Lead People Partner

Calling all HR Specialists!

Are you a passionate HR expert dedicated to providing exceptional service to customers?

We are a highly regarded education services business with 30 years of experience, located in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire. Our commitment to education is unwavering, and our team of skilled professionals supports over 1,600 schools nationwide.

Working in partnership with our school and their leaders you’ll provide expert advice, guidance, and support on complex employee relations matters to ensure fair, consistent, and legally compliant practices across schools. This role plays a key part in managing risk, resolving disputes, supporting line managers, and contributing to a positive and productive workplace culture. You’ll shape ER policy and strategy and may lead on high-profile or sensitive cases.

Experience of leading, communicating, advising and consulting at a senior level, and with trade unions, on large scale organisational change issues and policy development. Managing and motivating a team comes naturally to you too, as does using your creativity and initiative to resolve problems and mitigate risk. And, when it comes to dealing effectively with difficult welfare situations or confidential matters in line with policies and procedures, again, you have what it takes to deliver.

You are quick to build relationships at all levels and are always proactive and positive in your approach. You love to work in a fast-paced environment with high levels of autonomy and are keen to really make your mark. You take a true hands-on approach as well as the ability to successfully monitor the "pulse" of the customers business and schools. You also have the ability to be comfortable with high volume workload and not be afraid to "roll up your sleeves".

The roles and responsibilities include:

• Develop a thorough understanding of how the EPM people services are commercially valuable for schools and how they can add value through our people related services.
• Researching the market, understanding customer requirements and analysing trends.
• Lead on the development and implementation of People services policies and processes
• Ensuring that relevant regulatory, legal and statutory requirements are met while maintaining equality, diversity and inclusion as part of their DNA.
• Lead and mentor the HR Advisory team to provide advice and support on employee relations case management; identifying and mitigating risk to our customers
• Deliver a high-performing and trusted Employee Relations service to all external partners, providing leaders with meaningful analytics to enable business improvement
• Develop and maintain effective relationships with the business area to identify current and future HR related projects
• Generate meaningful insight and analysis of management information provided to the business, making recommendations for improvements as required to the HR and wider management teams
• Contribute to the school/MAT strategic plans to reduce attrition and implement initiatives to improve engagement, build strong employee relations and employee retention
• Provide expert advice and guidance on complex employee relations issues, including disciplinary, grievance, performance, and absence management cases.
• Lead the resolution of high-risk or sensitive ER cases, ensuring compliance with employment law, internal policies, and best practice.
• Support and coach line managers to build confidence and capability in managing employee relations matters effectively and fairly.
• Assess ER risks and implement proactive solutions to mitigate them.
• Analyse ER data and trends to identify underlying issues and recommend improvements to policies, procedures, and practices.
• Develop and update ER policies, procedures, and toolkits to reflect changes in legislation, case law, and organisational priorities.
• Support organisational change initiatives, including restructures, redundancy consultations, and TUPE processes.

• Highly self-motivated, determined and directed.
• Commercial thinker
• A self-starter with a proven ability to gain buy-in and deliver results that add value and fit with the brand values of the organisation

• Strong people partner who can work collaboratively across teams
• Ability to work flexibly as part of the overall team
• Ability to maintain a commercial focus and think business, customer and brand
• Proven experience of initiating and executing projects focusing on employee engagement
• Strong emotional intelligence and ability to manage and resolve contentious individual or change issues
• Demonstrated ability to influence and gain the respect of senior business managers, as well as proven ability to influence and deliver business change
• Experience in fast paced environment