How Do You Become an HR Business Partner?
It is not easy to transform from a traditional HR partner to an HR business partner. A good HR business partner
has different attitudes, beliefs and skills. Below are eight tips for the HR business partner:
Understand both the business and the senior management team
This means you need to know the business in depth – not just the numbers. You need to understand who makes
the money and how. What are the business goals? And which variables are most important to help the organization
achieve these? What are the company's strengths and weaknesses compared to the competition? And it is important
that you have a good insight into the dynamics of the company and know how a change in one area affects other
areas.
Be an expert in your field
A good HR business partner knows his or her business – not only legislation and remuneration, but also
how change occurs and how people become and remain involved. It is also important to understand how
interventions impact the business. Being and remaining an expert is a dynamic process and the most successful
HR business partners keep themselves informed and continuously sharpen their skills.
Be flexible and open to change
If you're going to persuade others to adopt new ideas and ways of doing things, you have to be flexible yourself.
Take a step back and look at things from a distance
Be committed to the company, but never lose the ability to look at things objectively. This allows you
to challenge ideas and maintain and monitor the long-term vision.
Communicate ideas clearly
There's no point in having great ideas if you can't sell them.
Take charge and raise issues for discussion
A big part of the job is coming up with innovative ways of doing things and having the courage to take
a critical look at traditional systems.
Believe in the impact of HR on the company
For a company to achieve its goals, everyone in that company must believe he or she can make a difference –
and that starts with HR. You have to believe in yourself and the impact you can have.
Measure HR initiatives using company results
Traditionally, HR measures itself by the activities it has control over. For example, the number of
training courses given or the costs of recruitment. HR business partners must quantify the impact on the
business; – for example, what was the change in the efficiency of the people who followed the training, how
much more productive are the new employees thanks to the new onboarding approach.