HR Management: Personal Characteristics

Questions and Answers

To act as a critical linkage between the HR function and business outcomes

Performance, talent, and change management

Implement a continuous improvement ethic for all HR operations

Focusing on execution and linking HR deliverables to business outcomes Signup and view all the answers

Work on improving people management among line managers and function heads Signup and view all the answers

To deliver business advantages through better performance, talent, and change Signup and view all the answers

Re-skill and re-tool HR people, and recruit new talent Signup and view all the answers

Performance, talent, and change management Signup and view all the answers

Clarify the roles and outputs of HR BPs, Centres of Excellence, and service centres Signup and view all the answers

Inability to link HR deliverables to business outcomes Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

HR Business Partners (HR BPs) need to have the right calibre, personal characteristics, and skills to make a difference in their relationship with line management.
Influencing skills, commanding communication skills, coaching ability, analytical skills, and resilience are essential qualities for successful HR BPs.
Commercial acumen, business knowledge, and the ability to build convincing business cases are also crucial for HR BPs.

Only around 15% of senior HR managers display genuine business awareness.
HR BPs need to be able to answer questions about the business, such as who the main competitors are, what they know about them, and who they know who works there.

Organisations must put their potential HR BP population through a rigorous assessment and selection process.
Criteria should be devised in consultation with the business, and organisations must be courageous about culling those who don't make the grade.

Many predict that increasingly, HR BPs will come from the business, and their HR orientation will become secondary to a business orientation.
A mix of HR and non-HR people can bring different perspectives and skills to the role.

Few organisations have robust HR development programmes, and those for HR BPs and line managers are rarer still.
Examples of skills programmes include Advanced Business Consulting courses, general management programmes, and HR Masterclasses.

The core concern is that HR BPs and the Ulrich model are not as effective as they could be.
HR services to the business can improve, and HR needs to contribute more to areas such as performance, talent, and change.
Next steps include clarifying the roles and outputs of HR BPs, defining or re-thinking processes for talent, performance, and change, and re-skilling and re-tooling HR people.