Strategic HR Role: A Business Partner Report and Analysis

This report examines the role of Human Resources (HR) as a strategic business partner, addressing why HR is not always viewed as such and how to improve this perception. The author analyzes an article highlighting the disconnect between HR and strategic business goals, emphasizing the need for HR leaders to align actions with the organization's mission and vision. The report outlines ways HR can contribute strategically, including aligning strategies with core principles, managing organizational change through performance strategies, designing organizational structures, and engaging employees in strategy execution. The analysis emphasizes the importance of talent management, focusing on critical roles and individuals for optimal investment returns. The report concludes by asserting that HR plays a crucial role in bringing strategies to life, building core competencies, and ensuring strategies are effectively communicated and implemented across all business units. The provided references support the analysis with relevant literature on HR management.

Running head: ROLE OF HR AS A STRATEGIC BUSINESS PARTNER
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Author’s Note:

1ROLE OF HR AS A STRATEGIC BUSINESS PARTNER
Answer to question about the article-why HR is not a strategic business partner.
In this article the author depicts that the human resource leader of very few organizations
play a strategic role. In order to play a strategic role in business, the human resource leader
should always think if his action creates friction for the business or creates flow for the business.
The author says that the human resource leaders often feel disconnected with the people who are
in proximity with the customers as human resource department is close to the pinnacle of the
organization and everyone reports to this department. The author also suggests ways on how
human resource leaders can play a strategic role (Role of HR, 2017).
In my opinion human resource leaders can be a strategic business partner in many ways.
1) While planning strategies or everyday operational activities, leaders often lose sight of
the mission and vision of an organization. The human resource leaders can enable alignment of
strategies to the core principles of the organization, that is, its vision and mission statements by
setting a foundation of vision and values in the organization.
2) The strategic plans can be implemented only when organizational culture evolves to
support the strategies. The changing environment demands a change in business strategy and
human resource leaders have huge role to play to manage change within the organization by
developing performance management strategies, role designs etc (Ulrich et al. , 2013).
3) Strategies are about the big picture and often strategies can’t be implemented within
the organization effectively due to lack of tactical planning. The human resource leaders have
huge role to play in designing structure and roles within the organization. They can ensure proper

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flow of communication among all business units and ensure alignment of the overall business
process to the new strategy of the organization.
4) The human resource team has access to people across all business units; they can engage
people with the execution of the strategy they can take feedback from employees about what the
business strategies truly mean to them so that operational efficiencies increase and strategies are
properly executed. For any change within the organization like business restructuring or
implementation of a new technology, the human resource department plays a huge role as a
change agent (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).
The author mentions that while managing talent human resource department should try to
identify the critical people who play critical roles in organization instead of investing equal time
on all business units. In my opinion, this viewpoint is true as talent management can truly be
considered as a portfolio of investments with unequal or disproportionate returns (Bratton &
Gold, 2012).
This article impacts my view of HR as a business partner .In my opinion human resource leaders
have huge role to play in bringing strategies to life. The financial goals of an organization and
strategies are important but the human resource department can help build core competencies of
the organization by identifying critical business units and critical people. The strategies should
be articulated well among people so that the blueprint of converting strategies to actions is
developed.

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Reference Lists
Armstrong, M., & Taylor, S., (2014). Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Bratton, J., & Gold, J., (2012). Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave
Macmillan.
Role of HR., (2017). hbr.org/2012/07/why-hr-still-isnt-a-strategic-partner. Retrieved 13 August
2017, from https://hbr.org/2012/07/why-hr-still-isnt-a-strategic-partner
Ulrich, D., Younger, J., Brockbank, W., & Ulrich, M. D., (2013). The state of the HR
profession. Human Resource Management, 52(3), 457-471.