Job profile

Job Title:

Head of Business Partnering

School/Unit:

People Services 

Location:

Cyncoed & Llandaff Campus, Cardiff with flexibility to work from home part of the time

Salary:

Grade 8A/B £46,718 - £54,131 per annum

Hours:

37 hours per week, we value an approach that is focused on outcomes with flexibility around when you work your hours

Tenure:

Permanent

Welsh University of the Year 2021 by The Times and The Sunday Times Good University Guide. 

Our performance in this year’s Guide is exceptional.  Our University was the biggest riser in Wales, and the third biggest in the UK, placing us in the UK top 40 for student satisfaction with teaching quality and the wider student experience. 

We are very pleased that our strong performance has resulted in the University attracting high numbers of well qualified students and we are now seeking additional staff in both our academic schools and professional services departments.

The opportunity

Our mission in People Services (PS) is to help create an amazing place to work with flexibilities that enable people to thrive and live better and healthier lives through fulfilling work. We aim to do this by providing a great employee experience through a transformational PS function, centralising and simplifying HR operations, seeing our colleagues as our internal customers, and co-creating impactful people initiatives for work now and in the emerging future.

We are looking for a motivated Head of Business Partnering leader to join our team. 

The Head of HR Business Partners (HRBPs) is a new strategic leadership role within People Services. You will be responsible for leading and developing a team of HRBPs who will be working in pairs with the Organisational Development team, using an agile approach to proactively spot problems and offer solutions for managers across the business, as well as improving leadership capability.

You will provide the connection between the business and the functional teams within People Services, offering HR evidence-based insight, developing local solutions to business issues and input into the development of HR policy strategy.

You will be an enthusiastic and friendly professional with excellent communication and interpersonal skills coupled with a commitment to providing an excellent student experience.

What you’ll do – key duties

• Support the Director of People Services and cross organisation senior leadership teams, working collaboratively with the other leads to anticipate and address people issues, keeping a close eye on external research within the field of transformational HR.
• Lead organisational culture change through strategic people activities.
• Design and deliver a proactive, progressive HR Business Partnering service into the university that is holistic and with an eye to the future.
• Enable talent identification management and development in the business to support the central talent management strategy and business programmes, in close collaboration with Organisational Development.
• Build leadership capability across the organisation and coach our senior leaders, including at executive level.
• Use people analytics and insights to shape people practices, policy and strategy.
• In close partnership with Organisational Development proactively spot problems and offer solutions for managers across the business, as well as proactively improving leadership capability, to diagnose, design and deliver training/bespoke development to positively influence the culture and support best practice in the management of people issues covering recruitment, selection, development, organisational effectiveness & change management.
• Act as a diversity and inclusion champion within the business, use available data to drive inclusive initiatives and ensure that all employee decisions are considered from a discrimination, diversity and inclusion perspective.

What you’ll bring – essential experience & strengths

• Significant proven experience working at People Services Business Partner level or above, with proven and successful experience influencing senior leaders.
• Exceptional relationship building and stakeholder management skills.
• Action oriented and results driven, ability to identify key outcomes and measures in the management of work programs to deliver excellence with wealth of experience in delivering evidence-based outcomes.
• A demonstrable strong track record in delivering first class HR business partnering services across a complex organisation and a range of different professions
• Experience of Leadership Coaching
• Professional credibility with proven experience of advising at senior level on multiple, difficult, sensitive HR issues and ones that require change across the organisation
• Experience in originating business innovation and delivering pragmatic, adequately resource plans for business improvement to achieve real organisational effectiveness.
• Experience in managing successful change through the use of organisational design and development techniques.
• Comfortable with data and curious about people analytics. Ability to communicate insight to business area colleagues and influence evidence-based people practices.
• Able to demonstrate collegiate working relationships with a diverse range of contacts within and outside the organisation.
• Strong knowledge across the whole PS remit, including thorough understanding of employment law and its application
• Excellent presentation skills, project management skills, and digital skills and a strong focus on delivering exceptional customer service.
• Strong coaching and people management skills to develop your team of HRBPs.
• A completed CPD record to demonstrate your commitment to your development for the past 2 years.
• The ability to speak Welsh is desirable, but not essential.

What you’ll have - essential qualifications

• CIPD qualification; level 7 / Advanced
• CIPD membership; Chartered / Fellow
• Coaching qualification at Level 5

Our total reward package

We have a range of great benefits for employees including:

Annual leave of 35 days, plus 12 bank holiday / concessionary days

Membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme with generous contributions

Flexible and remote working opportunities

Award winning sports and fitness facilities with subsidised membership, plus subsidised physiotherapy/complementary therapy/sports massage

Access to all library facilities

Salary sacrifice schemes including cycle to work

How to apply

If you would like to talk with us about this opportunity please contact Vanessa White, Deputy Director of People Services at vwhite@cardiffmet.ac.uk

To start your application please visit www.cardiffmet.ac.uk/jobs

Closing date: Friday 5^th March 2021 at 4:30pm

Should a high volume of applications be received, we may need to close this vacancy early. We therefore encourage you to apply as early as possible.

We are committed to supporting and promoting equality and diversity and to creating an inclusive working environment. Our Strategic Plan underpins our commitment to recruit and retain the best talent and we welcome applications from people from diverse backgrounds.  We appoint on merit.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic all of our recruitment is being conducted virtually. We aim to respond to your application as soon as possible.

Further Information

Full Job Description and Person Specification.

Our Candidate Pack

Please visit our website for information about working for us, our culture, benefits, work-life balance and our career progression and development opportunities.