Unlocking the full potential of HR Business Partners
Why clients reach out to us
- HRBPs are regarded as too operational rather than strategic
- The whole HR function needs to raise the level at which it partners and operates and needs a new narrative and business case for change
- HR business partners lack business acumen or understanding of stakeholder priorities, leading to misalignment
- Inconsistent levels of capability and performance of HRBPs across different business units or geographies
- HRBPs lack the levels of influence required with key business stakeholders, e.g. being involved late in decision-making
How we help them
- Develop the capabilities and confidence of HRBPs, both strategic and operational
- Embed excellent business partnering via clear models, including our researched framework of 7 HR Enablers so that expectations are clear, shared and measurable
- Develop HRBPs to use evidence, analytics, and business metrics to make their conversations more credible
- Support leaders to ensure that HR business partnering is understood by all stakeholders, empowered and supported with the right mandate and leadership support
- Build a clear narrative and culture to support partnering across the HR function and building one united, business-led HR team
What we achieve together
- Strong, measurable improvements in performance, productivity and organisational outcomes from effective business partnering
- A strategic framework for HR Business Partnering with HRBPs seen as drivers of value rather than cost centres
- HR business partners are trusted, credible, influential and proactively involved in strategic planning and decision‑making
- Powerful relationships between HRBPs and stakeholders, built on understanding of their context, business pressures and success metrics
- The HRBP enables the whole HR function to respond effectively to business needs – they are an effective conduit between business stakeholders and their HR colleagues
Client project examples
- Development interventions and coaching to build capabilities:
- Pitched at the appropriate level – operational, strategic, regional, global, etc.
- Tailored – a range of blended development programs, just-in-time workshops, expert HR coaching and mentoring to respond to needs identified
- Unique HR Profiling System (self, team, 360) to reveal strengths and development opportunities:
- Establish target capability levels of HRBPs and evaluate against these using our interactive platform
- Engage HRBPs in their own development plan – as a team and as individuals, using our online resources
- When they’re ready, HRBPs ask their stakeholders for feedback from their own self-drive home page
- Involve HR Business Partnering leaders and HRBPs in building their roadmap:
- Research with HR leaders and business leaders in order to clarify needs, expectations and views of HRBP’s strengths and development areas
- Facilitation of HR leaders’ thinking about how they want to partner with the business
- Alignment Workshops to bring business leaders and HR leaders together for fresh dialogue about business needs
- Alignment workshops to engage, involve and inspire the wider HR team:
- Invite business leaders to share their perceptions of what great HR business partnering needs to look like
- Ideally, the whole HR team needs to partner with the business – these workshops help them to understand why and how
- Organisation Development work to review HRBP roles and HR operating model, consult business leaders, design new roles and set them up for success.
The above are just examples and are not an exhaustive list of our capabilities. If you would like an informal conversation about your particular challenges, please feel free to book a conversation with us.
“I’ve succeeded in transforming a critical relationship with a senior stakeholder – it used to be stressful and now it’s really productive.”
“Our HRBPs are now pushing back more effectively against routine work, giving them time to become more strategic.”
“Our whole HR function is now working well, partnering more strategically and building credibility as well as delivering more value.”
Find out more
Resources
Articles
Webinars
Workshops
Modular programs
Organisations we’ve worked with
