In 1997, Human Resource Champions by Dave Ulrich introduced the term “HR business partner” to the profession. Twenty-five years later, does the term or any of it’s other iterations mean anything?
My guest this week argues it is time for organisations to consider if the role has any relevance. Author, futurist and consulting partner at HR Curator, Dave Millner, has spent the last 30 years working with global organisations offering them HR and people-based solutions focusing on future-proofing their businesses. Dave is also a regular contributor to global HR conferences and frequently appears on various “most influential” HR thinkers lists.
In this episode you’ll discover:
- the issues facing HR today – such as increased expectation of the profession, the drive to keep costs low and a highly competitive landscape – are the same issues facing the profession when “HR business partner” was coined
- the five key challenges that the HR business partner fails adequately to address
- the vagueness around what ‘strategic HR’ actually means in practice
- how organisations misunderstood Ulrich’s framework and simply did a “cut and paste” of the role without thinking about its effectiveness
- why individuals who have never held a HR position before are being appointed to chief people officer roles
- why an individual with a “commercial focus” is more likely to be attractive to organisations than someone with technical HR experience.
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This is a thought-provoking and reflective interview that challenges current thinking and practice, whilst providing a blueprint to align the HR function to the commercial realities of an organisation.
