Strategic HR Business Partner-Director
Johnson Controls · Milwaukee-Wisconsin-United States of America, United States
About UsJohnson Controls, a global leader in thermal management, mission-critical building systems, energy efficiency, and decarbonization, helps customers use energy more productively, reduce carbon emissions, and operate with the precision and resilience required in rapidly expanding industries such as data centers, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, advanced manufacturing, and higher education.
For more than 140 years, Johnson Controls has delivered performance where it really matters. Backed by advanced technology, lifecycle services and an industry-leading field organization, we elevate customer performance, turn goals into real-world results and help move society forward.
Strategic HR Business Partner-Director
What You Will DoThe Strategic HR Business Partner, Director is accountable for improving business performance by translating workforce strategy into disciplined execution across a function, team cluster, or defined organizational area.
This leader ensures workforce plans, talent processes, and leadership actions are implemented with strong process discipline, reliable follow-through, and consistent alignment to business priorities. Operating within a product-based HR model, the HRBP is not a service provider. The role works with leaders to identify business and workforce needs, diagnose execution gaps, activate enterprise HR products, and ensure leaders own their people and workforce decisions.
Using structured, data-driven problem solving, the Director identifies gaps in:
- Workforce planning and organizational alignment
- Headcount actions and execution
- Talent process discipline
- Performance management
- Development actions
- Data quality and accuracy
- Leader ownership and follow-through
- Adoption of enterprise HR products and processes
These insights are used to activate enterprise HR products as standard solutions that improve consistency, reduce manual or local workarounds, and strengthen the quality of workforce and talent execution.
The Director reinforces leader ownership by ensuring managers and leaders execute workforce plans, performance management, development actions, and talent processes with discipline and accountability. The role also reinforces consistent application of performance and reward processes so standards are applied fairly and execution supports business priorities.
The Director coordinates HRBP, HR Operations, and partner-team activity supporting the business, ensuring strong data quality, consistent execution standards, completion discipline, and timely escalation of risks or gaps.
Success requires practical business judgment, strong process discipline, collaborative influence, and the ability to convert strategy into clear, reliable action.
The role translates the business's three primary sources of demand into workforce plans and disciplined execution:
- Annual operating plans and associated performance metrics
- Strategic initiatives and workforce plans
- Colleague experience
How You Will Do It: Our Winning BehaviorsAt Johnson Controls, how we deliver results matters. This leader will model and embed our Winning Behaviors throughout the organization.
Focus on What Matters- Go to Gemba with leaders to understand business and workforce realities firsthand.
- Use data and insight to diagnose root causes rather than symptoms.
- Prioritize the talent, workforce, and organizational issues that have the greatest impact on business performance.
- Activate enterprise HR products where they can create the greatest value.
- Maintain focus on workforce and talent priorities while ensuring transactional and policy work is routed appropriately.
Win as One Team- Collaborate across HR Product teams, Centers of Excellence, HR Operations, PMO, Workforce Analytics, HRBPs, and business leadership.
- Coordinate partner activity to deliver integrated and consistent solutions.
- Align leaders to enterprise standards while actively influencing and shaping solutions to ensure they meet business needs.
- Promote consistent execution, strong data quality, and shared accountability across the HR support model.
Own the Outcome- Take accountability for the quality and completion of workforce and talent execution.
- Reinforce leader ownership of people decisions, workforce plans, performance management, development actions, and talent processes.
- Translate strategy into execution through disciplined adoption of enterprise talent systems.
- Identify execution gaps, escalate risks when appropriate, and remove barriers to effective performance.
- Drive reliable follow-through on commitments and actions.
Improve Every Day- Seek truth through data, business results, and leader feedback.
- Use structured problem solving to identify root causes and execution gaps.
- Continuously improve process discipline, talent systems, workforce execution, leader capability, and organizational effectiveness.
- Reduce unnecessary variability and workarounds.
- Approach improvement with urgency, curiosity, and humility.
How You Will LeadAs Strategic HR Business Partner, Director, you will serve as:
Workforce Execution Translator- Translate business priorities into actionable workforce plans, talent actions, and clear execution steps.
- Align organizational structure, capability, resources, and talent actions with business demand.
- Connect strategic workforce priorities to practical actions that leaders can execute and measure.
- Ensure plans move from discussion to reliable completion.
Process and Execution Problem Solver- Use workforce data and structured thinking to identify execution gaps.
- Diagnose issues in workforce planning, talent processes, data quality, and completion discipline.
- Resolve execution issues through consistent application of standard processes and HR operating-model expectations.
- Identify recurring issues and address root causes rather than relying on workarounds.
Product Activation Partner- Apply enterprise HR products as standard tools for solving talent and workforce challenges.
- Drive consistent adoption and application of enterprise solutions.
- Reinforce process discipline through effective product usage.
- Reduce manual and inconsistent approaches while improving the quality of talent and workforce decisions.
Leader Capability Enabler- Support leaders in building greater ownership of workforce planning, performance management, development actions, and talent processes.
- Coach and reinforce expectations for consistent execution and follow-through.
- Help leaders strengthen capability and increase self-sufficiency in managing workforce and talent decisions.
Process Discipline Driver- Ensure consistency and reliability in the execution of talent processes, workforce actions, and performance management.
- Reduce unnecessary variability across teams and leaders.
- Reinforce common standards and expectations.
- Improve completion discipline, data quality, and overall execution outcomes.
Data-Informed Execution Operator- Use workforce data to improve decision quality and prioritize actions.
- Track progress and completion of workforce and talent actions.
- Identify gaps, risks, and inconsistencies through data and analysis.
- Apply insights to strengthen the consistency and quality of workforce and talent execution.
What You Will AccomplishTalent and Leadership Outcomes- Support improvements in leadership effectiveness and talent quality.
- Drive disciplined execution of talent processes, development actions, and performance management.
- Improve consistency and follow-through on talent actions.
- Strengthen the connection between talent processes and business priorities.
Organizational Effectiveness and Workforce Planning- Translate workforce plans into actionable execution.
- Ensure roles, headcount decisions, workforce actions, and talent priorities align with business needs.
- Drive disciplined completion of workforce actions.
- Support stronger organizational alignment, role clarity, and workforce effective