Clearly define the responsibilities of HR and Managers

The roles and responsibilities of managers change dramatically in the HR Business Partnering Model. The top management is lucky as they receive the support they wanted; they like to have a partner for discussions. The middle management is a different story and to make it success is extremely difficult. The middle layer of the organization is extremely important, but it accepts the changes extremely hardly and it stays resisting for a long time.

The middle managers are important for their top manager, but they are not important enough to receive the same service as the top manager from Human Resources. With the HR Business Partnering concept introduction, the service level for them can decrease, as they are not in the primary focus of Human Resources.

The HR has to be clear in the communication towards top managers about the changes affecting their middle management. As the top manager can expect the increase of the service level provided to him and to keep the services for the middle managers. But they can be affected. The top manager should know about the changes and what it will ask from his own staff. When there is no change in the number of FTEs in Human Resources then adding and decreasing have to be in balance.

The middle managers have to define their role and responsibilities in HR Processes again and HR Business Partner should help them. They cannot be left alone and HR has to allocate a fair proportion of time for their own HR issues as they make the public opinion about the HR services.