That’s me; I am about one inch away from being a persona non grata in the HR community. Primarily this was because I radically contradicted "the" Dave Ulrich when I stated "you are not an agent of change". Last year, the people of HR Expert online were kind enough to publish this point of view in the article "An Organization that Is Serious about Processes Is Serious about HR".
But now there is a second reason for HR people to despise of my blunt opions on HR. In the October 2008 issue of HR Expert I now examine what it takes for HR to become a business partner. In short, the article covers a concrete three-step approach for HR to become a reliable business partner. The biggest takeaway for HR managers is an understanding about the importance of HR processes and how an ERP implementation should be used to support an HR strategy. Next to that we also outline some opportunities for managing expectations of HR.
Both articles are based on my observations as an organizational change manager on large scale ERP implementations. During those implementations one is involved in the trenches in a weird way; offering people new roles and responsibilities; focusing on processes as a new way of working and … sharing their frustration as HR is never involved and most of the times completely ignoring the changes at hand.
