Beyond the Ulrich model for HR evolution
HR's shift toward an intelligence-driven ecosystem
For as long as I can remember, conversations with CHRO’s have inevitably focused on how well they’ve applied the Ulrich model which (in theory), has cleanly created 3 separate pillars for HR Business Partners, Centers of Expertise, and HR Shared Services. On occasions however, HR leaders have voiced concerns that one or more of these three pillars are not quite working as planned to deliver on what this model is supposed to achieve. That's still a live and important concern, as the persistence of “rename-only” reorgs and perceived “ivory-tower” Centers of Expertise makes clear.
Today though, a more fundamental question has arisen. Is the three-pillar structure itself even the right architecture for modern HR teams? A growing number of CHROs and independent HR analyst consultants are concluding that the answer is no. Not because the underlying logic of separating strategic partnership, deep expertise, and scaled delivery was necessarily wrong, but because those roles themselves are evolving into something the original model never anticipated.
From structure to ecosystem
The traditional three-pillar model is fundamentally structural. It defines fixed roles, reporting lines, and handoffs between distinct teams. That structure made sense when organizational change was relatively slow, work was organized around stable hierarchies, and the main variable HR needed to manage was how efficiently it delivered a relatively predictable set of services.
None of those conditions hold as reliably anymore. Organizational structures are flatter and more networked. Work increasingly flows across project teams and dynamic groupings rather than fixed reporting lines. And AI is now capable of handling meaningful pieces of what used to require dedicated human specialists; which changes not just how efficiently each pillar operates, but what each pillar is fundamentally for.
The result is a shift from thinking about HR's operating model as a fixed structure to thinking about it as a more fluid ecosystem. One where roles are defined less by rigid boundaries and more by the kind of value they're expected to generate, supported by data and AI running underneath all three pillars rather than analytics and technology sitting off to the side as separate enablers.
HR Business Partners Becoming Performance Enablers
The classic HRBP role was built around relationship management - owning a defined set of business unit or geographical relationships, translating strategy into HR programs, and serving as the primary HR point of contact for a specific part of the entire organization.
However, as organizations have become more networked and less hierarchical, that Business Partner model has started to strain. Leaders increasingly need support that isn't bound to a fixed business unit or geographical relationship. Co-ordinating talent and capability across dynamic project teams, orchestrating collaboration across boundaries that don't map neatly to an org chart and enabling performance in contexts where the "team" a leader was historically responsible for might be reconstituted every quarter.
The evolving version of this role is less about managing a static portfolio of relationships and more about actively enabling performance wherever and however work is actually happening — closer to an internal performance consultant who can operate fluidly across shifting team structures than a relationship manager tied to a fixed org chart position.
Centers of Expertise becoming enterprise intelligence architects
Centers of Expertise were originally built to concentrate deep specialist knowledge. The expertise for compensation design, learning architecture, and talent acquisition strategy translated into policies, programs, and tools the rest of the organization could use.
CofE’s are unlikely to disappear, but they are being pulled toward something broader. Organizations increasingly need these teams to generate ongoing, real-time insight for spotting emerging skills gaps, flagging early signals of attrition risk, and identifying where organizational design is creating friction. Insight that adds value now, rather than experts who are simply designing static programs on a periodic cycle.
That shift effectively reframes the Center of Expertise from a policy-design function into something closer to an enterprise intelligence function: still deeply expert in a domain but now expected to operate more like an internal analytics and insight team, continuously informing decisions across the business rather than periodically issuing new programs and guidelines.
Shared Services becoming experience engines
This is the shift covered in more depth in the move from Shared Services to HR Operations, but it's worth placing in this broader context, because it isn't happening in isolation. It’s the same need for underlying transformation affecting all three pillars simultaneously.
The traditional Shared Services model measured itself on transactional efficiency — tickets closed, cost per transaction, call handle time. The emerging version is measured on something closer to employee experience quality. How effortless, intuitive, and proactive the services feel, powered increasingly by AI-driven self-service, predictive support, and data that flows back into the rest of the HR ecosystem rather than staying siloed in a service-desk reporting function.
Calling this an "experience engine" rather than a "shared service" isn't just rebranding. It reflects a genuine shift in what the function is optimized for and what capabilities it needs to deliver on that optimization.
Why is this happening as an ecosystem, not as three separate shifts?
The important thing about this evolution is that it isn't three unrelated trends that happen to be occurring at the same time. It's a single underlying shift where the same forces (AI capability, organizational fluidity, the demand for real-time insight) are reshaping all three pillars simultaneously and increasingly blurring the boundaries between them.
An enterprise intelligence function generating real-time insight into skills gaps has an obvious and direct relationship with an experience engine that's collecting rich behavioral and service data. A performance enabler working fluidly across dynamic teams needs exactly the kind of real-time intelligence the evolved Centers of Expertise are now positioned to provide, rather than waiting for a periodic program cycle. The three pillars aren't just each individually modernizing. They're becoming more interdependent, with data and AI acting as the connective tissue running underneath all three rather than as separate capabilities bolted onto the traditional structure.
This is what makes "ecosystem" a more accurate description than "model." A model implies a fixed structure with defined boundaries. An ecosystem implies interdependent capabilities that share information and adapt together; arguably a much closer description of what leading HR functions are actually building toward.
What does this mean for CHROs?
This shift doesn't mean the operating-model conversation is over. If anything, it means CHROs need to revisit it more deliberately than the "we implemented Ulrich a decade ago" mindset usually allows for. A few practical implications follow directly from this shift.
Role design needs to prioritize adaptability over fixed scope. Hiring and developing HRBPs, Center of Expertise leaders, and Shared Services leaders around fixed, narrowly defined role descriptions risks building capability for a structure that's already being superseded. The stronger approach is designing roles around the value they need to generate, with real flexibility in how that value gets delivered.
Data and AI infrastructure needs to be shared, not siloed by pillar. If the three pillars are becoming genuinely interdependent through shared data and intelligence, building separate analytics capabilities inside each pillar recreates exactly the kind of silo the ecosystem model is trying to eliminate. This argues for a more centralized, shared data and AI capability that all three evolved pillars draw from.
Governance and decision rights need active redesign, not inheritance. The unclear accountabilities that plagued the traditional three pillars become even more consequential in a more fluid ecosystem, where boundaries between roles are intentionally less rigid. Without deliberate governance, "fluid" can easily become "unclear," reintroducing the same friction the original model struggled with, just in a new form.
This is a multi-year evolution, not a single reorganization. Unlike a structural reorg, which can be executed on a defined timeline, evolving HRBPs into performance enablers, Centers of Expertise into intelligence architects, and Shared Services into experience engines requires sustained capability building, technology investment, and cultural change that plays out over years, not quarters.
The Underlying Shift
When it was introduced in 1995, Ulrich's contribution was giving HR a structure sophisticated enough to earn a seat at the strategy table. Today's evolution is less about earning that seat and more about making sure the structure itself keeps pace with how fluid, fast-changing, and AI-augmented the rest of the business has already become.
The CHROs treating this as a genuine architectural rethink rather than just another round of role-renaming and token reinvention, will be the ones most likely to end up with an HR function that can actually operate at the speed the business now requires.
At Carter Morris, we specialize in identifying, assessing and securing commercially minded, pragmatic CHRO’s with extensive international markets experience, and an advanced level of thoughtfulness on how to best align proactive HR teams to enable business goals. If you are questioning whether you have the right people and frameworks in place to deliver HR services beyond the historic Ulrich model, you’re welcome to contact me for a useful insight in confidential conversation.
About the Author
Ian Mael is valued across his HR network for his diligent communications and authentic partnerships. As the leader for interim HR executive hires at Carter Morris, he brings over 15 years of recruitment experience for multi sector hires within demanding deadlines for the full range of specialist roles within the HR profession.