Bridging Borders

Human Resources—or People & Culture—has never been more complex, or more vital to business success. As organisations expand globally, CHROs must balance the need for consistency with the realities of regional and market variation. Should they implement a standardised global HR model, or allow localised adaptations? Some companies adopt a "One HR" approach, ensuring alignment across all markets, while others distinguish between home-country and international operations.

There is no single "right" operating model. HR structures reflect an organisation’s strategic priorities, unique industry and cultural dynamics, technological maturity and regulatory environment. Businesses must navigate unique local complexities from Europe’s structured employment frameworks to North America’s agile, innovation-driven HR practices and Asia’s dynamic, high-growth landscapes while maintaining global cohesion.

At ChapmanCG, we work with CHROs and HR leadership teams worldwide, which gives us an expert vantage point for emerging trends and best practices. Building on this perspective, we explore the challenges of balancing global and local HR demands and highlight key trends shaping the future of HR strategy.

The HR Business Partner Model: Strategic Alignment vs. Reality

More than 25 years after Dave Ulrich introduced the HR Business Partner (HRBP) model, its influence remains undeniable. It has become the foundation for many dominant HR structures, particularly in Western multinational firms, shifting HR’s role from an administrative function to a strategic driver of business value. Organisations implementing this model leverage HR as a business enabler rather than a back-office function.

However, the reality of implementation varies significantly across regions. When the term “Business Partner” first gained popularity, many organisations adopted the title without fully embracing the underlying philosophy. While job titles changed, core responsibilities often remained transactional, with minimal strategic involvement. As a result, when evaluating HR talent or organisational needs, it is critical to assess actual job content, deliverables, and outcomes rather than relying solely on titles.

Global vs. Local Challenges in Implementation

One of the biggest obstacles to fully realising the HRBP model is the disconnect between global strategy and local execution. Due to regulatory, cultural, and operational barriers, country-level HR leaders frequently struggle to implement headquarters (HQ) directives.

For example, labour laws vary dramatically across countries, making workforce restructuring—one of HR’s strategic levers—far more complex outside the United States. Many countries have stringent employment protections that make restructuring difficult, time-consuming, and costly. Beyond financial considerations, mass layoffs in tightly regulated markets can damage employer branding and long-term workforce engagement.

A well-intended global strategy that fails to account for local legal and cultural realities is unlikely to succeed. HR leaders must balance global consistency with local flexibility—understanding what must be done and how it can be effectively executed within a given market.

Organisational Misalignment: HRBP vs. Business Leadership Expectations

Misalignment between global HR expectations and local business leadership priorities is a recurring challenge. When selecting Country HR Heads or HRBPs, key stakeholders typically include regional or global CHROs and local general managers (GMs).

• Conversations with CHROs focus on absolute alignment with strategic business objectives, future of work, leadership and skills, and the transformation of the HR function itself.
• In contrast, local GMs, especially in countries or cultures where leaders may not have previously experienced the benefits of having partnered with a strong HR business partner, often prioritise the delivery of transactional HR services, workforce administration, and immediate problem-solving.

This disconnect can create frustration for newly appointed HRBPs, who expect to work on high-level strategic initiatives but find themselves mired in operational tasks. The gap is particularly pronounced in countries where the HRBP model is relatively new or where traditional hierarchical leadership structures remain dominant. In such environments, HR is often perceived as a support function rather than a business driver, and the local business leadership may not have previously experienced the values of strategic HR Business Partnering.

To bridge this gap, organisations must ensure consistent messaging about the HRBP role’s true mandate and educate local business leaders on its strategic value, across all levels and geographies within the organisation. However, this is easier said than done. Common barriers include:

• Time constraints: Business leaders are focused on immediate operational demands.
• Language and cultural differences: Misinterpretations of HR’s role and expectations.
• Geographical distance: Regional HR teams may lack direct insight into local challenges.
• Lack of local HR infrastructure: In some cases, global or regional Centres of Expertise (COEs) fail to provide country-specific support.

Global Market Insights: Diverging HR Practices

National labour laws, corporate governance structures, and cultural expectations shape HR strategies. Although increasingly HR models are becoming more streamlined, a one-size-fits-all approach to HRBP adoption is impractical, making local adaptation critical. For example:

• Japan’s HR landscape has undergone significant transformation with traditional practices such as lifetime employment and seniority-based promotions gradually giving way to more performance-driven, strategic approaches. However, administrative HR functions remain deeply entrenched, and while adoption of the HR Business Partner (HRBP) model is accelerating, implementation challenges persist.
  Bilingual HRBPs with experience operating in and navigating complex global matrix organisations are in high demand but remain scarce. Japan’s low English proficiency (ranking 92nd globally) and relatively slow digital adoption—despite its high-tech reputation—further hinder integration. Many companies still rely on domestic HR systems rather than global HRIS platforms, creating operational silos and limiting standardisation across multinational organisations.
  Strict labour laws further complicate workforce restructuring and organisational transformation. Unlike in the U.S., where the “at-will” employment system allows for greater flexibility, Japanese labour regulations impose significant constraints on layoffs, making agility in workforce planning more challenging.
• Germany has integrated Ulrich’s corporate-level model, yet mid-sized companies often retain generalist HR structures constrained by complex labour laws and collective bargaining agreements.
• India, in contrast, has seen rapid HRBP evolution, particularly in multinational firms and high-growth industries, with increasing specialisation in employee experience, leadership development, and workforce planning.
• The United Kingdom balances a strong regulatory framework with a mature HRBP model. While strategic HR is well established in large multinationals, mid-sized firms often maintain a mix of generalist HR roles and specialist functions, influenced by the country’s robust employee relations environment and evolving workplace legislation.
• The United States remains highly decentralised, with HR structures varying significantly across industries. The prevalence of “at-will” employment allows for greater workforce flexibility but also strongly emphasises talent attraction, retention, and employee experience as key HR priorities. HRBPs in the US are often embedded deeply within business units, operating with a strong commercial focus.

The HRBP Role: Aligning Global Expectations, Local Realities

Another factor contributing to the misalignment between HR strategy and execution is how HRBP roles are defined and recruited.

When Talent Acquisition is centrally managed from global HQ, the creation of standardised job descriptions can become problematic. Too often, job descriptions are approved at a global level without sufficient input from local teams. As a result, the responsibilities outlined in the job description may not align with the actual demands of the role at a country level.
This issue is further compounded when offshore HR services teams—intended to support HRBPs—lack local language skills or regulatory knowledge. In theory, these shared service centres should free up HRBPs to focus on strategic initiatives. In practice, however, many HRBPs still find themselves handling operational tasks, diverting their attention from their intended strategic function.

The lack of proper support structures and misaligned expectations can lead to high turnover in HRBP roles, as professionals become frustrated with the gap between what they were hired to do and what they actually end up doing.

Key Challenges & Takeaways for Global HR Leaders

The disconnect between HR strategy and execution persists, often due to misaligned expectations, infrastructure gaps, and cultural resistance. Key factors to consider include:

1. Strategic HR Requires More Than a Job Title – The HRBP role is often misinterpreted as a rebranded HR generalist. True strategic impact demands organisational buy-in, leadership alignment, and infrastructure support.
2. Regulatory Frameworks Can Shape or Limit HR Strategies – Workforce flexibility varies greatly between markets (e.g., Japan’s restrictions on layoffs vs. India’s HR agility), requiring localised HR adaptation.
3. HR Technology & Shared Services Are Reshaping Operations – Automation and HR outsourcing are reducing administrative workloads, yet insufficient local expertise often leaves HRBPs burdened with transactional work.
4. Cultural Readiness Dictates HRBP Adoption – Traditional hierarchical leadership styles (e.g., Japan, Germany) often impede strategic HR integration, requiring strong internal advocacy and change management.
5. Bilingual & Cross-Cultural HR Expertise is in High Demand – HR leaders who can navigate global best practices while respecting local nuances are increasingly critical to success, especially in highly regulated and culturally distinct markets.

Final Thought: The Future of HR Models

While HR models continue to evolve, the success of HRBPs and strategic HR functions will depend on how well they are contextualised, resourced, and championed within each organisation. As companies expand globally and embrace digital transformation, HR must balance global consistency with local adaptability—ensuring that people strategies align with both business objectives and market realities.