Within this environment, the HR professional, who is considered necessary by managers and executives, is a strategic partner, an employee sponsor or advocate and a change mentor.
These roles were recommended and discussed in Human Resource Champions, by Dr. Dave Ulrich, one of the best thinkers and writers in the HR field today, and a professor at the University of Michigan.
The HR professionals who understand these roles are leading their organizations in areas such as organization development, strategic utilization of employees to serve business goals, and talent management and development.
Let’s take a look at each of these roles and their impact on HR functions and practices.
Strategic Partner
In today’s organizations, to guarantee their viability and ability to contribute, HR managers need to think of themselves as strategic partners. In this role, the HR person contributes to the development of and the accomplishment of the organization-wide business plan and objectives.
The HR business objectives are established to support the attainment of the overall strategic business plan and objectives. The tactical HR representative is deeply knowledgeable about the design of work systems in which people succeed and contribute.
This strategic partnership impacts HR services such as the design of work positions; hiring; reward, recognition and strategic pay; performance development and appraisal systems; career and succession planning; and employee development. When HR professionals are aligned with the business, the personnel management component of the organization is thought about as a strategic contributor to business success.
To become successful business partners, the HR staff members have to think like business people, know finance and accounting and be accountable and responsible for cost reductions and the measurement of all HR programs and processes.
Employee Advocate
As an employee sponsor or advocate, the HR manager plays an integral role in organizational success via their knowledge about and advocacy of people. This advocacy includes expertise in how to create a work environment in which people will choose to be motivated, contributing, and happy.
Fostering effective methods of goal setting, communication and empowerment through responsibility builds employee ownership of the organization. The HR professional helps establish the organizational culture and climate in which people have the competency, concern, and commitment to serve customers well.
In this role, the HR manager provides overall talent management strategies, employee development opportunities, employee assistance programs, gain sharing and profit-sharing strategies, organization development interventions, due process approaches employee complaints and problem-solving, and regularly scheduled communication opportunities.
Change Champion
The constant evaluation of the effectiveness of the organization results in the need for the HR professional to frequently champion change. Both knowledge about and the ability to execute successful change strategies make the HR professional exceptionally valued. Knowing how to link change to the strategic needs of the organization will minimize employee dissatisfaction and resistance to change.
Organization development, the overarching discipline for change management strategies, gives the HR professional additional challenges. Consciously helping to create the right organizational culture, monitoring employee satisfaction, and measuring the results of organization initiatives fall here as well as in the role of employee advocacy.
The HR professional contributes to the organization by constantly assessing the effectiveness of the HR function. They also sponsor change in other departments and in work practices.
To promote the overall success of their organization, they champion the identification of the organizational mission, vision, values, goals and action plans. Finally, they help determine the measures that will tell their organization how well it is succeeding in all of this.
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