Create a narrative to ‘sell’ strategic business partnering

Making business partnering strategic is a two-way street. HR have to get the business on board. Following our recent webinar, several HR leaders and HRBPs asked for a deeper discussion on this and so we’ve set up a roundtable.

HR has to explain it – the WHY, the WHAT and the HOW. They need a compelling narrative.

You’d think that business leaders would welcome this with open arms – solve the bigger problems, provide support that’s more aligned and timely, build solutions quicker that are more business-ready.

In practice, the first reaction from business leaders can be resistance. It suits them to have HR solve their problems for them, like a kind of executive assistant with people expertise. Let’s be honest, that can suit the HRBP too as it may be their comfort zone.

People need to understand the logic as well as the purpose and value. HR can build a compelling narrative, e.g.

‘Our organisation has some vital priorities (e.g. we need to secure growth in this difficult market):

• Our goals and targets overall are…
• Locally (e.g. in a client group) our business priorities are …

By becoming more strategic as your HRBP, I will be able to deliver more, e.g. (example relevant to that stakeholder) …. and that will have €x impact on your business results.

In order to achieve that, this is how we will work together going forward … let’s explore that …’

This is one of the topics that we’ll discuss in our upcoming HR leader roundtable.