Dave Ulrich on Top HR Priorities for CHROs in 2025

In Conversation with Dave Ulrich, Rensis Likert Professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan and a partner at the RBL Group on HR Priorities in 2025

Dave Ulrich has published over 200 articles and book chapters and over 30 books. He edited Human Resource Management for ten years, served on editorial board of four other journals and on the Board of Directors for Herman Miller (16 years), has spoken to large audiences in 90 countries; performed workshops for over half of the Fortune 200; coached successful business leaders, and is a Distinguished Fellow in the National Academy of Human Resources.

He posts weekly and comments daily on LinkedIn (over 350,000 followers and 3,300,000 page views in 2024) and has a free weekly newsletter with over 220,000 subscribers. His work creates ideas with impact about how to deliver stakeholder value through human capability (talent + organization + leadership + HR).

Q1- What are top priorities for CHROs in 2025?

Here are four key focus areas as Next Agenda for CHROs as we move into 2025:

Next Agenda 1: Advance that HR is less about HR and more on creating stakeholder value.  Today, much of the HR work focuses on HR practices and processes. I propose that that going forward, stakeholder value for all humans who interact with the organization should gain increasing attention. I envision more focus on how an HR practice would positively impact employee performance or sentiment, executive ability to deliver strategy, board ability to oversee strategy and succession, customer share, investor confidence, and community reputation.  b

Next Agenda 2: Offer a complete human capability agenda and assessment.

The predominant focus of human capability has been and is on talent. While agreeing that talent impacts stakeholder value (see Organization Guidance System on talent), our research found that attention to organization has more impact on all stakeholders than talent (or leadership and HR function) (see Figure 1)

Figure 1: Talent vs. Organization vs. Leadership vs. HR Department

Prediction of Stakeholder Value (reported R²)

(Number of organizations with at least five respondents)

The research in figure 1, and other studies, suggests that more attention should be paid to creating organization capabilities going forward.

Next Agenda 3: Prioritize using analytics and AI.

There is an increasing need to prioritize which initiatives deserve the most attention. Often prioritization comes from personal experience, popular views, or surveys. 

Going forward, analytics can empirically predict where to focus to deliver the most value to stakeholders. This is more than a sample of HR or business leaders reporting what they think matters and more actual empirical evidence showing where to prioritize which initiatives in human capability have the most impact on stakeholder value.

Next Agenda 4: Upgrading HR professionals. For HR to create stakeholder value through human capability, HR professionals need development both at work (assignments, roles, responsibilities) and through forward-focused development efforts. A host of training programs on the tools, practices, and policies of HR abound, but learning how to turn HR efforts into stakeholder value through human capability solutions based on data will likely be forthcoming.

Q2- How can organizations effectively transition from piloting to full-scale implementation of Generative AI in HR processes?

We have identified 10 criteria for apply gen AI to HR (see table).  Companies are in different positions on each of the ten criteria

Criteria to Evaluate How Well Your Organization is Using AI for HR

Q3- What innovative approaches can HR leaders take to enhance employee experience in hybrid work settings?

We have seen five waves of enhancing employee experience of both in person and virtual employees (see figure). 

Evolution of Ideas Related to Employee Experience

We propose six principles that define what hope means in an organization setting. Organizations with hope:

1. Transform the future. Hope emphasizes what can be with the ability to grow from but leave behind the past. Organizations articulate inspirational, future-focused strategies that deliver stakeholder value.
2. Are based in healthy relationships and conversations. Hope flourishes when people care for, serve, and hear one another. Organizations prosper through collaboration, relationships, and teamwork.
3. Ensure efficacy. Hope increases when current efforts lead to future positive outcomes. Organizational investments in human capability impact stakeholder outcomes.
4. Rely on realistic optimism. Hope focuses on what is right and possible, not merely desirable. Organizations set aspirational but doable goals.
5. Empower people. Hopeful people have better health, are more resilient, and live longer. Organizations help people become better.
6. Address personal needs. Hope serves individual needs in a personalized and scalable way. Organizations turn individual competencies into organization capabilities.

Q4- How can organizations address the skills gap through targeted up-skilling and reskilling programs?

Learning matters more than ever in today’s volatile, changing, uncertain business world. Over our thirty-year study of HR competencies, my colleagues and I find that approximately 30 to 40 percent new competencies emerge every four or five years; in my personal training, I seek about 20 to 25 percent new material every two years to respond to the pace of change. To enable this type of disruption, an organization’s learning agenda should be less about what is taught and more about the impact of what is taught. We suggest 10 trends about why learning matters,

WHY: Why do investments in learning create more value?

1. Understand the emerging context of work. Learning does not occur in a vacuum. The business context requires learning about the social, technical, economic, political, environmental, and demographic trends that shape business. Learners should appreciate and anticipate these trends so that they can respond to them, keeping their organizations relevant to current industry needs. L

• Identify how learning is a source of organizational value. Learning is not about what is taught but the value it creates for those who are taught. So L&D professionals should carefully tailor learning experiences to deliver desired value to the carefully identified key stakeholders of learning (participants, organizations, customers, investors).

WHAT: What are some of the emerging learning strategies and questions?

• Where does learning occur? We have found that 50 percent of learning occurs through on-the-job experience (job assignments, projects, coaching, mentoring); 30 percent of learning occurs through education experiences where participants engage in the learning—they are not just tourists; and 20 percent of learning occurs through experiences outside of work (parenting, volunteer service, life experience).

• Who attends and who teaches? Who attends training determines who gets value. Formal learning experiences can be intended for the individual participant but could also be for a team, customers, or investors. Who delivers training impacts how it is received. Delivery may be self-taught (e.g., through technology), by experts (e.g., faculty), by line managers, or by external stakeholders (e.g., customers or investors).

• What are learning outcomes? Learning outcomes can be individual focused (how I improve) or organization focused (how we improve). In our research reported in Victory Through Organization, we found that organization-focused learning (e.g., improve the culture, capabilities, or systems) has four times the impact on business results than individual-focused learning (e.g., improve personal skills).

• How does learning occur? An evolution of learning pedagogy flows from presentations to case studies of other companies to facilitated discussions to action learning to learning solutions. Ultimately, learning solutions start with the challenges a learner faces and offers the learner insights on how to respond.

• How do we transfer learning to work? Transferring learning ideas across a boundary (from classroom to workplace) is always demanding. This can be done by focusing training on real business challenges, anticipating challenges to implementation of ideas, having coaches follow up, and so forth.

HOW: How can learning be more effective?

• Leverage technology. In today’s world, technology enables learning. But a pervasive trap is to just use technology as an efficient learning tool (e.g., online learning); rather, technology should be used to create learning communities where learners share insights and experiences. Social learning networks move learning beyond classrooms to work settings.

• Create accountability. L&D specialists are architects who build blueprints for learning. Line managers are the contractors who build a house and have responsibility to make learning happen. But the ultimate accountability for learning rests with the individual employee who is the resident of the house.

1. Measure learning impact. Without measurement, learning outcomes are dreams not realities. But the right measures are not about activity (who or how many attended), but ultimately about business impact. Learning experiences create value for others, and measures should reflect that value.

Q4. Anything else important which is not covered?

HR needs to continue to evolve to creating stakeholder value through human capability.

Stakeholders are all the “humans” who engage with the organization including employees but also boards customers investors citizens and others who are “human” and get value from an organization. HR is less about HR and more about deliver stakeholder value.  Human capability are the insights HR brings in talent + leadership + organization + HR function to deliver value.

Thanks, Dave for Insights!

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