Business Partnering: Be a Partner, Not a Service Desk [EN]

This course contains the use of artificial intelligence.

The difference between a business partner and a service desk is not the job title. It is whether people arrive with a task or with a problem.

How a function ends up as a service desk

Nobody decides it. It happens because every request gets accepted, so requests are what you get. You are competent, you are responsive, and you are told about decisions after they are made — because you have trained everyone that you are the person who executes, not the person who is consulted. I spent two years being extremely useful in exactly that way and could not understand why I was never in the planning meeting.

What this course actually covers

Five blocks, each one a piece of what changes that. First, the substance of the role — ten lessons on what partnering actually consists of: workforce planning, one-to-ones that surface a problem before it becomes a resignation, engagement, burnout, coaching, development plans, exit interviews and difficult people. Second, persuasion, because a partner cannot instruct anyone: the funnel, objections, and getting to a decision. Third, delivery — ten lessons of project management, because trust is built on things you promised and finished, not on good meetings. Fourth, treating an internal stakeholder as a client: auditing how your function is experienced, service standards, metrics, escalation and difficult situations. Fifth, communication, so the message survives being retold by someone else.

A note on the first block

Those ten lessons are recorded from the people-partner seat, because that is the most fully developed version of this role and the one with the clearest practice behind it. The mechanics are the same in any function. A finance partner, an IT partner and a people partner all begin the same way: by stopping waiting for the request, and by learning enough about the business unit to have an opinion worth interrupting for.

Who is teaching this

I am Mike Pritula. I built the people system at Preply as it became a unicorn, working as a partner to every function in it, and I have worked at Wargaming, iDeals and Alfa-Bank. More than 1.6 million students have enrolled in my courses across 185 countries, and over 150,000 specialists have gone through my programmes. I hold PHRi and SHRM-CP certifications and represent HRCI in more than ten countries.

What is included

• Lifetime access to all 40 lessons

• Active instructor support in the Q&A section

• A Udemy Certificate of Completion

• Working material: the one-to-one structure, Gallup Q12, the development plan, AIDA, SPIN, FAB, BANT, the project charter and stakeholder map, service standards and the metric set

• Practical work aimed at the business unit you actually support

Where to start

Look at the last ten things your function was asked for and mark which arrived as a task and which as a problem. That ratio is your current position, and it is the only number this course is trying to change. Enrol now and start today.