Countless people and blogs have discussed the evolving role of HR. Opinions have ranged from the HR function driving business forward to acting as some kind of rule enforcement body. With our experience in the human resources field, we have been witness to several kinds of HR partnerships. The most common ones include:
Tactical HR partnership
This kind of partnership solely focuses the HR role on following company rules and regulations; HR serves as a kind of compliance police. In this kind of partnership, the HR department is tasked with conducting audits, performing appraisals and ensuring payroll is updated. While these are important for companies, restricting HR to simply a transactional partnership will not benefit the company in the long term.
Strategic HR partnership
With greater awareness of role of people as assets, more companies are looking at developing a business partner relationship with HR. However, this kind of partnership is relatively new and often HR professionals may not have enough exposure or simply may not be interested in business details. The HR department may not have the maturity to simultaneously incorporate HR initiatives into the business and also pay attention to smaller details that could also impact the company’s bottom line.
People-driver HR partnership
While it is accepted that engaging employees successfully helps drive business, this does not fall solely under the purview of HR. Usually issues for which employees are referred to HR can mostly be solved by their manager. However, it has become accepted practice to think of HR as an engine that motivates employees and resolves people issues. In fact, HR should empower employees to solve problem themselves and only step in when the situation warrants.
360-degree partnership
If your HR department only works in one of these three capacities, then you are missing out on the complete effect HR can have in your company. We recommend that HR should encompass multiple facets to go from a tactical enforcer to a business partner and benefit your company’s bottom line. HR should stretch itself to align its agenda with company goals to increase business, engage employees and resolve issues to develop a sustainable, interactive workplace.
