What is an HR business partner (HRBP)

[PunnyRobin]

In our organisation we are recruiting for a HR business partner (HRBP), and ive had it explained a couple of times and even googled it, but im confused, to me Hr manages the people side of the business and then bosses talk to hr etc but where does the Hr business partner fit in with all this, because i cannot see unless they act as the business needs this we hire x etc but then i get confused with it all.

The long story short, in layman's terms can someone explain HR business partner (HRBP) please

Give you advice about anything HR related, from recruitment to training needs to disciplinaries etc. Where I used to work, there were a lot of contractors that had slightly different working arrangements to permanent staff. So the HR business partner would keep managers right.

Good HRBPs are really helpful in helping business areas to define and shape their people strategy and ensuring this then links in with the broader goals of the organisation.

Do you question every role in your organisation?

That is a poor HR policy writer, they should understand the business before writ8ng a policy.

Too low level, again that is an HR advisor.

most roles i can understand why they are needed and where they fit in the company management structure, its when its fancy roles like this one, that seem puzzling

🙄 It's almost as if the same job title means different things in different organisations.

@PunnyRobin Read the CIPD paper. The whole idea is that they HR director works at board level to facilitate the development of the company and make a profit, Therefore it’s the HR functions that drive the goals the directors want. It’s not really managing a department of being a go between. It’s working on a HR strategy to deliver objectives and profits. So it could be staffing a new factory, reorganizing the management structure or anything that ensures company business objectives are met and it starts at board level and cascades down.

It’s not stuff like admin for maternity leave and performance management,

its a good point, it may help me understand the role better

I’ll probably get loads of HR business partners shouting at me now, but I often had to set expectations with my project teams that they shouldn’t necessarily expect the HR business partners to deliver any part of the plan even if it was HR related. They would come to meeting and advise on policy etc but delivering HR change would not necessarily fall to the Business Partner. People get confused as to what their role actually is. I would say it can be very different across organisations.

So - the Exec Board for a business you work for says ‘We would like to increase diversity across then business’. It’s a business with 5k people.

Each BP would work with the relevant senior members of their area to translate what the issues are in their area (where they are struggling with diversity) and look at ways to increase representation.

The BP for IT would probably have higher representation of people from an ethnic minority background, whereas your admin functions would have a higher proportion of women working in them.

So the plan your BP for IT would have a very different plan to the BP for Admin functions.

If the business adopted a one size fits all approach they’d like be on a hiding to nothing.

Interesting question OP.

Just coming at this from a different angle… Is your business undergoing any large scale changes? For example - redundancies, merger, restructure etc, or recently welcomed a new board member? If your business hasn’t had this type of role (or not needed it) before then maybe a wider structural change is imminent and the board want to get their HR ducks in a row before any kind of rollout.

@Username056 That is because they won’t have all the skills to do that but at a high level should be steering the company to meet objectives where HR has influence. Then cascade down and ensure others work within the HR plan for the business. Others should be fully involved via their roles.

An HRBP isn't really a 'fancy role' and is perfectly standard in lots of organisations. Sounds like your employer has identified that there is need to shape up the people strategy and drive some change. Exciting times.

cannot go into specifics, all i can say is it was very busy, now it seems like its essentials only, and then these roles are being made (dont know if these roles should of been in place to begin with ?)

I don't think it's a binary job description so organisations interpret it differently.

Our HRBP is there to support managers with issues. So last year ours held my hand (metaphorically) through a grievance / dispute with an individual. For us they are first port of call for tricky issues. They don't do strategic stuff - other people do that.

I'm a HR advisor and work closely with the HRBP. She looks at succession planning, talent planning, consulting on contract changes. Salary benchmarking. Standardising job titles. More complex ER cases like tupe, redundancies with more
Than 20ppl. Restructured and business costs

Well that's exactly what they do in our organisation @CantHoldMeDown. I guess different businesses interpret it in ways to suit themselves.

daft question you have your different departments, then department managers, then senior overall managers etc how does the Hr business partner feed into these or help these ? (thats if ive worded my question correctly)

Like many job titles (that can be meaningless) it entirely depends on the business and how they see a HRBP role.

Some businesses would have a central HR dept that oversee the HRBPs, that could be attached to a specific department. So they'd work with their department Head to set long term plans re: company goals, then help them set objectives to get the company there.

In others HRBP is really just a different name for a HR person in general, that could be very senior or not.

In others a HR Manager (in job title) may actually have way more seniority and responsibility and autonomy than a HRBP in a large organisation.

So it's difficult to say tbh!!

It should mean strategic HR but the title has become diluted and applies to many roles which are more senior advisor level now. Or just advisor.

Strategic roles are more likely to be called strategic HR lead or senior BP or strategic BP.