Background
Globalinx, ChapmanCG and GE Healthcare have partnered to offer an exclusive two-day professional development program for leading HR Business Partners in Tokyo and across Japan. This partnership has one mission in mind: to offer a Japan-based learning platform for HR Business Partners that will equip them with the necessary skills to compete on the global stage.

The emerging requirement for HR professionals in Japan is to act as true ‘Business Partners’ to the organization and to lead rather than follow. To meet this requirement, HRBPs need to act as consultants with their internal customers and work with them to build an organization that can win in the marketplace.

With this in mind, we ran our first Japan HRBP Development seminar, June 4/5 in Tokyo.

Participants

Fourteen participants from thirteen different organizations and industries helped to create an engaging learning environment and an energetic group dynamic. The participants openly shared their experiences and knowledge and learned new processes and methodologies that will help them to provide strategic HR solutions to complex organizational issues.

Program Contents – Day 1

• The role of a strategic HR Business Partner
• What business leaders expect from their HR Business Partners
• Competencies needed to be a successful HRBP
• Traditionalverses StrategicHR work
• The skills, knowledge and capabilities requiredto develop business acumen
• Understanding company performance through the vision, strategy, objectives and results
• Conducting a SWOTanalyses
• Linking the HR Strategy to Company Strategy

Team Exercises

Traditional vs Strategic HR

Team Exercises: SWOT

Team Exercises: Linking the HR Strategy to Company Strategy

Program Contents  – Day 2

• Conducting a full organizational analysis
• HR data analysis – understanding business issues through HR data
• HRBP interviews – interviewing internal customers to understand the needs of the business
• Developing HR interventions to address the uncovered needs
• Influencing the business
• Presenting HR solutions that meet the true needs of the business
• Personal development plan
• Creating a personal action plan to develop S-HRBP skills and competencies

Team Exercises: Organizational Capabilities

Final Report Presentations

Each team presented their organization development solutions based on their strategic analysis of the business and HR data provided. The quality and depth of each team’s solutions was very impressive and demonstrated a clear understanding of the methods and process learned over the two-days.

 

Looking Ahead

The event was made possible through the synergy of three organizations. The drive and inspiration for the program was provided by Rina Sakuraba (GE Healthcare); Neal Walters (ChapmanCG), reached out and gathered the right participants for this event; and the content for the program was designed and developed by Kevin Reynolds and facilitated by Kevin and Tomomi Kotani (GLOBALINX).

We are very pleased with the overall results and very encouraged by the participants feedback and comments. We are now planning our next open seminar where we hope to emulate the success of this first event.

Acknowledgments

We’d like to say “thank you very much” to all the participants for your hard work and active participation in our first Japan HRBP Professional Development Seminar. We’d also like to say a big thank you to GE Healthcare for supporting the program and to ChapmanCG for being our partner for this event!

 

Philip Deane and Kevin Reynolds

GLOBALINX CORP.

Message from Kevin:

“I’d like to say a personal ‘Thank you’ to everyone for coming to the program and for participating so enthusiastically. I was impressed by the team discussions and the group presentations. Well done! I hope to see you again on future workshops. In the meantime, if you ever need any help or advice on HR issues, do feel free to contact me at kr@globalinx.co/jp.”