When PM first came into prominence in Britain it was born from an almost paternalistic need to look after the workers on production lines. Welfare officers were put into place to assist employees often driven by religion such as Quakerism and non-conformism. Throughout the years the role has changed and adapted from administrational, to include negotiation originally through trade unions and suchlike in the 1960s, then into including the need for legal expertise when employment laws came in. Coming into more recent years organisational development has become an important role and nowadays all these roles are pulled together under the banner of ‘business partner’