Key Responsibilities of HR Business Partner

Being the Business Partner is a dream of each Human Resources department. It is not just about the changed approach of Human Resources, defining new HR Role in the organization, but is also about new HR Business Partner’s responsibilities in the organization as the business partners have a different kind of the relationship and they are on the next level of the co-operation.

The main responsibility of the HR Business Partner is in listening to the ideas and plans of the internal clients and bringing back the proposals as the reaction to the ideas and plans. The responsibility of the HR Business Partner is to build a common approach to Human Resources in the managed area as the internal client can reach the short term goals and the long term stability of the organization can be reached as well.

The HR Business Partner is responsible for the understanding the role in the business of the internal client, the processes and inputs and outputs from the area. Without this knowledge, the HR Business Partner cannot be accepted in discussions as the ideas and HR Proposals can be “out-of-the-box” too much.

The HR Business Partner is responsible for setting the employee friendly environment at the client’s side, which builds a good platform for reaching the goals and where the employees feel their personal contribution to the results of the organization and they feel, they are recognized for being successful.

The HR Business Partner is responsible for setting the HR link between the client’s area of the business responsibility and other units as the employees can internally flow through the organization. The HR Business Partner is responsible for setting the rules for the internal rotations as the best talents are kept within the organization and the internal know how is not lost.

The HR Business Partner is responsible for the monitoring the trends on the external job market and comparing the external job market trends with the internal trends among employees. The HR Business Partner is responsible for discovering all the bad trends, which can influence the organizational performance and can have a huge unexpected impact on the motivation of employees. The HR Business Partner has an access to the data and information about employees and the quick reports have to be developed to warn the management before the situation become unmanageable.

The HR Business Partner is responsible for protecting the internal client in Human Resources department and has to find a suitable solution for the internal client and HR. The good compromise always allow win-win solution and it is highly appreciated by the internal customers of Human Resources. On the other hand, the HR Business Partner is responsible for protecting the interests of HR at the client’s side. The HR Business Partner is not a support to the client, it is a pure relationship.

And finally, the HR Business Partner is responsible for the overall compliance of the HR solutions and HR Procedures applied at the internal client with the law and the internal procedures set in the organization. It is extremely important as the creativity has to be limited by the rules of the game.

What is not a true HR Business Partnership?

The HR Business Partnership model is about the real partnership model. The partnership is about sharing the responsibility, the trust, honest feedback and mutual co-operation. Many times, the HR Managers do not know, how to implement the real HR Business Partnership concept and they implement it just partly. That Human Resources shares everything and the partner just uses the services.

The HR Business Partnership is not a support-ship. The relationship has to be balanced and both parties have to feel the benefits and reciprocal obligations arising from the mutual co-operation. When the relationship is imbalanced, the relationship cannot work as one party does not trust the other. The HR Business Partnering model is about the commitment of both partners to work on strengthening the relationship and getting better results.

The HR Business Partner is not the administrative support to the leader or a manager of the unit. They have to share ideas, they have to work together and they have to make the decision in the people managing area together. When the manager of the unit does not follow these simple rules, the HR Business Partnering concept does not work. When the HR Business Partner accepts the decisions of the manager automatically, the relationship is not working. The manager can be satisfied, but Human Resources gets no benefit from such a relationship, just a workload.

The HR Business Partner is not the HR Administration Partner in the business. The HR Business Partner has to make the steps together with the manager, who has the final responsibility for the employees. The HR Business Partner acts as the consultant for the manager and as the HR Manager inside Human Resources, who is able to get the best solution from HR Back Office and HR Centers of Excellence.

The HR Business Partner is not working just for the internal client, he or she works for Human Resources mainly. The HR Business Partner has to look for the best solution inside Human Resources and then it is the role of the HR Business Partner to transfer the generic HR solution to the client’s side and to successfully implement it. The HR Business Partner works for Human Resources and agrees with the internal client the best way, how to conduct the HR procedures, which are obligatory for the whole organization.

Being the slave is not a function of the HR Business Partner. The introduction of the HR Business Partnering model is difficult as the managers are not willing to share their issues with the HR Specialist and they want to use just the provided HR services and to have a person to tell the requests to. The HR Business Partner has to be a strong person as each relationship starts with setting the boundaries and rules, which are agreed by both sides.