WHAT DOES A HR BUSINESS PARTNER DO?

Published: Jun 20, 2025 - The HR Business Partner drives strategic people solutions by aligning human capital priorities with business goals through deep commercial insight and close collaboration with senior leadership. This role delivers high-impact coaching, talent management, and organizational development initiatives while supporting leadership growth, performance, and capability building across regions. The partner leverages HR analytics and cross-functional collaboration to implement data-driven plans, enhance workforce effectiveness, and ensure consistent, high-quality service delivery.

A Review of Professional Skills and Functions for HR Business Partner

1. HR Business Partner Duties

  • Leadership Representation: Representing HR at the Children's Senior Leadership Team
  • Performance Analysis: Analysing directorate performance information, presenting it, challenges and solutions
  • Workforce Change: Leading Workforce Change activity (service redesign)
  • Workplace Planning: Supporting the Directorate in designing and implementing their approach to Future Ways of Working
  • Query Response: Responding to management queries
  • Strategic Partnership: Working with heads of departments and managers as a strategic partner within multiple functions, helping with the delivery of the strategic plan and the delivery of their vision
  • People Planning: Fully understanding their business area and developing the people plan that will support the strategy
  • Performance Coaching: Coaching and helping to drive the performance of the people
  • Change Support: Driving performance and supporting organisational change
  • Culture Engagement: Championing the engagement and culture

2. HR Business Partner Details

  • Relationship Building: Build strong, personable and collaborative relationships with portfolio, advising on best practice HR and value-adding HR initiatives to support their organisational development
  • Process Coaching: Provide advice and coaching on key HR processes including Talent Management, Learning and Development, Compensation and Benefits, Recruitment and Performance Management
  • Employee Relations: Provide advice and support about Employee relations including resolving issues, grievances in line with local legislation
  • Project Enhancement: Enhance project management or change management with new strategic HR projects for the portfolio and assist with change management strategies aligned with business outcomes
  • Influence Integrity: Engage and influence with integrity across all levels of the business

3. HR Business Partner Responsibilities

  • Strategic Advisory: Strategic HR advisory and initiatives aligned with the overall business strategy
  • Policy Development: Work closely with regional HR teams in developing fair HR policies for all countries
  • Strategy Monitoring: Collaborate with the team in developing and monitoring overall HR strategies, systems, tactics and procedures across the organization
  • Relations Bridging: Bridge management and employee relations by addressing demands, grievances or other issues
  • Talent Support: Support current and future business needs through the development, engagement, motivation and preservation of human capital
  • Talent Acquisition: Responsible for the recruitment and selection process
  • Relocation Support: Oversee and support work pass and relocation matters
  • Operations Oversight: Oversee the daily operations of the HR department

4. HR Business Partner Job Summary

  • Strategic Delivery: Deliver the strategic direction and business requirements of the aligned business areas, driving the HR aspects of the agenda through the leadership teams
  • Process Leadership: Lead annual HR processes including performance reviews, compensation planning, promotions, objective setting, etc., in conjunction with HR guidelines
  • Organization Design: Works with the business to identify and evaluate the Organisation Design and leads the business through restructuring, implementation and change
  • Advisory Support: Acts as a trusted advisor and critical friend to the business
  • Change Facilitation: Facilitate organisational changes according to business needs by taking into consideration relocation, job development opportunities, terminations, headcount and organisational objectives
  • Manager Upskilling: Ensures that managers are upskilled to manage their grievance/disciplinary/performance and management processes, and become involved in the management of more complex cases
  • Capability Coaching: Coaches, leads and drives the ongoing development of people's capability in the line management population to support direct line management engagement
  • Workforce Planning: Support Head of HR and/or Senior HRBP with business area near and long-term workforce forecasting and demand planning
  • Talent Readiness: Works with business area/s to ensure a candidate pool is ready for management roles
  • Succession Planning: Conducts talent and succession planning activities within the area
  • Talent Identification: Supports for Talent identification exercises
  • Performance Metrics: Uses metrics to identify opportunities to improve performance
  • Strategy Alignment: Ensures the People strategy/approach is aligned across business units
  • Leadership Input: Provides Business Leadership team input on People strategies/initiatives
  • Absence Monitoring: Works with HR Advisors to monitor absence to determine the root cause
  • Sickness Coaching: Coaches HR Advisors on sickness case management and manages complex long-term sickness cases within the area
  • Union Relations: Manages relationships with Trade Union reps and Regional Officers
  • ER Support: Supports Pay Negotiations, Recognition process and the ER Agenda
  • Engagement Champion: Support the global employee engagement survey and follow up with action planning
  • Project Management: Lead and manage HR related projects
  • Cross-functional Collaboration: Cross-functional working with Centres of Excellence, Shared Service
  • Colleague Support: Supporting wider HR colleagues

5. HR Business Partner Accountabilities

  • Procedure Review: Assisting in the ongoing review and implementation of internal Standard Operating Procedures for the efficient and effective administration of the Human Resources Department
  • Data Compilation: Collating payroll information and collecting and compiling data and statistics relating to Employment Control, Absenteeism, etc
  • Confidentiality Maintenance: Ensuring that the highest levels of confidentiality are maintained within the Department
  • Forum Representation: Represent the department at key internal and external forums/committees
  • Report Writing: Preparing and writing HR correspondence and reports for wider distribution
  • Inquiry Response: Responding professionally to inquiries from staff and members of the public
  • Policy Compliance: Ensuring that all policies and procedures identified by the hospital as being relevant to the post have been read, acknowledged, implemented and adhered to
  • Project Support: Provide support on designated HR projects that are identified to build and improve the HR department or organisational effectiveness
  • Absence Input: Input of absence management data into the HR system including medical certs, and return to work interview forms
  • Deadline Partnership: Partner, ensuring strict adherence to deadlines
  • Payroll Reporting: Preparation of fortnightly and monthly payroll reports for the Payroll Business

6. HR Business Partner Functions

  • Query Support: Supports with employee queries and escalations, coaches front-line managers
  • Onboarding Management: Manages onboarding and off-boarding
  • Relations Handling: Manages employee relations issues, conducts investigations with Employee Relations Partner with guidance from the Leader or BP
  • Performance Management: Manages performance management (eg, PIP) processes with Employee Relations Partner
  • Material Preparation: Creates HC preparation materials
  • Recruitment Partnership: Partners with TA on recruitment efforts
  • Cycle Training: Trains employees and managers on the performance review cycle
  • Engagement Analysis: Analyzes employee engagement survey findings and prepares a report-out for teams
  • System Facilitation: Facilitates and assists with people system actions and changes (transfers, pay changes, location and general people data audits)

7. HR Business Partner Job Description

  • Talent Deployment: Deploy the global talent management strategy and processes, including the use of data and analytics, to develop a diverse leadership pipeline and succession to key roles
  • Capability Planning: Accelerate future capabilities/address capability gaps, delivering a plan in support of the business strategy
  • Leadership Coaching: Provide coaching to leaders to support their personal leadership development and capability to deliver the people and culture agenda
  • Change Support: Support HR change management, driving operational tasks to self-service and People Services for execution
  • Engagement Building: Build employee engagement by leveraging global frameworks and resources
  • Inclusive Partnership: Partner with and coach leaders to build an inclusive and high-performing team environment
  • Project Execution: Project management and execution of restructuring and/or broader change programmes
  • Program Delivery: Support the delivery of the annual Performance, Rewards, global rewards and benefits programmes
  • Partner Development: Focus on personal development to build business partner capabilities

8. HR Business Partner Overview

  • People Planning: Supporting the leaders in defining, developing and executing local people plans that support the achievement of the business strategy
  • Strategy Integration: Ensures that People plans are integrated with wider HR strategy, policies and priorities
  • Calendar Delivery: Delivery of the annual people calendar activities within the objectives and strategy
  • Talent Support: Translating and supporting the delivery of the talent strategy
  • Leadership Pipeline: Driving a pipeline of diverse future leaders and accelerating high-potential development while driving the Diversity and Inclusion agenda
  • Capability Building: Building and developing future strategic capabilities for Technology such as solution design and robotics
  • HR Consultation: Drive HR support and consultation to the business
  • Query Handling: Answer employee and manager queries about HR programs, policies, and other HR-related topics
  • Performance Advisory: Advise on performance management challenges and lead investigations and reorganizations
  • Program Assistance: Assist People Partners with planning and roll-out of HR programs and initiatives
  • Inquiry Management: Manage inquiries and connect employees to the correct subject-matter expert
  • Policy Improvement: Identify opportunities to improve HR policies and propose solutions to improve inconsistencies and gaps

9. HR Business Partner Details and Accountabilities

  • Market Understanding: Develop and maintain a sound commercial understanding of the markets, varied strategies and operations within which the groups that make up the client group operate to flex and deliver plans and initiatives accordingly
  • Business Partnership: Act as a trusted Partner to Business Leaders, to support business planning and operational decision-making of the business management teams
  • Leadership Development: Raise the bar for the people management capability of leaders
  • Competency Investment: Defining and optimising investment in competency management and assessment
  • Executive Coaching: Personal Coach and trusted adviser to the EVPs and VPs across the client group
  • Growth Facilitation: Holding the mirror up to them as leaders and facilitating their personal, professional and leadership growth
  • People Leadership: People Leadership and professional growth of indirect HR reports (regional HRBPs)
  • Agenda Setting: Set the human capital agenda and priorities, network and work collaboratively with Regional and Group HR colleagues across countries/regions to ensure smooth delivery of people plans and activities
  • HR Expertise: Provide the businesses with expertise in HR, organisational development and business change interventions
  • Solution Translation: Translate business needs and plans into organisation/people solutions with minimal risk to Experian and ensuring efficient and effective deployment of resources
  • Process Facilitation: Facilitate delivery of performance, reward, learning and talent management processes across the client group and work with the Business to ensure outcomes are defined and optimised at all levels
  • Action Planning: Develop and implement with the business areas action plans in response to the outputs of the Employee Listening Strategy
  • Best Practices: Ensure sharing of best practices/ideas across HR colleagues to drive a consistent approach
  • Talent Tracking: Partner extensively with business and HR colleagues to define, deliver and track talent management plans
  • Service Ethos: Maintain a strong customer service ethos and focus both internally and externally to encourage speed of response and exemplary standards of service
  • Analytics Optimisation: Personally optimise the use and insight from HR Analytics (including predictive) to drive a step change across the business areas and to continue improving the health of core KPI’s

10. HR Business Partner Tasks

  • Programmatic Support: Provide HR programmatic support, thought partnership, and coaching to managers and directors of the organization
  • Needs Assessment: Proactively assess team and manager development needs, make recommendations, and implement appropriate solutions
  • Data Reporting: Provide rigorous data analysis and reporting solutions based on business needs
  • Talent Execution: Execute on talent management strategies to support a team’s growth and individual development plans
  • Cycle Management: Manage and facilitate the overall Performance Summary Cycle and employee engagement survey throughout the year
  • HR Integration: Integrate and partner with HR colleagues in the Recruiting, Learning and Development, Compensation, Legal, and HR Programs teams to implement solutions and help scale the business
  • Strategy Execution: Partner closely with regional HR partners on global strategy and execution
  • Relations Support: Work closely with Employee Relations Partners, supporting employee relations issues
  • Meeting Facilitation: Attend and potentially facilitate team and off-site meetings
  • Community Participation: Participate as an integral member of the extended HR community
Relevant Information
What Does A Business Partner Do?
What Does A Global HR Business Partner Do?