An HR business partner is an experienced human resource professional that works directly with a company’s senior leadership to direct and develop their HR agenda. That HR plan always needs to closely support the goals of the company.
Unlike people who hold the usual HR positions and work primarily as part of the company’s internal human resources department, the HR business partner instead works closely with the company’s senior leadership. They sometimes even sit on the board of directors or, at least, regularly collaborate with the C-suite of the company.
Suppose a company wants to make human resources a part of the organizational strategy of the company. In that case, they need to put the HR business partner in close contact with the company’s leadership. An HR business partner is involved in high-level discussions with the goal to help a business fulfill its overall people goals.
Only if an organization lets an HR person strategically shape and execute the company’s mission and vision through the lens of HR we can consider that an HR business partner. The reason why HR deserves a seat at the strategy table is that they look after the company’s most important resource—its people.
What exactly does an HR business partner do at a company?
An HR business partner is usually an HR manager who is freed of not being involved with the usual rigid administrative constraints.
Instead of providing HR services to the company and its employees, HR business partners deal with tasks that have a more strategic importance for the company. The most common strategic tasks for HR are HR planning or HR strategy. By focusing only on strategic tasks, they can strategically influence and grow an organization from inside.
The term was coined in the late 1990s by the university professor, author, speaker, management coach, and management consultant Dave Ulrich. He developed the Ulrich Business Partner model to help HR professionals integrate more closely into everyday business processes and help them align their day-to-day work with business outcomes.
What does it mean to be an HR business partner in today’s business world?
HR business partners aren’t just partners in the traditional sense. They, in fact, have to play an active role in running the company. While they continue to do their everyday work and be points of contact for the company’s employees, they are also an essential part of executive management.
HR business partners’ expertise and knowledge should provide valuable and reliable input to the company’s management. They also need to be involved in all significant decisions that are to be made by the management. HR business partners should work closely and collaboratively with the company’s executive management while proactively contributing to creating the company’s values and ensuring that all employees are doing their best to achieve the corporate goals.
What are the five core tasks and duties of HR business partners?
#1 Strategic control and overview of major HR processes
The old business saying is true—employees are truly the companies’ most valuable resource, which means that the current shortage of skilled professionals is definitely one of the greatest challenges in HR today. That is why HR business partners need to have the strategic vision to identify hiring bottlenecks and problems early on in the process and do everything in their power to run efficient and proactive recruiting and hiring processes in their companies.
In addition to making sure that recruiting runs smoothly all the time, they need to ensure that the company’s employee retention rates are high, as high turnover rates are one of the major cost drivers in all companies of today.
#2 Talent development and coaching
Once that HR business partners’ strategic decisions have led to the right hires for the company, they need to ensure that those employees get and stay on the company’s course and help it continually move forward. For this to happen, it is crucial that HR business partners provide a strategy for professional development and training initiatives for employees and managers in the company.
By helping employees and managers further develop their professional skills will not only drive productivity but are also essential for the company’s ability to provide value for their employees. Employees that feel appreciated by their company and that know that they are supported are much less likely to start searching for new jobs.
#3 Collaboration with the company’s executive management
One of the true purposes of the HR business partner is to be the executive management’s direct point of contact for anything to do with people planning, meeting HR requirements, and people operations in general.
HR business partners need to work with the company’s data and internal tools to support the executive management team in major decisions such as increasing or decreasing the headcount in the company, or figuring out which skills are missing within the workforce to keep an edge over the competitors.
An HR business partner needs to be the one who keeps a clear view of the people operations of the company. They also need to play an active role in helping shape the company’s future.
