Shifting your HR/Compensation team from rules-based policing to a business partner (internal consulting) is a daunting task.
Here is my advice to CHROs and CEOs who need to make this happen to better align their people impacting decisions to business realities.
Become a Business Partner: The 5 Guiding Principles:
1. Business Acumen and Context – Know how your business drives revenue and manages expenses. It’s all about money and profitability. How do employees and financial capital get deployed to achieve these goals?
2. Guidelines Not Rules – Know your guidelines, but know what you are able to make an exception for and why. Not all rule breaking is against the law. Don’t act like it is. There are a lot of gray areas to navigate. If you don’t know how to do it effectively, ask for advice from more experienced colleagues.
3. Listen to Understand (not to respond) and Ask A Lot of Questions – You don’t know everything you need to know in a situation. Listen, ask questions, and ask more questions. What is motivating the actions of your leaders and employees? What needs are they trying to meet? Why is it important to them? What aren’t they telling you? Use your emotional intelligence skills.
4. Facts not Fiction or Friction – Make observations without judgements, assumptions, evaluations, interpretations, or speculating about motives. Focus on the facts. What is true? Restate what you heard to ensure you understand, and they feel heard and understood. Be the person in the room that shares the facts. Do not allow fiction and friction (conflict) to cause you to dilute your advice. Speaking truth to power takes courage and integrity. Practice makes this easier. So does having a financial cushion so your need for a paycheck doesn’t create the need for you to act in a way that isn’t aligned to your personal values.
5. Communicate with empathy, compassion, and assertiveness. Whether you are talking to the C-suite leaders or front-line employees, recognize the human beings in front of you and what they are trying to achieve. Don’t be a jerk. There will be tension and conflicting needs. That doesn’t mean you can’t communicate respectfully. Dictating without telling people why you made the decision you made isn’t going to lead to success. You don’t need everyone to agree. But you do need everyone to understand, feel heard, seen, and appreciated. If you don’t prioritize that, employees will go where this is prioritized. And if you don’t have self-awareness and emotional regulation skills, you need to invest in yourself.
If you’ve made this shift to being a business partner (HR or Compensation) in your organization, what would you add to this list?
https://prosperconsultingllc.com/blog/2024/7/1/transforming-hrcompensation-from-rules-based-to-business-partner
#businesspartner #hr #humanresources #compensation #rewards #communication #listen