HR Activity Owners Assignment Guide

CEB Corporate Leadership Council

© 2015 CEB. All rights reserved

Introduction
What it does:
This guide enables HRBP managers to understand common HR resource allocation practices and evaluate the
appropriate division of responsibilities for their own HRBP teams.

How to Use it:

Use this guide to understand how some organizations are structuring the HRBP role within the context of their HR
functions, and identify the set of responsibilities that is most appropriate for your HRBP team.

Instructions for HR:

Use this guide to:

• Slides 3-6: Review common performance expectations and responsibilities managed by HRBPs, and
identify the responsibilities that are most critical for your HRBP team to execute given organizational goals.
• Slide 7-9: Identify challenges your HRBPs may face when negotiating responsibilities with other HR
stakeholder groups, and diagnose opportunities for improvement across those relationships.
• Slide 10: Use this questionnaire to guide your decision-making on appropriate activity owners within your
organization’s HR function.

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© 2015 CEB. All rights reserved
The HRBP Job Consists of Four Roles
Greatest Impact on Talent Outcomes

All activities HRBPs Strategic Partner Operations Manager

engage in when
supporting the line can
be grouped into the four
roles.
• The activities within the
strategic partner HRBP role
have the greatest impact on
talent outcomes.
■ Developing the next generation of leaders
■ Redesigning organizational structure based on strategic
objectives
■ Understanding how HRBPs can support the business
■ Understanding the talent needs of the business
■ Adjusting HR strategies to respond to changing business
needs
■ Prioritizing HR needs
■ Identifying talent issues before they impact the business
■ Communicating organizational culture to
employees
■ Assessing employee attitudes
■ Tracking trends in employee behaviors
■ Designing HR programs to support
organizational culture
■ Communicating policies and procedures to
employees
■ Keeping the line updated on HR initiatives

■ Identifying new business strategies

■ Identifying critical HR metrics

■ Creating a vision for talent strategy in the business unit

■ Assessing the HR implications of strategic options

■ Representing the business unit’s talent interests within

the organization

Emergency Responder Employee Mediator

■ Managing competing personalities in the organization
■ Quickly responding to line manager questions
■ Managing conflict between employees
■ Quickly responding to complaints
■ Managing conflict between managers
■ Responding to manager needs
■ Responding to organizational changes
■ Responding to employee needs
■ Resolving political problems in the execution of
■ Preparing for different situations
business plans
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© 2015 CEB. All rights reserved
Source: CEB 2013 HR Business Partner Survey.
Twelve Competencies Distinguish the Best HRBPs

HR Business Partners CEB’s HRBP Competency Model

that effectively support
the line possess several
unique competencies for
Emergency Strategic
each of the four roles. Partner
Responder
DATA JUDGMENT
• Each competency is
connected with one or more of Unique Competency Unique Competency
the roles of the HRBP. Some Problem Solving Leveraging Networks
competencies are unique to
the role, while others are TALENT
BUSINESS
shared across two roles. MANAGEMENT
ACUMEN
Shared Competencies ACUMEN Shared Competencies
Proactivity Leadership
• Business, talent management, Continuous Learning Innovation
and organizational acumen
are partnered with data ORGANIZATION
judgment at the center of the ACUMEN
model because of their critical Operations Employee
importance. Manager Mediator

Unique Competency Unique Competency

• For more information on this Conflict Resolution
Matrix Management
competency model, see the
Competency Model Presentati
on for HR Business Partners
.

HRBPs supporting the business in a complex work environment must apply their competencies to
effectively manages ongoing change and enables agility. All critical competencies across the four
roles play a part in supporting the changing organizational environment.

Source: CEB analysis.

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© 2015 CEB. All rights reserved
HRBPs Apply These Competencies Across Many HR Activities

Talent management Percentage of HRBPs Indicating Which Group(s) Are Primarily Responsible for
activities are often Each Activity
shared between HRBPs
and other stakeholders.
• The top five most common
HR activities primarily owned
by HRBPs include: employee
engagement, performance
management, employee
relations, organizational
culture, and change
management.

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© 2015 CEB. All rights reserved
Tool: Identifying Current HRBP Responsibilities

Outline the major groups Evaluating Current HRBP Responsibilities

of responsibilities and/or
activities currently held Major Groups of HRBP Responsibilities Importance of Time Spend Team’s
Activity Performance
by your HRBP team.
1. Succession Management:
• Given line feedback and your • Managing business unit’s annual talent review
own perception, consider the 2. Ongoing Business Support
value, scope, and success of • Ad hoc business leader requests
each group of responsibilities
to inform the division of 3.
strategic HR support labor
across the HR function.
4.

• Think about the implications

the above information has on 5.
how HRBP team resources
are allocated, as well as how 6.
performance expectations are
set with the HRBP team.
7.

Implications for HRBP Managers

1. Does this list of responsibilities (and the proportional time spend) align to your list and ideal
proportions? Are there any problematic areas of misalignment?
2. What reasons would you hypothesize for any discrepancies? Are they primarily driven by the
capabilities and/or expectations of your team, or the demands of their line clients?

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© 2015 CEB. All rights reserved
HRBP Responsibilities Can Be Clouded By Other HR Groups

The vast majority of HR HR Function Departmentalization, According to HR Leaders

functions have HRBPs,
HR Specialists, and
Shared Services.

• Given the prevalence of each

HR functional group, HRBP
coordination across each will
be critical to their
effectiveness.

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© 2015 CEB. All rights reserved
Tensions Between HR Groups Complicate HR Delivery

Each HR functional Roles in Typical HR Function Each Have Unique Perspectives and Goals
group has unique
interests and objectives
that can be at odds with
others within HR.

• For example, HR Business

Partners are most familiar
with line talent needs, and,
given this, often look to
customize centrally
developed talent solutions
for their individual business
units. This activity, however,
is often at odds with HR
Centers of Excellence,
which are responsible for
developing and widely
deploying standardized
talent solutions.

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© 2015 CEB. All rights reserved
Tool: Evaluating HR Coordination

Evaluate the current Assessment of HRBP Coordination and Intra-HR Partnerships

effectiveness of HRBPs’
HR Stakeholder How Can this Partnership
current partnerships and Relationship
What Works? What Doesn’t Work?
Be Improved?
relationships within the   
HR function.   
  
• These partnerships span HRBP-HR   
shared services, centers of Shared Services
excellence, local and/or
corporate HR groups, and
other HR specialty groups.
  
  
• Modify this list of HR   
stakeholder relationships as HRBP-Centers   
of Excellence
needed given your HR
functional structure.

  
  
  
  
HRBP-Local HR

  
  
HRBP-Other   
  
HR Specialty
Groups

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© 2015 CEB. All rights reserved
Tool: Quick HR Activity Owner Check
Instructions
This short questionnaire is designed to help you determine the appropriate owners within HR for ongoing talent activities and projects. By
thinking about them and your answers as an HRBP manager before sitting down with the other leaders of your organization’s respective HR
functional groups, you will be able to advocate for an effective division of labor based on your organization’s capabilities, needs, and goals.

HRBP Responsibilities

1. What set of competencies do our HRBPs need? Do we weight any of those particular competencies more heavily than others?
2. What are the biggest strengths of our current HRBP team? What are the current opportunities for development across the HRBP team?
3. How well are our HRBPs currently able to balance recurring HR activities and dedicated project work for their business units?
4. What is the current division of tactical and strategic work being performed by our HRBPs?
5. Has line and/or HR feedback suggested that HRBPs should own more or less of particular groups of responsibilities?
6. Do HRBPs have preferences about the day-to-day work they’re taking on?
7. Do our HRBP team development goals warrant working on more groups of work than others?
8. What type of HRBP support are line managers prioritizing? Does this align with the HR support we’d like HRBPs to provide?
HR Coordination

1. How well do our HRBPs understand their own performance expectations relative to the expectations of their HR colleagues?
2. To what extent do our HRBPs negotiate work hand-offs and transitions effectively on-the-job?
3. How well does line feedback currently suggest that they are receiving coordinated, integrated HR support?
4. How well do we believe our HRBPs can currently managing these tensions within HR? Does our answer change when thinking about how
HRBPs are working with global and/or local HR stakeholders across their daily responsibilities?
5. Can we identify any upcoming organizational changes that will require greater and perhaps different in-kind coordination across HR to
meet organizational goals? To what extent have we successfully managed similar changes in the past?

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© 2015 CEB. All rights reserved