Value of the HR Business Partner to the Organization - Essay Example

Further, the contribution that HR business partners make in various organizational functions/activities provides an understanding of their roles. Organizational functions such as strategic management and planning, performance management, human resource management, organizational design, culture, and communication are various spheres where HR business partners’ influence can be felt. Issues and concerns faced by HR business partners’ would further help in assessing their value add in organisation. Many examples from literature and research provide ample data and facts related to effectiveness of HR business partners as well as issues/concerns faced by HR and operations executives.  Situations where HR business partners’ failed to create effective partnership are mentioned. Factors that impact HR business partners such as relationship, communication, HR competencies, cultural influence, leadership, etc have been judged to understand how the HR business partner model can be made more effective in achieving desired organizational and HR objectives. Finally, conclusions and probable recommendations based on various aspects explored in this discourse have been outlined.

Human resource professionals as business partners that provided the backbone for organisational performance was first emphasized by Dave Ulrich (Boroughs, Hunter & Palmer, 2008). Ulrich’s foundation to HR model was based on his statement, “HR should be defined not by what it does but by what it delivers – the results that enrich the organisation’s value to customers, investors, and employees” (1998; p.29). Based on this, Ulrich proposed four key roles for HR professionals, namely, strategic partner, administrative expert, employee champion, and Change agent.  Through each of these roles, Ulrich reinforced the significance of HR professionals in organizational performance. In fact, a variety of roles of HR have been proposed by different management specialists.

Ulrich’s model provides a concise and consolidated framework for actual contribution that HR professionals can make to the growth, development and sustenance of an organisation in a systematic and understandable fashion. As strategic partners, HR professionals are actively involved in formulating plans and making decisions that are strategically inclined to the business and/or operational activities. In fact, HR business partners have specific duties in each of the four roles specified in Ulrich’s model (Hunter, 2005).

As strategic partners, HR professionals are involved in framing HR strategies in line with organisational goals and objectives; specific operational objectives are also considered while framing the strategies. Critiques, which include Ulrich also, have argued that the HR roles in this model literally mean HR functions, and not limited to specific roles.  However, many organizations that adopted the Ulrich model had misinterpreted the model and its adoption. Adoption of this model had lead to division of HR functions based on roles, which was not the original intention or idea embedded in this model. Moreover, HR functions and structures cannot be fixed, and need to be changed according to time and situation. The four-role model provided little opportunity for this. The CIPD research reported that about 30% of specific sample respondents had indicated that the Ulrich’s model was adopted completely, whereas another 30% indicated only partial adoption of the model (Goodge, 2010). Ulrich’s model advocated the adoption of HR shared services and role adoption, with key emphasis on business relationships. All these resultant aspects of Ulrich’s model were restructured into a different model by organisations by modifying the HR roles according to situation and competition, which resulted in a HR model that Ulrich later described as the three-legged model.

The three-legged model comprises of three critical organisational elements, which include a Shared Services Centre (SSC), Centre of Excellence (CoE) and strategic business partners. Through this model, each of these elements was meant to cover critical parts of the organizational function. Like, the SSC focused on economies of scale and process efficiency through smaller teams, like finance, IT, HR, that provided strategic direction and governance to the larger organisation.  Second is the business partners that manage business centered value added HR activities through business partnering with leaders of specific business units. The third element is the CoE which works towards providing professional policy support to business partners in specific functions such as resourcing, employee relations, reward, and training (Boroughs & Rickard, 2009, p.21; Holbeche, 2009; p.67). In general, conceptualization of HR business partners in organisational performance is the resultant of Ulrich’s framework on HRM.