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Table of Contents

Introduction.............................................................................................................2

Issues to Consider....................................................................................................2
Business Partner Model..................................................................................................................................................2

The Use of Centralized Shared Service Centers..............................................................................................................3

Devolution of HR Responsibilities to the Line Managers...............................................................................................4

Conclusion................................................................................................................5

Bibliography.............................................................................................................7
Introduction
The purpose of this report is to advise Snow Mountain Hotel management regarding key HR issues and the
way forward to deal with them. Business Partner Model will be used to analyse and evaluate current HR
strategies followed by Snow Mountain Hotel. This report will highlight how HR managers can work closely
with line managers using Business Partner Model. It will critically assess various aspects of Business Partner
Model with reference to Snow Mountain Hotel while elaborating centralized shared service centers and
delegation of HR responsibilities to line managers. I nternal and external drivers of implementing the model
along with potential implementation challenges will also be discussed in this report.

Issues to Consider
Business Partner Model
The main purpose of Business Partner Model is the integration of HR professional into business process and
alignment of their routine work with business objectives. In this model [CITATION Ulrich \l 1033 ] mentioned
that how human resource function can be strategically organized and aligned with overall organizational
goals and objectives. Business Partner Model aims to integrate HR into strategic planning and business
operations. This model encourages line mangers to work closely with HR manager in order to identify and
rectify various organization issues. This process will eventually enable effective strategic decision making and
beneficial for overall objectives of organization. HR partner model will make HR as part of organization
strategy.

There are three elements of Business Partner Model [ CITATION Ulrich \l 1033 ]:

1) Business Partner: in this embedded HR model, HR provide various support services such as HR
generalists, business partner and account manager while being strategically aligned with the
organization.
2) Shared service center: which is means HR administrative activities done by centralized commonly
shared service center. Standardized HR services can be insourced or outsourced and streamlined
with technology thereby enabling self-service delivery by employees.
3) Centre of Expertise: Maintenance of vital body of knowledge and specialist core HR functional
structure thereby providing expert HR advise.

According to [ CITATION Ulrich2005 \l 1033 ] there are five HR roles:

Strategic Partner: As being a strategic partner will focus on strategy formulation, implementation and
facilitator. In this role HR personnel will closely work with other manager to ensure organizational goals and
objectives are met. In this senior role HR personnel will think and work strategically.

Employee Advocate: In this role HR professional should deal with current needs of employees by
acknowledging their concerns while balancing with organizational needs as well [ CITATION Carbery \l 1033 ].
HR personal will involve and care about the employees in their legitimate demands.

Human Capital Developer: Strategic future needs of employees with special focus on their learning and
development is one the role of HR function in an organization. Ultimate objective is to ensure provision of
effective and efficient learning opportunities for employees so that organizational objectives are met.

Functional Expert: In this role HR staff fulfil their administrative responsibilities using best possible policies
and procedures. HR people are encouraged in this role to use technology to bring effeteness and efficiently in
administration and operational tasks.
HR Leader: Mastering all four roles at their best servers as the leader in the organization’s HR functions. In
this role decision about HR structure and its strategic interaction with other organizational function is
important.

Internal Drivers of Implementing Model within SNOW Mountain: Persistent high labour turnover in SNIW
Mountain Hotel is one the main internal driver of implementing model. High living costs, low job satisfaction,
burnout, work-life balance disturbance and unrealistic expectation of management from employees are
factor contributing high turnover. Employee turnover can be reduced as the main focus of this mode is
‘people’. Due to best integration of HR activities and shared knowledge pool within organization will
eventually result in reduction of duplicate work there by increasing moral of employees.

External Drives of Implementing Model within SNOW Mountain: Organization performance is directly linked
with employee motivation and engagement. The model will increase productivity of employees. By using this
model line manager will be better able to exercise their responsibilities.

Potential disadvantages of implementing the model within SNOW Mountain: One of the key aspects of
Business Partner Model is reliance of various HR activities on line manager. In case of SNOW Mountain this
will be a challenging task and existing line mangers do no seem to take additional responsibility of HR
activities. Lack of HR related attributes and skills in line managers might jeopardize benefits of Business
Partner Model.

The Use of Centralized Shared Service Centers

The main purpose of shared service center is to reduce burden of HR administrative and transactional
activities from on-site HR teams to a centralized HR team. This centralized HR team is usually based in a
single location and offer common administrative HR services. One of the key drivers of shared service center
is heavy reliance on technology in order to provide different HR services without any interruption with in
organization.

Specially for global organization there might be huge financial implication for having dedicated HR team for
each and every location individually. Therefore, many global organizations have moved from decentralized to
centralized HR shared service centers.

As mentioned earlier, shared service center aims to improve efficiency and cost reduction by bringing
together technology and automation of different routine process. Employee self-service concept is central to
the idea with the assistance of technology based shared service and automation of day to day HR functions.
For example, routine HR form (leave application, bank letter, experience letter) can be easily automated so
that dependency upon HR personal may be reduced.

Internal drivers for developing a shared service center: According to given scenario, SNOW Mountain Hotel
currently has dedicated on-site HR team which headed by HR manager and assisted by HR coordinator to
deal administrative work e.g. paperwork, recruitment, training and development. Moreover, there is
centralized teams also managing payroll and other administrative tasks. One of the main external drivers is
reduction in cost after implementation of share service center concept. HR administrative tasks will be
dedicated to smaller teams to bring more efficiency. Standardization of repetitive HR tasks can be automated
with technology. High staff turnover is a concern for the management of SNOW Mountain Hotel. Delegation
of administrative tasks to shared service center will help in reducing staff turnover.

External drivers for developing a shared service center: Hight decentralization and redundancies of different
HR operation will result in lower efficiency and wastage of vital resources of the organization. Lack of high
level of standardization will ultimately result in losing competitive advantage by SNOW Mountain Hotel.
Benefits of implementing Business Partner Model: High level of standardization will bring continuous
improvements in the operations of SNOW Mountain Hotel. High standardization results in better
implementation of effectiveness and efficiency in the organization. Thanks to high level of standardization in
administrative activities, automation with the help of technology can be done with much more efficiency.
Cost reduction is one of the key benefits of shared service center. A task which requires a greater number of
employees can completed with few employees after successful implementation of business partner model.
Shared service center encourages sharing to knowledge among staff members. A shared and common
knowledge based can help employees to accomplish their activities in better way.

Drawbacks of implementing Business Partner Model: As mentioned earlier one of the hall marks of shared
service center is decentralization and removal of necessity to have on-site HR department. This can create
challenge for SNOW Mountain Hotel and can result in loss of local expertise and knowledge from the one site
location due to decentralization of HR function. Traditional HR function is characterized with face-to-face
interaction with staff members of various departments. Shared service center will result in decentralization
and off-site location of HR function which means loss of personalized contact with SNOW Mountain Hotel
staff. This depersonalization can result in dissatisfaction among employees as there will be no HR person to
share their concern and grievances. Dependency upon line managers will increase and they should have good
knowledge about HR responsibilities. Confusion about role can arise among staff members if there is no
clarity.

Devolution of HR Responsibilities to the Line Managers

Devolution of HR responsibilities means that line managers of SNOW Mountain will become responsible for
those activities which generally belong to the on-site HR team. The aim of this element of business partner
model is to bring efficiency in the HR function so that they can more focus on strategic issues rather
undertaking day-to-day administrative operations. One of the main advantages for devolution of HR
responsibilities to line manager so that more time is left for HR professionals for long-term strategic
organizational activities. According to research carried out for CIPD by a team at Bath University [ CITATION
Joh03 \l 1033 ] found that there is a direct correlation between successful implementation of HR policies and
role of line managers. As per the said research, line managers have direct influence over the job satisfaction
level, commitment, high performance and long-term association of staff members with the organization. Due
to position in the organization and relationship of line managers, they are better able to understand the
concerns of with staff members and paly and active role in addressing their grievances.

Line mangers are generally better able to analyse the performance of their staff members. They know exactly
what is required from a specific employee and thereby can conduct performance analysis. According to
[ CITATION Joh92 \l 1033 ] line manager plays far more central role in staff management then HR personal.

HR issues can be sorted out with more efficiently between staff members and line managers. Line managers
are better placed to assess and evaluate different aspects of employee demands. Line managers performance
evaluation of a staff member is tended to more accurate then HR personal. Organization change
management can be better executed with the active involvement of line managers.

Benefits of devolution to line managers within SNOW Mountain: Cost-cutting is one of the benefits for SNOW
Mountain due to devolution of HR administrative activities to line managers. After the successful devolution,
size of the HR department is shortened. Generally, there is a criticism on HR personal that their strategies are
good on papers but irrelevant or inappropriate from organizational point of view [ CITATION Pau05 \l 1033 ].
Moreover, traditional HR more focus on legal matters of human resource which can be seen as constraining
line manager autonomy. Relevant beneficial strategies can be implemented, and more autonomy can be
given to line managers by devolution of HR responsibilities. Faster decision making is another key benefit of
devolution of HR powers.
Drawbacks of devolution to line managers within SNOW Mountain: As noted in the given scenario, line
management of SNOW Mountain is not keen to share HR responsibilities. From their point of view, they are
already burdened and will not be able to devote time for HR administrative activities. In this situation the
benefits of devolution will be limited due to lack of acceptance from line managers of SNOW Mountain.

Following practical issues can be addressed to ensure HR and line managers are fully engaged during
devolution of HR activities:

It is important that line managers should see the value of devolution for them. Most of the time line
managers do not understand the requirement of various HR activities. To ensure success for devolution,
there by training and support for SNOW Mountain’s line managers so as to avoid mistakes.

Line manger role clarification is essential so that a partnership can be created between HR staff and line
managers.

It is recommended that initially HR personal should track performance of line manager with regards to HR
matters so as to ensure effective implementation of devolution. This support HR staff members can provide
for short term basis.

Conclusion
In this report Business Partner Model is elaborated along with internal and external drivers of implementing
the model within SNOW Mountain. Advantages and draw backs of motel are discussed to give a balanced
prospective.

It is concluded that potential advantages of implementing model outweigh drawbacks and risks for SNOW
Mountain. Due to shared service center HR processes and policies will be consolidated, streamlined and
automated thereby importing organizational efficiency. Devolution to line managers will result in effective
collaboration between line managers and staff members. Cost reduction and operational efficiency can be
ensured. HR professional will have more time for strategic decision making.
Bibliography
Carbery, R., & Cross, C. (2013). Human Resource Management: A Concise Introduction. Red Globe Press.

Gollan, P. (2005). Should the HR function be devolved? Retrieved from Australian HR Institute:
http://www.hrmonline.com.au/section/opinion/should-the-hr-function-be-devolved/

John Purcell, N. K. (2003). Understanding the People and Performance Link: Unlocking the Black Box. London,
U. K.: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

Storey, J. (1992). Developments in the Management of Human Resources: An Analytical Review. Wiley-
Blackwell.

Ulrich, D. (1998). Human Resource Champions: The Next Agenda for Adding Value and Delivering Results.
Boston, MA, United States: Harvard Business Review Press.

Ulrich, D., & Brockbank, W. (2005). The HR Value Proposition. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press.