HR guru David Ulrich predicts that the future for human resources as a profession will involve a division between transactional and strategic functions.

In an exclusive interview with Recruiter, Ulrich said, “My sense is the HR field will be split in half.”  One group of HR professionals, which he described as “those who create value for a company’s business”, will ultimately sit on a line manager’s team. The other group will involve those who work with “legacy HR systems — processing payroll, benefits, training” and will be “invisible to general managers”.

However, even when that split occurs, and HR professionals are working in very different arenas, he said, a need will remain for an HR department that governs all of the HR professionals within a company. “Dual reporting relationships are not a bad thing,” he said.

Ulrich will speak in London on 30 January. For more information, visit www.globalleadersevents.com.

And to receive a free copy of his latest book, “The HR Value Proposition,” written with Wayne Brockbank, be one of the first readers to write to [email protected].  In the subject line, write “Ulrich book offer”.