The Hr Value Proposition (Hardcover)

by David Ulrich (Author), Wayne Brockbank (Author) "Many attempts at HR effectiveness start without defining value..." (more)
Key Phrases: external business realities, intangibles audit, human capital developer, United States, Low High, Six Sigma (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Timely reading -- recommended, and not just for the HR teams. Argent 20050805

Product Description

HR's leading thinkers provide a blueprint for the future

The international bestseller Human Resource Champions helped set the HR agenda for the 1990s and enabled HR professionals to become strategic partners in their organizations. But earning a seat at the executive table was only the beginning. Today's HR leaders must also bring substantial value to that table.

Drawing on their sixteen-year study of over 29,000 HR professionals and line managers, leading HR experts Dave Ulrich and Wayne Brockbank propose The HR Value Proposition. The authors argue that HR value creation requires a deep understanding of external business realities and how value is defined by key stakeholders both inside and outside the company. They provide practical tools and worksheets for leveraging this knowledge to create HR practices, build organizational capabilities, design HR strategy, and marshal resources that create value for customers, investors, executives, and employees.

Written by the field's premier trailblazers, this book charts the path HR professionals must take to help lead their organizations into the future.

Dave Ulrich is a professor at the University of Michigan School of Business and the author of twelve books and more than a hundred articles on the subject of human resources. Wayne Brockbank is a clinical professor of business at the University of Michigan School of Business, the author of award-winning papers on HR strategy, and an adviser to top global organizations.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 316 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business School Press; 1 edition (June 30, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591397073
• ISBN-13: 978-1591397076
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #29,831 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars HR as Business Partner in the New Era, February 11, 2006

By	Debi Singh Saini (Gurgaon and Delhi INDIA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read This Book!, July 5, 2005

By	Jon Younger "Chief Learning Officer" (National City Corporation) - See all my reviews

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.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED BY STERN'S MANAGEMENT REVIEW.!, April 14, 2006

By	Yvette Borcia and Gerry Stern "Stern's Manage... (Culver City, CA) - See all my reviews

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.'