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What Being an HRBP Means
How HR business partners describe their function
Five categories of the HRBP function
In the 2022 HRBP Report, I report the findings from interviews with HRBPs. Here’s a summary of the five HRBP functions that I identified in the study.
1. Be strategic
In Navigating the HRBP Maturity Levels, I explain the three HRBP maturity levels. At the lower levels, the HRBP function involves more administrative and transactional work. The tendency is for professionals to act as order-takers and less like partners to the business.
I characterize Level 1, Hybrid, as a generalist role but with the HRBP title. Titles do not make professionals strategic or enable them to lead effectively.
With Level 2, Strategically positioned, HRBPs may be more strategic, but they regress to their comfort zone: being tactical.
HRBPs at Level 3, Optimized, have accepted and embraced their strategic work with BPs.
Strategic HRBPs are well-versed in the organization’s strategy and understand the alignment between the organization’s and BP’s strategy. As HRBPs engage with BPs, they help ground BPs to the strategy by:
- Ensuring that tactical and transactional requests…
