Competencies

Business Partner Competencies

1. Demonstrated understanding of the organization’s mission, vision, and values, and the business plan for execution using these attributes as its foundation for meeting the organization’s service goals.
• Execute all actions based upon the purpose of the organization, including its statutory mandate, customer needs, products and/or services, and the measures used to assess the return on investment of its human and financial resources.
• Articulate the key relationships between human resource activities and the successful execution of the organization’s mission.
• Implement actions based upon the external and internal factors that impact the organization’s overall health and integrity.
2. Demonstrated ability to be innovative, creating and sustaining a positive environment that supports calculated risk-taking.
• Think “outside the box,” thereby creating and facilitating new approaches that are outside the context of current procedures as warranted by mission needs.
• Design and implement management techniques that are designed to encourage creativity and innovation.
• Create an environment where risk-taking is valued, encouraged, and rewarded.
• Research unique characteristics of client organizations to ensure that assistance and consultations are appropriate to the situations.
• Maintain a current awareness of differing cultures and provide services that are tailored to the requirements of the culture.
3. Demonstrated ability to apply organizational development principles.
• Commit to ongoing new knowledge acquisition in the fields of social science and human behavior strategies, as well as the application of these new strategies for the overall improvement of organizational performance.
• Promote lifelong learning within the organization and within the human resources function.
• Provide mentoring, coaching, and advice that supports creating opportunities for employee growth.
4. Demonstrated ability to link specific human resource initiatives to the greater organization’s mission and service deliverables.
• Practice mission-based business Human Resource decisions.
• Align current and future human resource roles within the organization, adapting team behaviors and approaches for the function that are consistent with partnership needs within the organization.

Change Agent Competencies

5. Demonstrated ability to design and implement change through the altering of systems and procedures.
• Assess the organizational need for change, the various levels of commitment to the change process, and what types of pre-work will need to be done.
• Design and execute all human resources-related change processes needed in a timely fashion and with full transparency to all stakeholders.
• Develop long-term change strategies in a cost efficient and effective manner such that there is no redundancy in effort of human capital or resources expended.
6. Demonstrated ability to use return on investment and information technology strategies in the practice of human resource management.
• Integrate current and emerging technologies that have potential to improve the efficiency and/or effectiveness of the human resources function within the organization.
• Develop proposals to implement updated HR-based technology within the organization in alignment with current business initiatives.
• Implement specific return on investment strategies to measure all recommended program and service options.
7. Demonstrated ability to effectively design, develop, and implement human resource and organizational processes for all customers, including in the context of organizational and/or political resistance.
• Recognize the creativity and potential benefits of change and create an infrastructure that supports change.
• Execute change at multiple levels in the context of organizational resistance and/or political barriers.
• Shoulder the outcomes of failed change processes and continue in the face of alternative directions that are deemed best for the organization.
8. Demonstrated ability to design and deliver marketing programs related to sourcing and selection of human capital.
• Persuade internal and external customers of the needs and beneficial outcomes of specific programs or actions.
• Develop all aspects of an issue and constructively apply influence to interested parties concerning the best course of action.
• Ensure that customers are aware of the importance of the human resources function.

Leader Competencies

9. Demonstrated understanding and ability to effectively utilize the current and potential contributions of a workforce that is maximized in terms of all aspects of diversity.
• Utilize marketing, sourcing, and selection philosophies that guarantee the most highly diverse workforce is available to the employer.
• Move diversity agendas forward that are both internal and external to the organization for the long-term integration of cultural norms within the organization.
10. Demonstrated practice of integrity and ongoing ethics-based leadership behavior in all circumstances, including those that may jeopardize the professional future of the human resources leader.
• Utilize trust building as a professional tool, gained through transparency of action and a servant leader attitude regarding his/her own role.
• Apply a highly sophisticated commitment to integrity and the needs of all customers as the primary concern in all matters.

Shared Competencies across Parallel Roles

Many of the 20 competencies in the IPMA-HR Model are shared across more than one role. The shared competencies and the aligned roles include:

11. Demonstrated understanding of business process and how to change to improve efficiency and effectiveness (Roles: Business Partner; Change Agent).
• Integrate the functional aspects of human resource management with the business goals of the organization, introducing change at appropriate times in order to partner to move the organization forward.
12. Demonstrated knowledge of Human Resource laws and policies (Roles: Business Partner; Change Agent; Leader, HR Expert).
• Apply technical knowledge in the areas of marketing, sourcing, selection, testing and assessment, classification and compensation, employee development, labor and employee relations, benefits and wellness administration, discipline/terminations/personnel board hearings, training, and organization development.
13. Demonstrated understanding of the public service environment (Roles: Business Partner; Change Agent).
• Use the technical aspects of political and legislative activities that routinely affect the organization and/or the field of human resource management to advance appropriate initiatives.
• Align all actions with both the intent and the letter of the law and regulations, ensuring consistent implementation with intended outcomes of legal and regulatory changes.
14. Demonstrated understanding of team behavior and ability to lead teams toward high performance (Roles: Business Partner; Change Agent; Leader).
• Apply comprehensive knowledge of team behavior to organizational goals and objectives.
• Select and use a variety of highly developed problem-solving techniques as appropriate to all involved parties.
15. Demonstrated ability to successfully communicate, verbally and in writing, including the use of persuasive public presentations on behalf of the human resources function (Roles: Business Partner; Change Agent; Leader).
• Express ideas and exchange information clearly and persuasively, both in writing and verbally.
• Use human resource return on investment strategies and specific business results to support all findings and recommendations with accurate and fact-based information.
• Communicate effectively with all levels of the organization, tying all programs and services to specific returns on investment of human capital and financial resources.
16. Demonstrated ability to assess and balance the competing values found within the organization (i.e., the greater mission and vision, various department values, values as demonstrated by executive and mid-management leadership; Roles: Change Agent; Leader).
• Balance and manage competing priorities and work assignments by continuously evaluating the needs of the organization’s mission in comparison with specific project assignments.
• Maintain in-depth contact with senior management to ensure a clear understanding of the organization’s mission and resulting priorities.
• Explain priorities and business rationale to key customers to ensure that they understand the reasons for decisions regarding work priorities.
17. Demonstrated ability to exercise the use of business systems skills, including the ability to think strategically and creatively (Roles: Business Partner; Change Agent).
• Use multiple sources of data and information to arrive at logical and best practice conclusions.
• Recognize the gaps in available data and suggest other ways to obtain the needed information.
18. Demonstrated ability to analyze all presenting issues, recognizing the needs of all stakeholders in terms of collaborative solutions (Roles: Business Partner; Change Agent; Leader).
• Practice active listening with all parties involved in every issue.
• Use methods of analysis to continually challenge best practices in public sector administration and the field of human resource management.
• Draw upon industry experts as resources in reaching final conclusions regarding specific matters of large-scale organizational impact.
19. Demonstrated ability to use negotiating skill sets, including consensus-building, coalition-building, and dispute resolution (Roles: Change Agent; Leader).
• Facilitate collaboration among individuals and groups by teaching and modeling consensus-building skills.
• Serve as an objective facilitator regardless of the issues, summarize opposing points of view, and move parties toward resolution.
• Incorporate all points of view and assist in reaching a consensual agreement as appropriate, judging the political capacity of the organization to sustain criticism and public scrutiny regarding all outcomes to support the political environment and the organization’s culture, work, and outcomes.
• Reconcile disagreements with organization executives and other officials through objective reasoning and presentation of the facts.
• Use differences of opinion to build alternative solutions to problems or concerns.
• Use professional judgment regarding the need to elevate issues to higher level officials when actions being taken are inconsistent with legal or policy requirements.
• Practice ethics-based courage on issues considered important to the well-being of the organization’s mission and/or reputation.
20. Demonstrated ability to build and sustain trust-based relationships, both individually and collectively over time (Roles: Change Agent; Business Partner).
• Determine the existing gaps between values and exhibited behavior within all levels of the organization.
• Design and facilitate trust-building activities for the organization.
• Link human resources work with the culture and strategic objectives of the organization (i.e., classification and compensation project work; union negotiations; discipline decisions; employee relations activities).