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Over the past few years, there has been a lot of focus placed on the role of HR Business Partners. This has cast a spotlight on how human resources plays more than just a supporting role in an organization. While both HR Managers and HR Business Partners work with organizations to promote HR goals, HR Managers focus on “employee management tasks” while HR Business Partners “support the business structure of an organization by collaborating with the HR department” (study.com, n.d.).
HR Business Partners are human resource professionals, or internal consultants, that provide input on human capital management for an organization’s senior leadership. They report to and work in close collaboration with senior leadership to develop an HR agenda that promotes and upholds the goals, mission, and vision of the organization. They often work more with individual business units and department managers rather than with the organization as a whole. To be successful in this role, it is crucial that an HR business partner has a broad understanding of all business functions within an organization. This means recognizing business challenges and understanding the organization from both an internal and external perspective.
The Current Trend in HR Business Partnering
HR business partnering has been widely used in many companies to organize their HR functions. HR business partners are able to develop HR initiatives and align them to both the overall business objective of an organization and stakeholder’s needs using business partnering. This occurs when HR recruits and hires the right talent, motivates employees, and help line managers and executives better manage their workforce; all the while keeping their sight on the larger picture, the long-term goal of the organization, and its performance.
The Origin of HR Business Partnering
HR business partnering had its origin over 20 years ago when Dave Ulrich’s model for organizing HR function was introduced. The Ulrich Model, from his book Human Resource Champions published in 1996, identifies four roles of HR professionals:
- Strategic partner
- Change agent
- Employee champion
- Administrative expert
When broken down and analyzed, the purpose of business partnering is to produce HR policies and procedures that align people’s strategy to the goals, aims, and needs of the organization. Successful business partnering contributes to the overall success of the company.