If people professionals can help break down internal silos, it facilitates a more connected way of working. Through championing and driving this, people professionals can create the networked, agile, learning organisation that many thought leaders believe is the future of work. The business partner can therefore be a true catalyst for transformational change. HR then becomes both a strategic partner and strategic enabler in one.
Operating models should be different for different organisations, depending on their context, size, complexity and evolution.
However, business partnering should not be simply defined as a role. There's no standard way to implement business partnering because context is incredibly important — what works in one organisation may not be right in another. Standalone business partners - attached to or aligned to a business unit. BPs are facilitators and business consultants, ensuring that the HR value proposition is both relevant and effective. Three-legged stool model - where the HR service is split between three areas of expertise:.
Shared services are a first line support and administration hub. Centres of excellence — usually small teams of experts with specialist HR knowledge. Centres of excellence deliver business and people benefits through effective innovations, interventions and initiatives, in areas such as reward, learning, recruitment, employee engagement, organisation development and talent management. Strategic business partners — senior and experienced people professionals who work closely with business leaders or line managers, usually embedded in the business unit, influencing, steering and implementing both the business and people strategy by aligning HR capabilities across the whole organisation.
Both options have their strengths and weaknesses. There are many different types of organisation, so this means that there are many ways that HR can be expressed as a functional model. However, HR becomes a true business partner through understanding the business model, the operating context, shaping the people strategy and creating the right HR services to deliver a positive impact on the organisation, its people and wider communities. Much of business partnering to date has focused on it being a defined role within an HR team — often a strategic BP or operational BP, and sometimes a specialist partner such as recruitment, reward, talent, etc.
Understanding the business model at depth — getting to know and understand how the business operates, how it creates value, its strategic drivers and its purpose. Generating insight from data and evidence — using and applying evidence to support business cases or strategies, as well providing insight, inspiration and the opportunity to validate and qualify the impact of their work.
Connecting with curiosity, purpose and impact — asking the right questions, crafting networks and understanding where HR can identify opportunities to create the most value. Leading with integrity, consideration and challenge — having the courage and confidence to challenge the business and its leaders. Our report Business savvy: giving HR the edge looks at these four foundations, and offers further ideas on what people professionals need to understand their business better. Of course, understanding the business is essential for a business partner role.
Self-belief — HR needs to believe in its own capabilities and how it can add strategic value to the organisation. Independence — HR needs to be courageous enough to challenge the business and leadership, even when it might not be the most popular option. Knowing the business — HR needs to understand the business, its strategy, its purpose, its culture and be able to have meaningful conversations about those things. Relationships — HR needs to be able to build and facilitate relationships across the organisation that are based on trust and are productive for all stakeholders.
This is internal partnering in practice. These points will help people professionals re-evaluate, rethink and refresh their business practices, but also position of HR as a true partner to the organisation. The nature of the BP model has and will continue to change.
The CIPD engages with organisations to survey and understand how it is evolving and constantly develop and grow our learning programmes to meet the needs of current and aspiring business partners. In essence, the HR business partner is an adviser and consultant to business leaders on issues pertaining to human resources. Indeed notes a number of core responsibilities for someone in an HR business partner role:.
Making the shift from tactical and operational work to strategic planning can be challenging, notes the research firm Gartner. If the role of the HR business partner is poorly defined, or if there are limited resources for HR managers, then an individual in an HR business manager role may spend the bulk of their day addressing day-to-day employee issues and have little time for strategic planning.
That said, HR business partners who are empowered to take on a strategic role can make a difference throughout an organization. According to Gartner data , high-performing HR business partners can improve employee performance by up to 22 percent, employee retention by up to 24 percent, revenue by up to 7 percent, and profit by up to 9 percent.
The role of an HR business partner is largely strategic in nature, and it requires frequent collaboration with executives and business leaders. As a result, the skills required to achieve success in the role focus on decision-making, communication, and leadership.
HR business partners have a wide range of software products at their disposal to help develop and communicate HR strategy, manage individuals and teams, and track spending.
The list includes business intelligence, decision support, data visualization, and online communities that facilitate information sharing. Data analysis can help HR departments with tasks such as evaluating job candidates, assessing staffing needs, and monitoring productivity and other job performance metrics.
As Human Resource Executive points out , data analysis plays an important role in strategic planning—especially in an uncertain market. Multinational companies compete on a global scale for talent, both in their field offices and at their headquarters. Effective HR business partners have a keen sense of cultural awareness in the areas where an organization operates; this includes an understanding of different labor laws, business practices, and compensation structures.
But success in the role also requires learning how the organization operates: What are the core business functions, how do the business units interact, what is the organizational chart, and so on. This familiarity is critical for earning the respect and confidence of business leaders, especially in an environment where major changes are anticipated.
An HR business partner should be comfortable with tasks such as developing a project scope statement , managing resources and stakeholders, and communicating in large and small groups. In aligning business objectives with personnel decisions, HR business partners frequently advocate that organizations change the way they do things—sometimes radically.
All leaders should be evaluated based on how their expertise and performance align with overall business objectives. In essence, the HR business partner serves as a strategic consultant. HR was once a department solely focused on the administrative tasks and compliance issues involved in the recruitment, hiring, management, and termination of employees.
An HR manager continues to focus on these critical issues — overseeing the internal human resources department and primarily focusing on policy implementation and other day-to-day administrative responsibilities. Whereas HR managers oversee the entire HR department, HR business partners work with department managers on developing a plan to hire the right people with the skills needed specifically for a job opening in that area. It marks a shift from the traditional way of running HR to a newer, more integrated role within each function of the business.
By working closely with department managers on a hiring strategy, an HR business partner has a better idea of the context surrounding each job opening. Rather than listing a generic job opening for an accountant, they understand the specific job duties as well as the goals a manager has for that position. Their work is directly related to current and future business success.
They are concerned less with administration and compliance issues and more about how a strategic plan for employee recruitment and retention can improve the effectiveness of a business unit. In short, rather than being an administrative support position on employee issues, the human resources business partner is an operational and strategic resource position. Not all businesses have individual people in these separate roles.
Proactive HR departments have moved into a business partnership role for the simple fact that they see value in aligning human capital efforts with the strategic goals of the business. Years ago, the manager of a department may have requested that HR recruit someone for an important job, and HR would manage the process of recruiting and hiring that person. With the shift to a business partner role, HR professionals are more active in working with that department manager on an overall strategy for hiring personnel.
They know, in detail, what the manager hopes to achieve with the employee in that position and how it serves overall department goals.
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