HR Business Partners work with business leaders and managers to support them in constructing organization and people capability. They shape and implement effective people strategies and activities within the organization.
To best fulfill the HRBP role, it is necessary to embrace a progressive mindset focused on partnering with the organizational business development team and supporting them to create an environment where talented employees are nurtured and help to grow the business. We shall discuss further in detail which skills are needed for being a good HRBP in the later part.
Career path suggested to become a successful HRBP
To be a good HR Business Partnership, it is advised that you first have a clear mindset about the job, appreciate HRBP as a provider of added value that actively shapes HR processes, and start scaling and assessing your efforts every step
1 – Strategic partnering internally and externally
2 – Measuring your Human Resources Business Partnership impact
3 – Tailoring business partnership approach for all stake holders.
To be more specific, let’s look at the career path suggested by Indeed, one of the major job sites in the globe.
Job seekers shall want to follow these steps to become a human resources business partner:
- Get a bachelor’s degree. HR business partners need a bachelor’s degree in HR or a related field such as business management.
- Gain relevant work experience. Human resources business partners require a strong background in HR. You first need to gain at least five years of experience in HR before becoming a human resources business partner.
- Earn a certification. Seek certification from organizations like the Human Resource Certification Institute, International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, or the Society for Human Resource Management. These certifications demonstrate your knowledge of HR best practices.
Skills needed to advance HRBPs career
Being an HRBP requires numerous skills, but these four may be the most crucial ones: communication skills, business acumen, digital integration, and people’s advocacy.
| Communication skills for HRBP | To consult stakeholders effectively and to support the business through value-adding strategies, the HRBP needs excellent communication and presentation skills. The HRBP is the bridge connecting people strategy and the business strategy, so it is their responsibility to pick up key signals. |
| Business acumen for HR Business Partnership role | Business acumen is not just about understanding accounting principles but being business savvy, which is understanding risk and reward and business outcomes. If an HR business partner for an air conditioner manufacturer doesn’t understand the business, they won’t be successful in the role. |
| Digital literacy | This is the ability to leverage technology to increase efficiency and drive business results. Adopting the right technology improves the digital employee experience, which, in turn, increases engagement and communication. On the contrary, adopting the wrong technology can increase workloads, hinder productivity, and create disgruntled, frustrated employees. |
| People advocacy for Human Resource Business Partnership | Most often HR job is to advocate for the people, stand up for their rights for them to work effectively and boost up the business. HRBP is no exception, they also need to have solid legal knowledge to best support the workforce and the business. Because almost all companies need talents who must be treated fairly and well rewarded for their great achievements. An HRBP needs to advocate for employees and push back when needed. Doing this properly protects the business from lawsuits, unwanted turnover, and unhappy employees. |
HR business partner salary
Just like other occupations, salary ranges for the HR business partner job may be different based on work experience level, type of organization, and geographical location. According to PayScale, across the US, the median HR business partner salary is $75,793/year.
According to Glassdoor, in Germany, the median HR business partner salary is € 66,007 / year. In Singapore, the average salary as an HR Business Partner is SGD 5,600 per month, summing up to SGD 67200 per year.
That salary range sounds pretty attractive for a great number of job seekers.
Job description of HRBP roles
Now let’s find out a typical job description about the roles of HRBP on Glassdoor.com- one of the biggest job sites in Europe (Source: https://www.glassdoor.com/Job-Descriptions/HR-Business-Partner.htm)
| Responsibilities for HR Business Partner | Qualifications for HR Business Partner |
| Promote diversity awareness in hiring practices Mentor managers on employee development best practices Responsible for administering performance management program Advise leadership on hiring and terminations Administer payroll, employee benefits and FMLA Provide guidance on employee behavior and conflict resolution Conduct investigations in response to employee complaints Partner with leadership to develop succession plans | PHR, SPHR or other HR certification, required Master’s degree in Human Resource Management or related field, required 5+ years of HR experience Experience with hiring hourly employees Demonstrated ability with training and development programs Expert in developing succession plans Adept with performance management and investigations Proficiency in employee relations and EEO Skilled in employee benefits administration |
Learning materials that future HRBP are recommended to obtain
Best books, reading for HR Business Partner
Among many valuable resources teaching how to become a good HRBP, books are one of your best teachers.
Here are 5 books that are mostly suggested to have made a big difference in the career as an HR Professional.
| Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion | In this highly acclaimed New York Times bestseller, Dr. Robert B. Cialdini—the seminal expert in the field of influence and persuasion—explains the psychology of why people say yes and how to apply these principles ethically in business and everyday situations. You shall learn the six key rules of influence people to make decisions or to listen to your point of view and how to use them to become a skilled persuader that I believe you can use while working as an HRBP |
| Show Your Work | The book is about why generosity trumps genius. It’s about getting findable, about using the network instead of wasting time “networking.” It’s not self-promotion, it’s self-discovery—let others into your process, then let them steal from you. Readers shall learn 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered, especially how to unlock our creativity by “stealing” from the community of other movers and shakers Filled with illustrations, quotes, stories, and examples, Show Your Work! offers ten transformative rules for being open, generous, brave, and productive. |
| Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes | Drawing on twenty-first-century neuroscience and psychology, Mastermind explores Sherlock Holmes detective’s unique methods of ever-present mindfulness, astute observation, and logical deduction. In doing so, it teaches how each person, with some self-awareness and a little practice, can employ these same methods to sharpen our perceptions, solve difficult problems, and enhance our creative powers, hence, to get ahead in our career at work. |
| Range: How Generalists Thrive in a Specialised World | David Epstein, the author, examined the world’s most successful people with different jobs ranging from athletes, artists, musicians, and inventors to scientists, etc. It is discovered that in most fields—especially those that are complex and unpredictable—generalists, not specialists, are primed to excel. Generalists often find their path late, and they juggle many interests rather than focusing on one. They’re also more creative, more agile, and able to make connections their more specialized peers can’t see. That’s one of the things we need to know to build strategies to manage the labor force of the organization |
| The Coaching Habit | Being an HRBP, you will be coaching and guiding different people, from the executive management team to line managers and sometimes the employees. Reading this book can help you to capture seven essential coaching questions to demonstrate how—by saying less and asking more—you can develop coaching methods that produce a great result. It is good to know that it takes courage to ask a question rather than offer up advice, provide an answer, or give out a solution. giving another person the opportunity to find their own way, make their own mistakes, and create their own wisdom |
Courses to become Human Resource Business Partner
You can enroll in a course to some trusted online teaching sites, paying just a bit of costs to learn the most updated HRBP skills and competencies such as leadership skills, consulting skills, business acumen, and HRBP structure, Align your HR organization with the strategic direction of the business.
Some of the sites recommended :
https://www.linkedin.com/learning/paths/become-an-hr-business-partner
https://www.shrm.org/learningandcareer/learning/team-training/pages/hr-business-partners-i.aspx
In summary, the HR Business Partner job with its strategic roles is becoming more and more needed by big corporations in the 21st century, with the rise of digital technology and sudden changes. A competent HR business partner can lessen the stress that often falls on leadership teams by thinking strategically, great planning, and assisting to integrate cutting-edged HR techniques into the workflow.
An HR Business Partner must continuously learn and be open to new developments within HR and within the business sector. By doing this, the HRBPs can be a great contributor to the success of their organizations. HRBP, as the one who makes sure that the ‘people strategy’ are well aligned with the ‘business strategy for better business performance, has a strong positive impact on a company’s business.
Do you know that traicie sourcing tools for recruiters can help HRBP in strategic operational value in recruiting process for term of:
- Cost of a job board- Reduce annual spending on job boards
- Cost of HR’S tools – Reduce the cost of surveys and assessment tools.
- Recruitment costs – Reduce selection costs
- Internal mobility – Fill more skilled jobs with internal staff
- Time to hire – Reduce the number of days a role goes unfilled.
- Salary costs – Reduce overall salary costs
- Attrition – Reduce the rate of turnover
- Recruitment cost – Reduce the general recruitment cost