l Employee advocate– focuses on the needs of today’s employees through
listening, understanding and empathizing.l Human capital developer– in the role of managing and developing human
capital (individuals and teams), focuses on preparing employees to be
successful in the future.l Functional expert– concerned with the HR practices that are central to HR
value, acting with insight on the basis of the body of knowledge
possessed. Some are delivered through administrative efficiency (such as
technology or process design), and others through policies, menus and
interventions. Necessary to distinguish between the foundation HR prac-
tices – recruitment, learning and development, rewards, etc – and the
emerging HR practices such as communications, work process and
organization design, and executive leadership development.l Leader– leading the HR function, collaborating with other functions and
providing leadership to them, setting and enhancing the standards for
strategic thinking and ensuring corporate governance.Business partnering
The concept of business partnering has been enthusiastically adopted by the
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (2007a). The term
‘business partner’ was defined loosely as covering ‘a diversity of jobs from
strategic to administrative to consultancy’. According to the CIPD, business
partnering ‘makes HR accountable to the business, and expects HR to add real
value’. It involves the restructuring of HR into three specialist functions:
shared services, centres of excellence and strategic partners. The latter consists
of a few HR professionals working closely with business leaders, influencing
strategy and steering its implementation. The task of strategic partners is to
ensure the business makes the best use of its people and its people opportu-
nities. The role is to highlight the HR issues and possibilities that executives
don’t often see. It also aims to inform and shape HR strategy, so that, as
business partners, HR practitioners work closely with their line management
colleagues. They are aware of business strategies and the opportunities and
threats facing the organization. They are capable of analysing organizational
strengths and weaknesses and diagnosing the issues facing the enterprise and
their human resource implications. They know about the critical success
factors that will create competitive advantage, and they can draw up a
convincing business case for innovations that will add value.
The term ‘added value’ looms large in the concept of the HR business
partner. It is often used rhetorically. In accounting language, where the
phrase originated, added value is defined as the value added to the cost of
raw materials and bought-out parts by the process of production and distri-
bution. In HR speak, added value seems to mean the contribution made by
74 l The practice of strategic HRM