Describe the role of the HR professional as a strategic HR business partner; how

Question

Describe the role of the HR professional as a strategic HR business partner; how does HR support corporate strategic management? (Possible topics include: HR role in strategic planning, HR strategic competencies and skills; HR strategic management; and HR contributions to strategic organizational outcomes).

The written assignment essentially addresses three areas: identification of pertinent issues that HR management must address, an analysis and evaluation of the literature supporting the issues, and a proposed course of action and set of recommendations to address the issues identified.

Problem Identification

In this section, you provide a sharply focused diagnosis of the issues and key challenges related to the topic of human resources management. Begin each paper with a problem statement, an overview identifying the key issues that confront HR managers related to this topic.

Analysis and Evaluation

Examine the primary factors underlying an organization's strategic successes and failures and how HR can support, prevent or overcome the challenges.

Decide what resource and competencies a firm may need to overcome the challenge and make it strengths. In this section, you must offer analysis with evidence from the literature with references and supporting statement to present the information clearly, and use the language for HR strategic concepts and analytical tools that are discussed in the textbook.

Recommendations

The recommendations and plan of action should address all of the problems/issues you identified and analyzed. State how the recommendations will solve the problems you identified. Provide new and authentic recommendations, not a re-statement of material in the assignment.

Explanation / Answer

The centralization of HR’s administrative functions and creation of specialist Centers of Excellence promised to allow a new type of HR professional, the HR Business Partner, to embed within a business unit and provide high level strategic consultations. Nearly 20 years later, while multiple industry surveys indicate that HR capabilities continue to improve, most companies and even HR departments themselves believe that the HR Business Partner's role as a true strategic partner has yet to be fully realized.

This executive summary surveys the findings of consulting firms, corporate executives, HR thought leaders, and academics on how HR business partne's can more effectively provide strategic value for their clients.

beliefs held by HR business partners determine success as much as, if not more than, what business partners are actually asked to do. So first and foremost HR business partners have to truly believe that they should be more strategic, and that this is what the business wants from them. An HR business partner's goal must be to become a credible activist, who is respected and listened to both because of their knowledge of the business and because they have the confidence to translate this knowledge into actions. To become a credible activist, successful HR business partners need to broadly and deeply understand the businesses they support in everything from finance to operations.

The next critical element is ensuring the HR organization is designed to effectively translate HR knowledge into business value. As many as 75% of large companies today use the shared services model, however, many HR thought leaders-including Ulrich himself-criticize them for dogmatically and uncritically applying it to their organizations.

The recomended actions that need to be taken by HR professional as an HR business partners are-

Define Expectation- Survey business leaders for their wish list of HR capabilities and work with them to identify the best ways for HR to provide value. HRBPs should then take the lead in working with the HR org to deliver these resources or to build these capabilities if they are currently aspirational. Adjustments should be made to HR structures if they will benefit the business.

Implement an action plan to improve strategic focus that includes-

Exposing the entire HR org to core business concerns of the company (e.g. competitive environment, executive strategies).

Assigning HR business partners and business leaders joint accountability for achieving business goals.

Developing HR success metrics that advance business strategy (e.g. succession plan readiness) rather than cost efficiency measures (e.g. HR staff-to-employee headcount ratios) that rarely create value.

So in brief this is the role of the HR professional as a strategic HR business partner.

Below are the ways by which HR supports corporate strategic management-

Business leaders sometimes focus so much on strategic planning and day-to-day operations that they can lose sight of the core of the organization– the vision and values. HR, as organization and talent experts, can re-ground business leaders in the vision around what the organization’s purpose is and the values that drive people’s motivations and behaviors.

HR leaders can also play a powerful role by modeling organizational values in their own team’s behavior and actions, which can be especially helpful during the changes that a new strategy creates.

Keep culture top of mind as an enabler of strategy-

The best of strategies can be derailed by a dysfunctional culture. A great culture powerfully enables the right strategic vision and plan. Leaders must think carefully about how their organization’s culture aligns and support its strategy.

As the only function with an organization-wide view on employee’s performance and effectiveness, HR is ideally positioned to drive the right conversations about the current culture and how the culture may need to evolve to support the strategy. The most successful HR leaders help leaders and employees alike articulate the desired culture in specific, relatable examples and behaviors.

Help leaders clearly identify and articulate the people components of the strategy-

While the organization’s financial goals are often front and center in a top-level strategy, in most organizations, people and talent priorities are equally important. These may include attracting and retaining top talent, developing new core capabilities, or enhancing diversity and inclusion– all of which are driven or supported by HR in some way. HR can ensure that talent and people factors are addressed head-on in the organizational strategy.

Build plans to align the organizational levers to support the strategy-

HR can be an important partner in determining what aspects of the organization will need to be addressed going forward, who will be impacted and how, and what actions will be required to ensure success. While the overall strategic objectives and major initiatives are critical, so are the cross-functional plans that support execution of the strategy.

Keep employees engaged around the strategy and other changes ahead-

HR is often able to tap into the opinions and feelings of employees across levels, business units, functions and geographies. Engaging employees around the strategy early-on is critical for capturing their hearts and minds in the long-term.

If there are major changes ahead– such as a restructuring or a new technology implementation– HR also can act as a change architect: creating and executing strategies and plans necessary to lead and communicate the change.

So this is how HR supports Corporate Strategic Management.

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