when we say hr business partner, do you think, "strategic"?

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THE HR BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP IN THE 21ST CENTURY.Upscaling the organization for the VUCA* world: redesigning the role of the HRBP.

*Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous


A day in the life of your average HRBP.


So why don’t we realize itreally sucks when it happens at work?

Should an HR business partner really be doing all that?


Heck no.

But they should be playing a valuable role in your org.


Imagine an HRBP who is a true strategic partner.


They might look a little like this…

Identifies business and people risks.

Takes a strategic look at the people side of business decisions.

Plans ahead.

Drives talent planning for critical roles across the org.

Acts as a change management thought leader.

Is an informed conduit between leaders and HR centers of expertise.

Helps rising star leaders prepare for the next level of responsibility.

Builds great succession plans.

Trusted advisor to business leaders and managers.


So, what’s stopping them?


It’s a little bit of a lot of things.

Manager shortcomings mean HRBP has to come

to the rescue.

The organization has outgrown its HR services model.

The HRPB takes on stuff they shouldn’t, then gets

comfortable because they like being problem

solvers.

The HRPB doesn’t have the time to develop the necessary skills to be an

effective strategic partner.

Roles aren’t clearly defined: many duties that

should be on the manager end up on the HRBP’s shoulders by

default.


Let’s redefine this role, shall we?


1) Start with the business.If we’ve said this before, we’ve said this a billion times: always start with the needs of your business. What is the strategic direction of the organization? And how does HR best support that direction?

What are the talent and organizational implications of your strategy?

Who owns your employee experience? Do you know who is accountable for engagement?

How does the HRBP work with the rest of HR?

Are you succession ready? Who owns the planning for it?

Are talent decisions made with reliable and insightful data?


2) Understand the role.OK. You understand where the organization is going. So, what role does your HRBP play in all that?

This is the time to think back to those two images we gave you earlier: one HRBP that is too overburdened to look at the big picture… and one that is able to act as a business advisor andhas the bandwidth to take a strategic look at the people side of business decisions.

If the later sounds better, make sure you clearly define the role so it fits that vision – and establish capability requirements that support it as well.

Tip: for this role redefinition to “take”, you’ll need to shift the emphasis of the role from manager to strategic advisor. Many HRBPs today have staffs of direct reports to handle all the work. If you’ve successfully rebuilt the role, they won’t need those folks — but it’s sometimes hard to give up that “manager” status.


3) Divide and conquer.Now you’ll need to organize things. What tasks are on the plate of the HRBP? What should be pushed back to the managers? What should be taken care of by the main HR function? How will all that work be bucketed?

Exactly how this looks will vary from organization to organization, but approach this logically: for instance, think about putting employee issues in the employee relations group – or with their managers! And so on.

Your goal is for your HRBP to be able to focus on their advisory role.

Tip: If you’ve successfully redefined the role of HRBP in your organization — and placed more functions back in the hands of the managers (where they should be) — you’ll end up with many fewer HRBPs than you had before. But they will be rock stars!


4) Define success.You’ve just made this role a strategic advisor rather than an HR jack-of-all-trades. You can’t expect your existing HRBPs to transition immediately and seamlessly. It’s your job to identify and clearly communicate what it takes to knock this new strategic role out of the park.

Set expectations. Build self-awareness into your existing HRBPs. Give them the training they may need in forecasting, budgeting, and business planning.Work on their time prioritization. And interview for the skills you need when you source new people.

Tip: a big contributing factor in derailing an HRBP is a lack of leadership ability on the part of the managers they work with. Make sure these managers get the training they need as well, so they don’t keep coming to their HRBP for help.


Got it? Let’s review. 1) Our HRBPs are mired in too much stuff.

2) There are a lot of reasons for this.

3) But if they could instead act as effective strategic partners to the business, wouldn’t it be great?

4) To fix this, think about: Understanding the implications of your business strategy for HR.

Redefining the HRBP role.

Dividing the work in a smart way among your managers, HR generalists, and HRBP.

Defining what “good” looks like in the role.

Your people will thank you.


your people = your success.

PeopleFirm is a consulting firm dedicated to achieving the ultimate win-win: inspired people driving inspired performance. We focus on effective tools, measurable outcomes, real results, and getting your people out of their seats and engaged in your company’s growth.

thanks for reading.

when we say hr business partner, do you think, "strategic"?

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