The Human Resources (HR) industry has sprouted in end-number of directions, giving rise to several titles and professions. From diversity professionals to generalists and talent acquisition experts, almost everyone comes under the HR umbrella.
As recruiters, we have all come across terms such as HR business partners on various LinkedIn profiles, but seldom do we know or rather make an attempt to read about what this title really means.
HR business partners are HR professionals and strategists who work closely with the company’s leaders to develop various talent acquisition and other HR agendas that help a business achieve its goals in the long-run. HR business partners are forecasters as they derive hiring strategies based on the outcome of the company’s previous action. The process of an HR business partner associating themselves with the seniors is knows partnering and they may be involved in contributing to the major decisions taken by the company. Besides, an HR business partner could be or work closely with the board of directors or C-suit.
HR business partners work in large corporates while handling pan country operations that involve huge investments and a greater responsibility. This is the reason why such titles are uncommon in the realm of start-ups and mid-sized enterprises.
The origins of HR Business Partner:
The credit for popularising the term HR business partner in the late 1990s goes to academic and consultant David Ulrich. He sees HR business partners as successful modern HR function, who are experts in the services they execute. In other words, he termed them strategic advisors and overlooked the entire business operations within the organization.
They are the most senior HR professionals within the company, with experience to handle requirements across various departments. Throughout the years, HR business partners have revolutionized various practices across the industry. They are also known for their grit and perseverance in the HR industry.
Roles and Responsibilities of HR Business Partner
As mentioned earlier, the role of an HR business partner is apparently huge as they constantly coordinate with the board of directors and other senior management to introduce or implement changes within the organisation.
Communication skills are extremely essential for HR business partners as they require to intimate the financial value and newly developed HR policies to the leadership while communicating decisions by the top management to other members of the HR department in a company. They need to be highly proactive and independent whilst taking major decisions in the absence of senior management.
Besides, they are also responsible for learning cross-cultural practices across their organisation so as to keep up with international employees and standards. An HR business partner also handles employee grievances and takes necessary action if the situation is beyond the organisation’s control.
Why Companies hire HR Business Partner?
HR Business partners are becoming more and more popular as companies are become people-focused and support the aligning of agendas towards a common business objective. HR business partners are seen as a crucial entity in an organisation as they are a mediator between the HR department and the other functions. Since HR business partners have a good amount of experience in senior positions they are counted to be perfectionists and well-placed to communication effectively with top management.
How to become HR Business Partner?
It takes tremendous years of experienced to become an HR business partner as they are responsible of looking after the entire workforce of an organisation. Going by the profiles of social media, an HR business partner has not less than 15 years of experience in the HR industry. Besides, there are other qualities that can help mid-level recruiters to take this position which are:
· Go-getter and having the self-belief to make a difference in the organisation.
· Having sound knowledge about the HR industry
· Confidence and the ability to express their stance to the business
· Ability to handle cross-functional requirements
· An ability to building lasting business relationships with clients and other HR colleagues
· Should have a strict focus on delivering business outcomes by making the best use of the available resources and being a role-model to the entire company.
About Han Digital
For the last 15 years, Han Digital has been successful in hiring HR business partners for various MNCs. Our experts are professionals in the domain of leadership hiring and have sourced suitable candidates for the position of HR Business Partner. We use our custom made mapping tool and technique to track potential talent and offer quality profiles to our client. To know more about our leadership hiring technique, you can drop us a mail at info@handigital.com