Increasingly, organisations are looking to HR to work more strategically with line managers, providing greater alignment between the strategies of the business and the HR Agenda and adding greater overall value. This re-definition of the role has more recently come in the shape of the “Business Partner”. Barbara Kenton, co-author of the book “HR – The Business Partner” and independent consultant, has studied the nature of the emerging role and the duties and skills of this new internal HR consultant. She provides some tips for stepping up to the role and providing added value to the business.
According to Barbara, the advancement of HR technologies and software management systems provide the capacity for HR managers to step away from operational tasks and allow them to focus their attention where they can add greatest value: providing advice and guidance to managers on the strategic decisions most impacting the business. In the shape of the HR Business Partner this means increased emphasis on up to date knowledge of the wider business world, business awareness and skill within the sector in which they are working and specific understanding of the business in which they work.
Although the principles of business partnering have caught on within many HR functions, titles will not necessarily have changed. According to Barbara, within small organizations, where employees may have been used to the role of the “Personnel Officer” an unfamiliar job title can lead to unnecessary confusion and even mistrust. It is better to act and prove your effectiveness before changing your job title to “HR Business Partner.”
Portrait of the HR Business Partner
HR Business Partners essentially work as internal consultants. In large companies, there is likely to be an infrastructure with Senior Business Partners providing a service to Senior Managers in the business, often sitting geographically alongside their business partners rather than in a centralised HR function. This provides a very visible shift in ways of working and demonstrably gets HR out of the proverbial “ivory tower”. They might be supported by partners at a more junior level, and other HR colleagues based in shared service centres and centres of excellence providing either operational advice or specific advice on more technical areas.
In medium-size companies, though, they generally combine operational tasks (recruiting, career management, performance management, etc.) alongside providing more strategic advice. Currently, HR Business Partners may come from high-level positions in human resources departments, or be former managers from other departments (e.g. finance, marketing). Because at the more senior levels the role is both challenging and demanding, and requires a degree of strategic influence, there is an increase in recruitment to the role from outside the company. This provides challenges for the new Business Partner in getting to know the culture and ways of working within the business quickly. Those recruited internally may have insufficient skill, expertise and credibility to make sufficient impact in the role.
Duties
Specifically, HR Business Partners are strategic advisors. “Someone who maintains a strong connection with employees and the operational side of the business, while focusing on strategic goals and influencing through others” (Kenton & Yarnall, 2006)
They might be involved in helping to draw up business plans, giving recommendations on the corporate strategy and providing direction to upper management as regards business development, the financing plan or even project feasibility. Whether advising at the most strategic level or not, their role is to ensure that human resources priorities are addressed at the same time as focusing on business needs.
What skills are needed
There are a whole host of skills that encompass the role of the Business Partner in addition to an excellent knowledge of the business including:
- “Intrapersonal” skills – good awareness of self, strengths and development needs, strong self esteem and confidence and ability to stay resilient in the face of change and challenge
- Excellent interpersonal/relationship skills in order to develop relationships at all levels of the company
- Consultancy skills – to be able to critically reflect and gather data, hold the mirror up to their business partners, providing support and challenge both to individuals and the business: acting like an external at times even though they are employed within the business.
- Influencing skills – an ability to influence senior managers and provide the stimulus for change.
- Project management skills.
- Ability to think strategically, and both creatively and logically in order to give both a unique and balanced perspective on business issues
Are you cut out for HR business partnering?
According to Barbara and her co-author Jane Yarnall, the following 4C’s approach will help you determine whether you have what it takes to be an HR Business Partner:
- Caring: You understand the impact of changes on people and can pay attention to the importance of being alongside managers, taking time to listen, not just to the business concerns but the human side of the organisation
- Competent: You know your company and the organisational context by heart. You keep up to date on current events and market trends because you know that will help you add greater value to managers in the business you are committed to continuous professional development.
- Connected: Your network includes influential people in the organisation at all levels and more broadly stakeholder organisations outside the business who can support the companies key strategic goals.
- Challenging: With your external viewpoint, you push members of the company to think outside the box and try new strategies. You also see the benefit in challenging the direction of the company, providing an essential mirror to what is going on and the potentially limiting assumptions being made within the company.
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Barbara Kenton is Director of WHooSH The Change and Conflict Consultancy and can be contacted on barbara@whoosh.uk.com. See: www.whoosh.uk.com for The “Business Partnership Programme for HR Professionals”
HR The Business Partner (2006) is published by Elsevier Butterworth Heinemann, Oxford, England