ulrich contends. Here, the author and consultant breaks down the roles today’s HR departments must fulfill to deliver value.
Governance is a hot topic. At times, it refers to government regulation of corporate affairs (e.g., Sarbanes-Oxley). More frequently, it refers to how an organization governs, or organizes, to make decisions. HR governance is about how the HR function is structured to deliver value.
An HR structure must match the business structure. A holding company business structure would lead to a decentralized and dispersed HR organization. A single-business company would have an HR department organized by functions (staffing, training, rewards, organization design, etc.). But, since most large organizations diversify and operate with a multiple-business-unit structure, most HR departments are governed by more complex organization structures. Most large HR departments are emerging into five distinct roles and responsibilities, each with unique contributions.
Transactional work through service centers, e-HR and outsourcing
HR departments increasingly are split into transactional work and transformational work. Transactional duties are standardized, routine and administrative, and are handled through service centers, e-HR and outsourcing. Transformational work, which is differentiated and strategic, is centered in embedded HR and HR centers of expertise.
Service centers emerged in the late 1990s as HR leaders realized that many administrative tasks are more efficiently done in a centralized, standardized way. As one HR executive said, "If we move the HR work 400 yards, we might as well move it 3,000 miles." Employees are increasingly willing to find answers to routine, standard questions through a service center, and technology enables these centers to access employees as well or better than other ways. Service centers...