HRBP (HR Business Partner)

Also known as: HR Business Partner, People Partner, People Business Partner, Senior HRBP, Strategic HR Business Partner.

What does an HRBP do?

An HRBP is an HR specialist assigned to a specific department, product or function who helps its leaders solve business problems through decisions about people. They know their area's plans, its people and its team problems, and translate the company's overall HR strategy into the language of one part of the business. Typical tasks:

• plans headcount and team structure together with the area's leaders;
• prepares and runs performance review, promotion and pay review cycles in their area;
• handles conflicts, weak management and dismissals;
• tracks attrition and engagement and sees early where a team may fall apart.

When does a company need an HRBP?

A company usually needs an HRBP when it has grown into several large business areas and a single HR team can no longer keep up with the problems of each. Common signals: engineering, sales and operations have different people problems, leaders come to HR only with urgent issues, and each area decides on promotions and dismissals by its own rules. The first HRBP is most often assigned to the largest or most troubled department. The role will not work if the company has no HRD and no overall HR strategy: the HRBP will have nothing to translate into business terms and will have to build the system from scratch, which is a job for an HRD.

HRBP vs HRD: what's the difference?

An HRBP works with one part of the business, while an HRD owns the HR strategy of the whole company. The HRD decides how performance reviews, compensation and culture work overall and manages the HR team; the HRBP applies those rules in their area and brings the HRD signals about what is happening there. At small companies the HRD often combines both roles. An HR Generalist differs in focus: a Generalist handles operational HR tasks for everyone, while an HRBP works with the leaders of their area at the level of their business problems.

HRBP vs related roles: comparison

Why is it hard to hire an HRBP?

An HRBP is hard to hire because companies use the title for people of very different levels, and a strong HRBP has to understand the business of their area as well as its leaders do.

• The HRBP title is often given to an operational HR specialist, so experience under the same title can be impossible to compare across CVs.
• The role needs a rare combination: understanding how engineers or sales teams work, while confidently talking to leaders about weak performers and dismissals.
• The results of the work barely show in a CV: "supported the review cycle" does not say what changed in the team.
• Strong HRBPs are usually valued by their leaders and rarely leave, most often when they hit a ceiling with no path to HRD.

What to decide before hiring an HRBP?

• Which business area will the HRBP cover, and how many people are in it? An HRBP for an engineering team and an HRBP for sales are different candidates with different experience.
• Who makes decisions about people: the HRBP, the area's leader or the HRD? Without clear authority the HRBP turns into someone who just executes leaders' requests.
• Is there an HR strategy and a review system, or do they need to be built? If there is no system, you need a candidate who has created one, not only applied it.
• Who will handle operational tasks? If HR administration and hiring also fall on the HRBP, there will be no time left for strategic work.

Where to find an HRBP?

HRBPs most often come from product and tech companies where the HR function is already split into partners and centres of expertise: large tech companies, international product companies and fintech. They are HRBPs who supported engineering or product teams, and strong HR Generalists who have grown into working with leaders. A strong profile signal is a specific change in a team that the person led together with its leader, and experience with one business area during its growth or reorganisation. NEWHR knows this market from the inside: we are recruiters ourselves and run a professional community for HR and recruiters.

How to assess an HRBP in an interview?

An HRBP is assessed through a case based on a real situation in your business area and a meeting with the leader they will be assigned to. In the case the candidate works through, for example, rising attrition in a team or a weak Team Lead: what data they would look at, whom they would talk to, what they would propose. On the company side, the HRD and the area's leader take part.

Strong signals:

• starts with questions about the area's business, not with HR tools;
• describes a case where they disagreed with a leader and how it ended;
• relies on data: attrition, review results, engagement.

Red flags:

• describes the work as fulfilling leaders' requests;
• does not know what problems the business they supported was facing;
• offers training as the solution to any problem.

How long does it take to hire an HRBP?

We present the first candidates for the HRBP role within 5–7 days of the brief.

Related roles

• HRD — owns the HR strategy of the whole company, and the HRBP usually reports to the HRD.
• Head of Recruitment — owns hiring only; the HRBP brings them their area's hiring needs.
• IT Recruiter — fills vacancies, while the HRBP helps leaders work out whom to hire and why.