Senior Human Resources Business Partner

This is a varied, hands-on role working with the HR Director in the Publishing HR team which supports our Publishing group in West London. A highly skilled, engaged and diverse group, the Europe publishing teams service our development studios and leading Publishing services, which acts as our European HQ and collaborating with our SOA, who have a group of UK based staff that require local HR support. Our Publishing team is in West London and is currently home to approximately 180 staff with departments including Commercial Publishing through Sales, Marketing and PR, Business Development, Business and Product Planning, Online Technology and various corporate functions including HR, Legal and Finance. The HR Business Partner, Publishing will be part of a team of 4 dedicated staff with the goal of delivering a highly engaging, talent focused and proactive HR and recruitment service with full employee lifecycle support to the Publishing group, creating innovative experiences for our Publishing team that attract, engage, retain and develop talent. The HR Publishing team is supported by the Central Services functions (Total Reward, Systems, Payroll).

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Build strong relationships with your stakeholders so that you become a trusted advisor to them, and become their go-to.
• Collaborate with Line Managers to understand departmental priorities, guide on performance & appraisal issues and enhance managers’ engagement and skills in people management.
• Ensure our employee life cycle operations are managed impeccably (e.g. Recruitment, On & Off boarding, probation, long service, etc) through collaboration with appropriate functions such as recruitment, ops, IT, and facilities.
• Ensure early identification, intervention, and resolution of people challenges by proactively working with people managers and employees to mitigate future challenges. Expertly manage occupational health referrals and any management of sickness absence etc.
• Provide support to managers of all levels and employees around performance management, including appraisals, development plans, objective setting, and career development.
• Provide guidance to organisational and team challenges in a commercial and compliant manner, including advice on coverage for long term absence, PIPs, etc.
• Advise employees and management on policies, processes, and systems.
• Champion and promote HR initiatives across the teams, as well as suggestion and design of future initiatives, confidently deliver training as required (e.g. performance management training, new manager training).
• Identify opportunities & solutions for individual and team development needs, including training, coaching & performance management. Work with the L&D Manager to develop Learning & Career Development pathways and programs.
• Manage employee relations activity as required and feedback to the leadership team on ER matters and policy development.
• Understand and provide strategic advice to managers on relevant UK employment law.
• Assist with ongoing review of policies and communications to ensure they are compliant and aligned to business and commercial goals across the whole region.
• Regularly review, analyse, and prepare insights based on available analytics to recommend future approaches and incentives.
• Provide coaching and guidance to the publishing teams as required.
• Implement Enterprise HR initiatives and advise on local considerations.
• Process improvements - assistance in identifying areas for process streamlining & drawing up process workflow documents as required.
• Updating & producing copy /content for HR Communications channels.
• Responsible for Culture and Employee development & wellbeing for the publishing divisions in London. Partner with HR Director to advise on compensation planning proposals, identifying key talent for retention.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & EXPERIENCE

Essential

• CIPD Qualified (min level 5) and a strong HR generalist background at People Partner/HRBP level.
• Exceptional people skills: strong listening abilities, empathy, and genuine curiosity to learn more about the people you are interacting with.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced and constantly changing environment, working at an operational and management level.
• Completer Finisher able to structure own workload and manage competing priorities.
• Skilled and experienced in organisational development and change, talent management, performance management, reward and learning and development.
• Proven experience of resolving complex HR issues in a tactical but people first manner.
• Able to respond and adapt quickly under pressure, identifying and implementing process change where appropriate, with minimal supervision.
• Demonstratable knowledge and experience of managing organisational change.
• A deep understanding and proven experience of UK Employment Law & HR Practices, managing investigations and swiftly resolving ER issues.
• Comfortable and confident utilising a range of HR systems for performance management, L&D and HR Admin.
• The ability to influence and challenge decisions whilst building relationships.
• Has a toolkit of go-to techniques and templates to refer back to in order to help managers assess their talent and build highly effective teams.

Desirable

• Experience working within a technology or development organisation.