Head of HR Partnering

Job title: Head of HR Partnering
Ref: 39501
Division: People
Location: Hybrid - Walnut Court - SN2 8BN
Contract type: Permanent
Full/Part-time: Full-time
Hours: 36 hours
Salary: Offering a salary from £75,000 to £85,000 per annum, plus car allowance, bonus, and other benefits.
Job grade: C
Closing date: 13/01/2025

As the Head of HR Partnering, you will provide strategic advice and coaching to the Leadership Team, helping them shape the future of Thames Water. You will oversee key HR projects that align business strategy with people strategies, including resourcing, employee engagement, talent development, and organisational design.

You'll take the lead in supporting leaders to foster an agile and high-performing workforce, ensuring the company is structured and positioned to achieve its strategic goals. The role involves building a deep understanding of business drivers and transforming them into actionable people strategies that support organisational goals, enhance performance, and enable employees to thrive.

What you’ll be doing as a Head of HR Partnering

• Leadership & Coaching: Act as a trusted advisor to senior leaders, coaching and challenging them to assess and improve team capability, fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
• Strategic Organisational Design: Lead the design and execution of organisational changes, aligning structure and talent to deliver strategic business outcomes.
• Talent Management & Development: Ensure business leaders are engaged in talent identification, succession planning, and advocacy of key talent programs.
• Data-Driven Insights: Use HR and business data to inform decision-making, identifying opportunities for improvement and aligning workforce planning with business needs.
• Employee Engagement: Advocate and deploy engagement strategies, aligning people practices with business objectives to drive positive outcomes.
• Change Management: Lead and support the implementation of people-related programs that drive business performance, ensuring organisational development activities are embedded and sustainable.
• Collaboration & Relationship Building: Build strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders to drive best practices and strategic workforce planning.
• Legal & Risk Management: Ensure compliance with employment law and mitigate organisational risks through informed people strategies.

What you should bring to the role

• Leadership: Strong leadership skills with resilience, tenacity, and ethical integrity.
• Communication Expertise: Excellent interpersonal skills, with the ability to influence and build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders.
• Organisational Design: Solid and proven experience in organisational design ensuring alignment with strategic goals.
• Strategic Thinking: Ability to analyse HR and business data to drive decision-making, and to create sustainable value through people strategies.
• Change & Transformation: Proven track record of leading successful change initiatives, with a focus on cultural and organisational design.
• Employee Relations: In-depth understanding of employee relations, and the ability to influence business decisions with a focus on engagement and performance.
• Legal Acumen: Knowledge of the legal HR landscape and its application in a business context.
• Professional Qualifications: A Chartered Member (Level 5) of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) or equivalent HR qualification is essential.

To apply, please submit your CV along with a cover statement outlining:

• How does your transferable experience make you a strong fit for the position, particularly in providing examples of leadership, organisational design, and talent development?

What’s in it for you?

Making a Difference – Shaping Tomorrow

This role isn’t just about managing the day-to-day HR functions – it’s about having a lasting impact on the future. By leading on organisational design, talent development, and employee engagement, you’ll contribute to fixing the challenges of today and building resilience for the future. Through your leadership, we will evolve to meet emerging demands, while embedding a culture of innovation and inclusion that ensures Thames Water is equipped to thrive in an ever-changing world. You will play a direct role in ensuring our company not only meets the needs of today but is also set up to deliver a sustainable future.

• Competitive salary from £75,000 to £85,000 per annum.
• Annual Leave - 26 days holiday per year increasing to 30 with the length of service. (plus bank holidays)
• Annual Bonus.
• Private Medical Health Care.
• Access to many benefits to help you take care of your and your family’s health and well-being, and your finances – from annual health MOTs and access to physiotherapy and counselling to Cycle to Work schemes, shopping vouchers and life assurance.

We’re the UK’s largest water and wastewater company, with more than 16 million customers relying on us every day to supply water for their taps and toilets. We want to build a better future for all, helping our customers, communities, people and the planet to thrive. It’s a big job and we’ve got a long way to go, so we need help from passionate and skilled people, committed to making a difference and getting us to where we want to be in the years and decades to come.

Thames Water is a unique, rewarding and diverse place to work, where every day you can make a difference, yet no day is the same. As part of our family, you’ll enjoy fast-tracked career opportunities, flexible working arrangements and excellent benefits.

Whether you’re interested in a role in one of our call centres or science labs, we’re looking for people like you with real passion and a burning desire to make things better.

So, if you’re looking for a sustainable and successful career where you can make a daily difference to millions of people’s lives while helping to protect the world of water for future generations, we’ll be here to support you every step of the way. Together, we can build a better future for our customers, our region and our planet.

The real purpose, real support, real opportunities. Come and join the Thames Water family. Why choose us? Learn more.

Our overarching aim is to ensure that Thames Water is a great, diverse and inclusive place to work. We welcome applications from everyone and offer extra support for those who need it throughout the recruitment process. We aim to remove any real or perceived barriers to success, so if you need assistance, we’re here to help and support you.

Disclaimer: due to the high volume of applications we receive, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.