Bye bye, HR business partner. Hello, HR entrepreneur
/hr/features/1020114/bye-bye-hr-business-partner-hello-hr-entrepreneur
19 Sep 2011, Chris Roebuck, HR
Having attended Dave Ulrich's Michigan course, I know the business partner model is often not implemented properly - primarily, by failing to, as a first step, ensure HR really understands what the organisation and its line counterparts do. This lack of understanding leads to HR using 'assumed' need rather than 'real' need and the subsequent delivery of 'HR best practice' that the line neither needs nor wants. Further, the lack of clarity about the roles and responsibilities of line managers, senior leaders, HR and individuals relating to managing people and improving organisational performance inevitably leads to critical things being ineffective, for example, performance management.
Even where HR enthusiastically tries to 'serve the business better', it is sometimes counter-productive. What operational line partners want is not always what the organisation needs most. There is a frequent lack of alignment between operational and strategic objectives at mid and lower levels. If HR delivers to the operational but not the strategic agenda, it won't add full value. Further, the lack of clarity around roles, objectives and priorities between the line and HR causes confusion. This leads to complex HR strategic initiatives for senior management and HR 'sticking-plasters' at operational level, each of which neither aligns to each other nor to the delivery of key organisational objectives in a prioritised way. Being 'responsive' doesn't mean always doing whatever the business wants, if it doesn't add value. The result of this is a potential underperformance by most organisations of between 15% and 25%.
The business partner model must be significantly adapted to ensure critical elements which deliver this organisational performance improvement are either emphasised or added, if missing. Key elements are a focus on business-driven prioritisation, alignment to key objectives and delivery with clarity and simplicity. HR must take a proactive, not reactive, approach as a key part of the business, not a separate 'partner'. Many insightful CEOs say this is what they need - and if HR can't deliver, they will get someone who will. In reality, CEOs don't care about HR best practice: they just want the best bottom line. HR must reflect this by thinking and delivering in an innovative business future-driven perspective, not a traditional risk-averse HR process/legacy-driven one. We must be HR entrepreneurs, not just business partners.
The HR entrepreneur is an individual, at any level or location in HR, who:
Has good professional HR knowledge
Has good non-HR business knowledge, eg project management, customer service
Understands operational activity nearly as well as the line managers she or he supports
Understands the wider organisation and its strategic objectives possibly better than the line manager
Understands the environment and market within which the business operates
Is constantly looking outward, benchmarking the organisation not just against last year's performance but at least peers' and possibly best-in-class standards
Has an innovative and entrepreneurial mindset to
- be proactive in identifying ways to drive better business performance, not just HR, by looking for opportunities to improve external delivery
- suggest lean initiatives that deliver maximum ROI for minimum resource and manage risk effectively by reducing process where possible
- focus on delivering what the organisation needs strategically to sustainably improve for the future
This change is important, as it matches the development of the entrepreneurial leader within world class organisations, where a proactive, innovative and flexible approach to business leadership is being seen. It is vital HR reflects this by building business know-how. However, the HR entrepreneur can function, even without the line being entrepreneurial. HR entrepreneurs can be a catalyst to help develop entrepreneurial line management.
The HR entrepreneur is not another level above transformational HR. The HR entrepreneur's single objective is to support the maximisation of organisational performance; that must be the benchmark for all activity. So, entrepreneurial HR principles have to be applied everywhere, in both transactional and transformational activity. Not only that, but we must be prepared to remove HR activity that does not add optimum value to the organisation, even if it is seen as 'best practice'. There is recent research that complexity in organisations which exceeds the need to deliver objectives and manage risk has significant cost and impact on engagement. Over-complexity is a risk in itself.
As entrepreneurs, HR must focus on outcomes - not roles, titles, or process for process' sake. Everyone in HR has to think as an entrepreneur, accurately assessing the situation, innovating, being flexible and taking managed risk to drive better business bottom line. There is no 'best practice', only the 'best current outcome' and this will vary between situations, organisations and times. This matches service delivery to organisational need.
How can HR, both individuals and functions, become entrepreneurial? To start, four easy steps can set the overall agenda. These can be developed in a proactive way, simply and quickly, with the right approach.
1. Before you do anything ensure that you understand, that is 'understand', not just 'be aware of':
a. The operational activity you support in depth
b. The strategic vision, objectives and values of your organisation in detail
c. The market environment, together with the challenges the organisation faces in detail, its competitors, and the future prospects, including a SWOT analysis
d. The key research and principles for the improvement of organisational and individual performance, eg leadership, engagement, project management, process design and delivery, quality customer service and brand development.
2. Review current service delivery, in both transactional and transformational HR:
a. Discuss with the business where the process could be improved to produce better outcomes, be made simpler or use less resource
b. Review those areas and, bearing in mind risk-management requirements, make changes to:
i. Reduce the complexity, time or effort required
ii. Add more value
c. Review whether current service delivery is aligned to the achievement of critical strategic objectives - or just operational objectives
d. Prioritise work of strategic benefit with senior leaders, then align operational activity to support that. Take a holistic view
e. Ensure clarity of responsibilities between HR, line and senior management
f. Don't announce you are an HR entrepreneur - just deliver the service
3. Review the organisation's strategic and operational objectives and identify additional potential support HR could provide that would enhance the delivery of those objectives, based on the knowledge gained in section 1 above.
4. Constantly review what is being delivered through the filter of improving organisational performance and customer service, not the HR 'best practice' filter.
The organisation doesn't care what HR people are called, so long as they get things done. So the HR entrepreneur should be an internal aspiration of what good HR people do, not a new title. Entrepreneurial HR is the key to the future. The reactive implementation of the business partner has helped us on the journey, but it is now time for all in HR to move up a gear, become HR entrepreneurs and show what HR can really do for their organisations. If you don't, someone else will.
Everyone in HR, no matter what their level, should have all of the above skills developed proactively by their organisation, whether by using internal business faculty and/or external support.
Chris Roebuck is visiting professor of transformational leadership at Cass Business School. He has held senior HR roles in UBS, HSBC, KPMG and London Underground.
He is on the 'guru group' advising the Government on implementation of its engagement initiative. He advises organisations, from the NHS to global banks, on maximising bottom line through their people.
Reader comments
Theoretical dream
No wonder HR community, practitioners hardly get to make it to Boardroom or called in by anyone in the C- Suite.They are forever coming up with models, frameworks etc very few which are either results/performance focused but cost bucket loads just to come to grips with. Mr Ulrich himself has never had a line profit centre job but great at coming up with thoretical dreams most of which CEO's call non prgamtic and practical illusions.
Posted by: John Ludike , 19 Sep 2011 | 10:19
Here we go again...
It's impossible to disagree with the first few paragraphs of this in terms of where HR should be and what it should be doing. My worry is that we are just prompting another round of renaming and rebadging, how long before we see job adverts for 'HR entrepreneur?' Business partnering didn't work because all that changed was the job title and little else and it wasn't done in the full context of what Ulrich said needed to happen first. Nobody else feels a need to call themselves business partners, (anyone seen a Finance Business Partner?)so it just looks desperate. However, the underlying message (something better change) remains valid.
Posted by: Steve Foster , 19 Sep 2011 | 11:03
Is this BP?
Interesting article and certainly has some useful reflections around best practice V’s adding value.
That said I can't help but come back to the thought that all this does is described what (real) business partnering was actually intended to be. Once you strip away the many roles with a ‘Business Partner’ title that don't in fact 'partner', and consider the concept with a little more interest than the usual commentary, partnering is about pro-activity, about understanding the business and about delivering something that adds value to the customer - so what's different, other than the name?
Lets consider an HR professional who; has good professional HR knowledge covering the many disciplines of the role, has non-HR business skills such as PM / CS, understands their businesses strategic objectives in a way that is meaningful and can be translated into action, understands the external markets their organisation operates in to a greater degree than the professionals (line managers) they support, understands business metrics (ROI) and then creates and drives initiatives that deliver against them, understand how to measure this impact on the businesses bottom line in a sustainable way (and so understands sustainability), where then would they find the time to understand the operational activities of their customers nearly as well as their customers understand their own jobs? This combination should certainly catch the attention of the CEO, not least because they had better be ready to loosen the purse strings and dramatically increase the pay they are rewarding these exceptional individuals (at any level in HR) with.
Posted by: Ian Robb , 20 Sep 2011 | 10:22
How about the culture?
Very good article! And provocative as well. But after reading it, I caught myself thinking: what about the organizational culture? In the last years, we have seen great enhancing in performance due to a good work with culture and values in many companies. The article even states that knowing those values (such as company´s vision and mission) is important to the enterpreneur, but isn´t that something that should guide their action, rather than accessorize it? Isn´t that way of acting ("business-driven") too "short-term" for an HR that intends to be strategical to a company?
The way I see it, CEO´s who are focusing only in immediate results and expects their HR´s to be part of that engine, more than understanding (and not just "being aware of") the whole machine, may face a breakdown right in the next corner...
Posted by: Dimas Tadeu , 20 Sep 2011 | 14:55
Yes, Keep the focus on Operations
Chris, yours is the first article I've found that addresses this disconnect of HR and Operational drivers. Unfortunately most HR executives don't understand the difference between HR needs driven by the business and driving an HR best practices agenda as perceived by HR. Operational, customer experience and productivity needs must provide the basis for each individual company's HR priorities. HR professionals can go by many titles but the successful ones will serve the needs of the business strategy and operational priorities by drawing on their HR knowledge to put the right practices in place. Forget trying to tick the boxes of what traditional HR departments do and let the business lead.
Posted by: Audrey Ciccone , 20 Sep 2011 | 15:29
Excellent advice
Let me first briefly add my support to the previous reactions about job titles. To be fair, the article clearly states that we shouldn't take to calling ourselves HR Entrepreneurs but you can bet that someone somewhere will.
My main point is to give 3 cheers to anyone trying to focus HR actiivity on getting under the skin of your organisation and supporting its goals from a position of in-depth business and HR knowledge. While there is always value in leaning how other people do things, best practice isn't always best for the business. Urging an organisation to adopt an approach to HR because it is best practice often damages our reputation as business people. It smacks of the ivory tower. If boards and line managers respect the contribution of their HR support, they don't start enquiring whether it is best practice or not - we are judged on results, just like everyone else in the business, and that is exactly how it should be. If an HR professional really learns their subject AND the business and is actively contributing to making the right things happen in what appears to them to be an efficient way at all levels of the business, then the HR Director no longer has to knock on the door of the board rooom and ask to be let in; the board will want you to be in there and part of the team because they know things work better when you're there.
Posted by: Elizabeth French , 21 Sep 2011 | 12:52
BEST HR - ARTICLE EVER
I invented and implemented one project that increased sales in my bank (retail sales 300 people in Pilot faze)compared to controled group 70% in one year (15 product where measures) with 0 budget. That is it. Business partner doesn't mean spending money that sales were bleeding for on something you don't even know what you are getting for your investment. Tragic. So HR- sayse we paid 1mil and bought XXX education days - it is bgraging how they pent money -does educating generate enough to get to break even point? Profit? Deficit? What does that mean? Then they say - organizations that invest in cultural diversity are most succesfull companies meaning - THOOSE WHO HAVE MONEY CAN DEAL WITH DIVERITY ISSUES. Tragic again...
If small enterpreneurs where doing business the way HR does people wouldn't get paid very soon!
Posted by: Matej Sakoman , 21 Sep 2011 | 13:02
Authors thoughts !
From experience I don't think HR Entrepreneurs are a figment of the imagination, I have met some and they are highly valued by their organisations and CEOs. Maybe some readers have just been unlucky not to have met any. As for titles I agree, the HR Entrepreneur is not a title that should be used anywhere other than within HR to encapsulate a new way of working underpinned by the key principles I set out. HR people need a framework to help them understand what to change to, the "Entrepreneur" summarises this. I expressly stated that it is about delivery not labels, and it should not ever be used in discussion with the business. The HR Entrepreneur is exactly what CEOs want, and certainly from my experience of the significant line management roles I held where we tried to develop Entrepreneurial Leadership in an organisation Entrepreneurial HR was critical to enable that and strongly encouraged by the CEO and senior business leaders. Entrepreneurial HR should support a good culture and help it develop even better ways of meeting customers needs. But then again isn't that what good HR has always been about, its just that maybe we have lost our way and the HR Entrepreneur framework can help us get back onto the right path.
Posted by: Chris Roebuck , 13 Nov 2011 | 09:42
added value of HR
I really like this article and I agree entrepreneurship should be a natural attitude/behaviour of each HR. However and it is a pity in Belgium most HR's are not invited to the board table. As a result, all facets of a question are not analysed and added-value of HR is limited (but of course it "leaves the full control and autoritary decision to others"). innovative idea: there should be a legal obligation of an HR independent representative in the Board of Directors (such as joint union representative).
Posted by: Denise Laros , 09 Jan 2012 | 12:00
HR business 'caps'
I resonate with this article having worked in a business role before moving into HR. I am strongly of the view that an indepth knowledge of a business enables HR proffer lasting solutions which lead to an increase in the bottom line. This will get HR into the boardroom not as a contributor but a trusted and valuable participant n businesses. This is not a myth but my personal experience. HR Business Partners tend to focus on the operational issues but should have their entrepreneurial caps on to drive the profession forward.
Posted by: Henrietta Eruotor , 10 Apr 2012 | 12:29
What's in a name?
We are obsessed with names and titles, re-naming the obvious to become the obscure.
It isn't the name on the door that matters but the performance of the person behind the desk that makes the difference.
I have never met an hr entrepreneur; like fairies I don't really believe that they exist!
Posted by: Peter Rimmer , 19 Sep 2011 | 09:53