One of the greatest ‘’glow-ups’’ in the corporate world has undoubtedly been the emergence of HR as a key player of the organization. Over the years, HR has certainly moved up the value chain. Once known as the personnel and administration department, HR has now emerged to be a business partner. Earlier the responsibilities of HR were limited to overseeing personnel activities, managing payroll, record-keeping of employee details, etc. Although it played an essential role, in all respects, HR was regarded as part of the back-office functions. However today HR is expected to play a much more active role in the business, to take part in the business strategy, formulate the organizational culture and add value to the company.
According to top HR consulting companies in India, HR leaders today need to have an acute understanding of the purpose of the organization, the work that goes on in the business to deliver the value proposition the business has for its customers, form organizational goals based on basis of this understanding and align human capital to this goal. The challenges of HR business partners, post-Covid-19, pandemic are manifold :
- Recruiting the most qualified candidates who can be aligned with the organizational goals and culture
- Reducing the rate of attrition and ensure that the workforce remains with the company through the good times and the bad.
- Creating a flexible, productive, and agile workforce that can operate remotely easily.
- Ensure that the remote workforce remains productive and happy.
- Address skill gaps of the employees and arranging specialized training or workshops for the workforce.
Before exploring how HRBP (HR business partners) can be more effective we need to determine what are the quantifiable parameters of what makes a ‘good’ HRBP?
According to Gartner – a leading global research and advisory company, the effectiveness of HRBPs can be evaluated by observing the effect of the level of strategic effectiveness of HRBP on employee performance, employee retention rate, impact on company revenue, and impact on net profitability.
Gartner describes that HRBP is not one job but 4 jobs merged in one role!
Employee mediator:
How quickly can the HRBP settle workplace conflicts?
Emergency Responder
How agile or adaptive is the HRBP during an emergency? How sharp is their problem-solving skill?
Strategy Partner
How well can they leverage their networks to solve challenges such as the talent needs of the business? Adjust HR strategies to changing requirements?
Operations Manager
How well are the employees’ skills aligned to the company culture and organizational goals? The main competency required here is ‘matrix management.
Once the KPI’s have been identified, then the HRBP can take steps on becoming a more efficient strategic business partner for their organization with some help from the top HR consulting companies in India
Prioritize the needs of the business
Ultimately the main aim of HR is to mobilize human capital and ensure they meet the business goals in time. Aligning the skills, aspirations of the workforce to organizational culture and objectives is one of the main priorities of HR leaders. HR leaders should focus on creating highly productive and agile teams that can function in any environment.
Recognize potential leaders and award them
The best HR leaders do not only focus on leading teams to high levels of productivity but identify people who can be key players and contributors to the organization in the future. Once identifying those who deliver consistently, can motivate their co-workers in difficult times, exhibits behavior essential to a highly productive culture, then HR leaders should strive to give these people better opportunities.
- Create a bias-free and sophisticated recruiting process that hires the best-qualified people who are in sync with your organizational values. This can be done best by applying data analytics to the recruitment process.
You can utilize data to find out the most important metrics for critical roles and then hire the best talent for those roles with the help of top HR consulting companies in India.
- Come up with a lucrative compensation and perks package to retain the key management employees. They can take guidance from one top HR consulting companies in India for this purpose.
- To ensure that your workforce remains productive and continues to add value to the company, make sure that their skill-set is upgraded from time to time. Consult one of the top HR consulting companies in India and arrange for performance evaluation to assess the efficiency of your workforce and organize training classes if there are any skill gaps. According to a 2018 McKinsey survey, 60% of the CEOs have said that addressing the automation/digitization-related skill gaps in the workforce was the top priority. Ensuring that the talent pool meets the company objectives is one of the most important duties of HR.
Focus on enhancing the employee experience
According to a recent survey by McKinsey & Company, organizations that focused on positive employee experience are 1.3 times more likely to have higher organizational outperformance. This is especially true during times of pandemics where the workforce – especially those operating from remote workspaces can suffer from isolation and lack of morale. Arranging for virtual classes focused on mental health can be a great way to keep the employee morale high.
Concentrate on being more agile
The familiar tried and tested, hierarchical office structure might not work anymore in the new normal, where remote and hybrid workplaces are becoming more and more commonplace. In such circumstances, the HR leaders should incorporate strategies suggested by one of the top HR consulting companies in India and try to build up self-sufficient teams and provide them with resources, helping them achieve their missions. Both HR and the workforce need to focus on being moiré flexible so that they can operate despite facing adversities.
In conclusion, the ideal HRBP is one that identified the objectives and goals of the organization and focuses on building up a highly productive, agile, and resilient workforce that can meet those goals at any given time with some help from one of the top HR consulting companies in India.