Who is an HR People Partner and why does an IT company need this specialist?
The position of HR People Partner is increasingly gaining momentum in the market, not only because it is a “trendy” IT word, but also because such specialists are valuable for the company. They help build healthy relationships between the company and employees, and act as mediators in business.
How can a People Partner be useful? The role of this specialist includes close interaction with people and making the maximum contribution to the business. People Partner works with burnout, engagement, retention, training, corporate culture development and other issues.
Sample case of HR People Partner work: At one of the regular 1:1 meetings, People Partner received the following information from the development team: a recently joined team member - Andrey - is an excellent specialist, but has poor communication skills, and the team is suffering; Andrey, accordingly, is not “happy” within the company either. The team manager is abroad and although he noticed some tension in the team, he is not sure how serious the problem is. The task of the People Partner is to communicate, identify critical problems, conduct an “investigation” and offer possible solutions to the manager, team and specialist without losing any of the parties.
The significance of the position lies in HEARING the person, and not just listening to his “pains” and problems associated with working in the company. The People Partner is not a psychologist or a “friend” to whom you can talk to about problems or difficulties. First of all, this is a business-oriented expert who uses coaching techniques, understands the details of cases, has troubleshooting skills and rational thinking, and has professional non-judgmental skills for making competent decisions with a “cold mind”. HR People Partner is a business partner involved in the company's processes. He/she implements the best practices, improves them and works with the changes, maintains the corporate culture and company standards. Such a specialist finds the most appropriate ways to solve difficulties and makes the company's employees happy.