Senior People Business Partner

About the opportunity

After a challenging year of change and resizing, we need additional support in our People team to ensure that our initiatives land well within our teams – and so our leaders have the tools and techniques to focus on their teams’ performance.

Reporting to the VP People, your primary role will be to act as a People Business Partner in an HR generalist role supporting our Operations Teams. You’ll be supporting our Operations including Claims and Customer Services, Vetbox and Pet Health Relationships and Business Services. The teams are around 220 people and we’ll look to you to deliver people plans and solutions that empower our leaders to manage their teams effectively.

You’ll work closely with our VP of People, the other BP and your stakeholder group; you’ll deliver effective employee engagement and people and ensure our approach to engagement, processes and policies are embedded within the teams you support.

You’ll provide pragmatic advice to colleagues that enables us to deliver on our business targets and objectives. Through effective collaboration and influence, you’ll enable our teams to deliver their priorities through effective People planning.

We’ve changed a lot as a business over the last two years, however our approach to how we treat our people has always been fair and transparent – and guided by our values. As a regulated business, we also understand the importance of our customers and own people too: treating people fairly and making sure they have good outcomes when interacting with our team.

Your focus

Employee relations and performance

• Support managers in delivering the performance management framework and performance improvement processes.
• Support, develop, and coach our managers in their approach to people issues, ensuring that they understand the impact on the individual and the business, implementing formal action as required.
• Working with stakeholders to resolve conflicts and help facilitate positive employee relations, maintaining a good working environment, morale, and regrettable turnover.
• Manage complex employee relations cases for disciplinaries, grievances and absences.
• Set up and lead senior stakeholder exit interviews, giving sufficient time to escalate anything that arises that may warrant further investigation by the VP People.
• Ensure our approach to inclusion and employee wellbeing principles are considered within each part of the employee journey.
• Developing a proactive approach to understanding wellbeing risks (including mental health) across your stakeholder group, partnering with the People Director on remedial action.

Team design and talent acquisition

• Support with hands-on recruitment and candidate selection for your stakeholder groups when needed.
• Train and mentor new hiring managers in recruitment best practice.
• Champion internal mobility and career progression opportunities.
• Partner with your stakeholders to deliver internal levelling, career frameworks, payreviews and succession plans.
• Support our managers and department leaders with OD requirements, making suggestions for improvements.

Employee engagement and team projects

• Embed People initiatives and projects that will improve business performance, ensuring alignment with our strategic goals and values.
• Partner closely with our managers to ensure any change is understood and actioned.
• Implement change initiatives including redeployment and changes to ways of working, ensuring risks are mitigated.
• Develop clear and effective processes and templates which guide others through change.
• Work with People team on timely communication plans for upcoming changes.
• Support our managers and teams with understanding engagement results, formulating ideas in partnership that increase results and future engagement.
• Lead on engagement plans that re-engage your stakeholders after any period of change.

Data and reward

• Draw insight from our people metrics and HRIS to inform and advise your stakeholders.
• Use data-driven insights to improve strategies and processes.
• Ensure all data and reward processes are updated and managed closely, including accurate data entry.
• Ensure GDPR, Data Protection, and compliance with relevant policies and procedures.

What leads to success

Here are some of the individual skills we know will enable you to succeed in this position. If you don’t tick every box - don't worry. We can support you in both your personal and professional development:

• You bring high accuracy, quality, and attention to detail everything you do.
• You can balance a drive for delivery with emotional depth needed to deliver results through our values.
• You take the initiative without too much support. You're accountable for delivery in an environment that is ever changing - and where you set your own outcomes.
• You value diversity and are sensitive to different lived experiences, environments, and cultures.
• You're the sort of person who is analytical and who enjoys translating People data into insights that everyone can understand.
• You’ll have a keen sense of honesty and fairness which drives your decision making.
• You share the load with others – contributing and bringing energy to projects and workstreams.

What we’re looking for

• You’re a People or HR Business Partner – ideally, you’ll have also been in recruitment before moving into a generalist HR role.
• You’ve partnered leaders and managers through periods of change and transformation.
• You have a commercial approach to people management and you’ve a proven track record executing and embedding performance strategies.
• You have a good understanding of UK employment law and best practice.
• You’re adept with Microsoft Office and HRIS systems (we use Bob here) and you’re confident with Excel analysing data to draw insight.
• A CIPD qualification (or equivalent experience) is preferred.
• Ideally, you’ll have experience of working in a regulated industry and understand how to balance innovation with regulatory guidelines. (Including SM&CR.)