HR Business Partner Positions in Asia

Traditionally, most HR positions were filled with industrial-organizational psychologists, industrial labor relations experts, and liberal arts majors; none of which had much exposure to business and management. However, these days, HR professionals are increasingly required to have an advanced commercial understanding, be more numbers keen instead of numbers phobic, deliver results instead of activities, and act proactively instead of reactively.

As a result, ambiguous HR managers are attending MBA courses or pursuing MSc in psychology or organisational change to gain respect from other functional Executives or to get noticed by the CEO. In the meantime, to offset the meager business IQ in HR departments, former finance professionals (example: Janet LeClair, HR XCEL) or OD specialists (example: Ralph Christensen, Hallmark) are leading the HR transformation.

The future of HR is clearly business focused and value-driven. The most established model to drive value-creation in the HR department is Ulrich’s HR Business Partner model composed of four roles; strategic partner, change agent, employee advocate, and administrative expert.

In Asia, more and more HR departments create “a position” of “HR Business Partner”. Below is an average post assembled after reviewing just a few vacant positions advertised in November 2007 on monster.com for analysis. It is worthwhile to review how Ulrich’s model has been adopted and which and how roles defined by this model are addressed with this position.

For every responsibility and requirement of “HR Business Partner”, I ascribed a number or letter which will be referred to in the detailed review below:

Key Responsibilities:
• Act as a strategic HR business partner/subject matter expert to the business units to achieve organizational strategies and objectives (1)(2),
• Provide value-added services for efficient & smooth management of the business (1),
• Provide front line coverage to a portfolio of internal clients including recruitment, employee relations, C&B, performance management, coaching, and training and development to satisfy their needs (2),
• Champion employee engagement and provide support for employees' growth and development (2),
• Facilitate and coach change management and organizational development initiatives (3), and
• Manage the day-to-day HR operation (4).

Key Requirements:
• Degree in Human Resource Management (a),
• Minimum of 4 years experience as a HR generalist (b),
• Experience in Change Management is preferred (c),
• Solid knowledge of labor law and HR policies, processes, and procedures (d),
• Comprehensive knowledge of progressive compensation practices and strategies (e),
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills (f),
• Customer focused and service oriented with a pleasant and assertive personality (g),
• Self-driven individual with creative approach to resolving work issues (h), and
• Hands-on and results-oriented (i).

Review:
Strategic Partner Role
The responsibility identified as (1) focuses on a candidate’s ability to contribute as a Strategic Partner. The obvious requirements connected to this role are (i) while (a) and (b) are very desirable but not essential. Although this role may benefit from solid generalist HR expertise, a strong understanding of the business unit and credibility with senior business leaders are the prerequisites to success. However, both of them have not been included under requirements. Other key competencies omitted include:
• Ability to design and deliver a culture-based HR strategy that links the internal culture to the requirements of external customers and the business strategy,
• Track record of contributing to business decision making by critiquing the existing strategy through creating a personal vision for the future of the business and by raising the standard of strategic thinking in the management team,
• Capacity to develop knowledge of each component of the business value chain and its integration quickly,
• Ability to develop knowledge of how the company creates value through portfolio management and meeting requirements of the competitive marketplace, and
• Toolkit to measure results of every stage of the HR value proposition.

Also, the key behaviors needed to be successful in this role include for example organizational awareness, problem-solving skills, working effectively in teams, and risk taking. The jobholder needs to focus on added-value and tailored solutions. However, none of these requirements have been listed.

Employee Champion Role
The responsibility identified as (2) focuses on acting as an employee champion which requires deep HR technical expertise within a particular discipline. The important requirements essential for this role include (a), (d), (e), (f), and (g). Mistakenly however, this role places too much emphasis on the employees’ needs and therefore pushes organizational learning and development in the background.

The key behaviors needed are inner drive, influencing skills, analytical thinking, and an ability to build trusting relationships, none of which have been mentioned. The jobholder needs to focus on assessing and balancing competing values (company versus employees) while ensuring compliance; not mentioned either.

Change Agent Role
The responsibility identified as (3) clearly points out the role of a change agent. The corresponding requirements listed include (f), (g), (h), (i) and certainly (c) which would require further details to be of value in the screening process and thereby allow a more precise assessment of the scope of experience.

Important elements of this role excluded from the requirements are:
• Internal consultant’s abilities, analytical skills, influencing/negotiation skills, teamwork capability, and creative thinking,
• Behavioral characteristics like innovativeness/flexibility, proactiveness, and risk taking, and
• Jobholder’s focus on planning and implementing intervention to achieve change quickly.

Administrative Expert Role
The responsibility identified as (4) refers to an administrative expert role which requires manager’s know-how to deliver tangible outputs within budgetary and resource constraints. The critical requirements for this post involve (f), (g), (h), and (i). The key behaviors needed to do so are team leadership, initiative, and holding people accountable. The jobholder’s focus needs to be on delivery and cost control. Both aspects have been left out however.

In conclusion, all four roles are squeezed into one position creating a set of unrealistic responsibilities along with different skills and behaviors. Furthermore, such HR Business Partner positions are simply “old wine in a new bottle” rather than positions designed to deliver value-added HR. As long as business acumen or a track record of impacting an organization’s value creation is not part of the person specification, then there is no need to introduce a new term for HR posts.