A recent article states that according to the Gallup Organization research, the best HR professionals can help their companies increase productivity, sales, and other performance metrics by as much as 20%, year after year.
When I look at my organization, I realize that a lot of our time is taken away by traditional engagement activities. Being low on budgets, most events are done without the help of event organizers (save our yearly awards) which eats away a lot of our bandwidth. In such a scenario, businesses have learnt to deal with the absence of their Business Partner for days at a stretch. At no point of time have we made ourselves indispensible to our departments except for termination cases.
With some effort on my part and following another BHR’s example, I have bought myself a place on the table for most discussions. This however, won’t last long unless I am well versed with what and how my businesses are doing. I need to be on top of issues that may arise on the floor and gear leaders to handle these. Initially, I went into the cabins with issues and, what I thought, plausible solutions. But the more I got to know the business, the more I understood what their priorities were.
Now I no longer enter with just plausible solutions. I know exactly which of them will work and why. The amount of respect that you earn with knowing the business also helps.
Very often, we underestimate the advantages of this. HR Partners are infamous for their poor business understanding and hence not taken very seriously in some companies. Try knowing the inside out of your business and see the difference it makes.
I start my one-on-one sessions with this simple request – ‘I would like to understand the work that you do.’
So how well do you know your businesses?
The HR Business Partner Story 