ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Human resources (HR) from the viewpoint of the business and draws conclusions from the line managers perspective on why some HR BP initiatives succeed while many fail. From a business point of view, the effective HR BP should be a core member of the management team, involved as much with the formulation and delivery of business strategy as the finance, operations or marketing person. The HR BP must have the time to dedicate to working with their business unit and this cannot be achieved unless their administration load is reduced through a reorganization of the whole HR department. Serious consideration needs to be given to reviewing options for centralizing and streamlining transactional support in a Shared Service and creating Centres of Excellence that ensure specialist knowledge and support is available when needed. This approach is now commonly referred to as HR transformation.
