People Partner (6 month FTC) (Ref: J11600) Contract

Your role will be to partner assigned Divisions and/or Professional Service leadership teams (portfolio areas) to shape, develop and deliver their people management imperatives and priorities, and work closely to drive a high-performance culture. The People Partner will support their portfolio areas to achieve their strategic objectives through the effective delivery of their People Strategies and the University People & Culture Strategy, enabling the development of more skilled, empowered, and motivated teams that are engaged to support the objectives.

The role holder will work collaboratively with colleagues across HR&OD to develop and implement best practice and deliver a high-quality HR service aligned to business requirements that drive up the standard of people management and, effectively delivers the People & Culture Strategy.

Role:

• Act as a trusted partner and adviser to the relevant portfolio’s leadership teams providing expert HR knowledge and insight to support effective strategic and operational decision making. Encouraging senior managers to take ownership of their people issues and develop their confidence and capability in people management. This will require the building of strong collaborative relationships with senior leaders and managers in order to become a credible and trusted partner.
• Responsible for the relationship between their portfolio area and HR&OD – working with colleagues within HR&OD to ensure the delivery of a holistic suite of HR services and to improve and streamline HR policies and processes.
• Help develop, oversee and implement divisional/directorate plans related to workforce planning, assisting managers to deliver desired outcomes through ensuring appropriate people resources, roles, structures, and succession plans are in place. This will include the commissioning of appropriate support/services from the HR&OD Centres of Expertise.
• Working closely with the HR MI team to build and enhance management information to support decision making and planning within their portfolio areas.
• Collaborate with T&OD in the development of management and staff and inputting into the adoption of talent management and talent acquisition initiatives, performance management and induction programmes).
• Deliver all people-related policy training to staff within portfolio area, collaborating with the HR Centres of Expertise to ensure consistency of delivery methods and message content.
• Collaborate with the Service Delivery teams to deliver the resourcing agenda delivering activities such as organisational design and workforce planning, specialist recruitment where necessary, the improving of hiring manager skills and confidence and overall candidate experience.
• Influence the addressing of people issues (including poor performance) in a timely manner and ensure that appropriate leadership behaviours and skills are evidenced.
• Advise and provide effective recommendations to managers about change management opportunities and organisational development issues such as appropriate structures, roles, skills, succession planning and job grading issues.
• Undertake project work and participate in working groups as required to deliver institutional objectives, as well as enabling appropriate change in HR policy or practice to take place.
• Maintain and develop own knowledge of employment law, HR best practice and other relevant knowledge bases to enhance professional capability.

Essential/Desirable Skills:

• CIPD Level 7/advanced qualification or equivalent and demonstrable relevant professional experience
• Degree, or equivalent (A)
• Recent experience of partnering with senior management teams in a similar role (HR Manager, HR Business Partner) gained in a large complex organisation with multiple stakeholders
• Extensive experience of providing generalist HR guidance and support to senior managers
• A thorough understanding of UK employment legislation with the ability to proactively research and interpret legal developments as necessary to ensure the provision of accurate, risk-mitigated advice and guidance to leaders and managers
• Experience in leading, supporting and implementing HR projects
• Experience of managing change, including restructurings, and influencing and enhancing organisational culture
• Ability to write clear and accurate English for a range of audiences, e.g. staff communications, management briefings, formal consultation papers, policy drafting, executive reports
• Excellent oral communication and presentation skills, with the ability to deal confidently with a range and volume of people at all levels
• Self-motivated, with an enthusiasm for continuous service improvement and personal development
• Understanding of the key HR issues within the HE sector desirable

Unfortunately, due to the high number of applications currently being received, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.