WHAT DOES A BUSINESS PARTNER DO?
A Business Partner plays a crucial role in driving the organization towards measurable results by providing strategic direction in diversity and inclusion, resolving conflicts, managing change, and developing organizational capabilities. They foster an inclusive culture and ensure a fair and equitable work environment. Additionally, they enhance governance, frameworks, and processes to improve employee and business outcomes continually.
A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for Business Partner
1. Business Partner Duties
- Employee Coaching: Play a coaching role with the client's employees
- Timesheet Support: Support the team with timesheet entry and the use of invoice templates
- Stakeholder Collaboration: Collaborate with the various stakeholders of the company
- Business Understanding: Make sure to understand their business needs
- Administrative Updates: Ensure the daily update of administrative information in the systems
- Case Management: Manage problematic cases in collaboration with Human Capital
- Freelancer Integration: Take charge of managing the integration of new freelancers
- Renewal Support: Support them during mandate renewals
- Contract Negotiation: Negotiate contract terms and conditions upon renewal
- Departmental Collaboration: Collaborate with the different departments to improve the overall consultant experience
2. Business Partner Details
- Measurable Results Enablement: Enable the organization to achieve measurable results
- Diversity Direction: Provide strategic diversity and inclusion direction
- Conflict Resolution: Resolve conflict, manage change, and develop organizational capabilities
- Culture Promotion: Promote an inclusive culture and fair and equitable work environment
- Governance Improvement: Inform and improve governance, framework, and processes
- ERG Strategy: Build yearly overarching ERG strategies and goals
- Outcome Enhancement: Continue to enhance employee and business outcomes
- Leadership Coordination: Coordinate with other division leaders to drive accountability
- Coaching and Counseling: Coach and counsel on programs, people strategies, policies, and procedures
- ERG Establishment: Establish Employee Resource Groups and serve as the primary point of contact for the ERG leaders
3. Business Partner Responsibilities
- DEI Program Management: Drive DEI goal achievement through program management and well-defined project plans
- Trend Identification: Proactively identify trends, risks/issues, solutions to overcome hurdles to drive results
- DEI Data Ownership: Own and drive the identification and standardization of DEI data and metrics
- Metrics Utilization: Use statistics, metrics, and reports to assess the progress and effectiveness of diversity initiatives
- Implementation Management: Manage implementation activities, and develop processes, documentation, and communications for program/process rollout and ongoing support
- Compliance Design: Design and implement procedures to ensure compliance with internal policies and external diversity regulations
- Knowledge Oversight: Oversee initiatives to foster knowledge and adoption of diversity and inclusion topics and best practices
- Attraction Strategy: Ensure the organization employs strategies to attract, develop, and retain members of underrepresented groups
4. Business Partner Functions
- L&D Planning: Produce robust L&D plans and build adequate training budgets for each area of the BBU.
- Efficiency Review: Conduct regular reviews of the L&D plans and budgets to ensure maximum efficiency.
- CoE Collaboration: Collaborate with internal Centres of Excellence and Group Functions.
- Program Development: Develop and tailor world-class global functional excellence programs.
- BBU Learning Leadership: Lead the development of any BBU-specific learning requirements.
- Scale Leveraging: Identify commonalities across the BBU to leverage scale.
- Learning Solutions Development: Develop internal learning solutions, or alternatively find suitable external partners.
- Global Operation: Operate at a global level, or with local partners, to develop and deliver the required solutions.
- Capability Identification: In partnership with the BBU HR team, identify local capability and development needs through engaging with key stakeholders, using a consultative approach.
- L&D Support: Support the BBU HR teams in the L&D planning process, in line with the financial cycle (Budget, 5YP).
5. Business Partner Accountabilities
- Capability Sustainability: Ensure long-term sustainability and success of the capability agenda.
- Program Coordination: Coordinate the roll-out and sequencing of all capability programs.
- Program Customization: Work with the individual areas of the BBU BU to tailor and prioritize the programs.
- Training Calendar Development: Build a coherent L&D annual training calendar for the BBU.
- Evaluation Culture Creation: Create a strong measurement/evaluation culture across the BBU.
- Balance Management: Ensure there is an effective balance between global initiatives and the BBU local priorities.
- Intervention Evaluation: Ensure all L&D interventions are evaluated using a consistent evaluation framework in line with WGW, with learnings shared across the network and improvement actions taken.
- Learning Encouragement: Encourage the desire for effective learning, providing engaging and innovative high-quality solutions, with the aim to embed the 70-20-10 blended learning approach.
- Relationship Building: Build excellent internal and external cross-functional relationships to optimize delivery of activities and facilitate timely/relevant communications.
- Collaborative Work: Work in collaboration with the Group L&D Team, Global HR, BBU, and other Group Functions to ensure successful delivery of ‘joined up’ initiatives.
- Training Facilitation: Provide direct facilitation and delivery of training wherever possible and build internal “train the trainer” capability.
Relevant Information