RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HR COMPETENCIES AND THE EFFECTIVENESS OF HR BUSINESS PARTNERING IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR

Abstract

This research study the relationship between Human Resources (HR) competencies developed by David Ulrich in the year 2016 with the effectiveness of HR business partnering on the areas of recruitment, training and employee relations/retention in the public sector of Negeri Sembilan (NS), one of the major states in Malaysia which consists of around 482 thousand of private sector workforce.

This research investigates the association and the strength of the relationship between HR competencies and the effectiveness of HR business partnering from the perception of HR practitioners and non-HR employees. A quantitative survey was conducted through an online survey to gather data for the correlation testing between independent variables and the dependent variables, and to identify the key ranking of HR competencies in achieving business goals.

The results indicated that the perceptions of the NS private sector HR & Non-HR employees agreed that the nine HR competencies by David Ulrich’s have a positive relationship with HR business partner effectiveness in five areas namely improve the satisfaction of applicant, enhance trainee’s positive behavior change, improve the satisfaction of the trainee, improve in employee engagement and improve the satisfaction of the employee. The results also indicated that all competencies under Delivery Enabler namely, Technology & Media Integrator, Analytics Designer & Interpreter, and Compliance Manager are the most important HR competencies in achieving business goals. Emphasis shall be given while building HR business partner capabilities.

The findings helped this research to establish few recommendations for NS’s private sector organizations in developing competent HR force through prioritization of HR core competencies, the establishment of competencies framework, and implementation of such model on core HR initiatives.