People and Culture Business Partner - Australia

Patagonia; Torquay; On-site; AUD 100,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

An environmentally-conscious company in Torquay, Victoria, is seeking a People and Culture Business Partner to lead talent acquisition and enhance company culture. Responsibilities include designing hiring strategies, managing employee relations, and fostering a diverse workplace. The ideal candidate has 3-5 years in HR and a passion for cultivating a positive workplace culture. This full-time role is based onsite and offers competitive benefits, focusing on employee well-being and inclusivity.

Benefits

Environmental internships

Employee discounts

Generous clothing allowance

Flexibility with work hours

Charity donation matching

Qualifications

• 3-5 years of experience in a human resources generalist role.
• Experience in talent acquisition, employee relations, and compliance.
• Ability to lead change management initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Design hiring strategies including interview frameworks.
• Facilitate and manage employee relations and conflict resolution.
• Lead employee engagement and performance management programs.
• Implement OHS strategies and workplace safety measures.
• Champion DEI initiatives and build an inclusive culture.

Skills

Leadership

Communication skills

Emotional intelligence

Diversity and inclusion

Talent acquisition

Education

Degree in HR and / or Business

Job description

As Patagonia’s People and Culture Business Partner, you will work closely with the P&C Director to shape the experience and careers of our Australian workforce. You will partner closely with our management community to shape an inclusive culture where everyone thrives.

Through these partnerships, you will embed Patagonia’s values throughout hiring, onboarding, talent assessment, professional development, coaching, employee relations, and performance management, working collaboratively across the business to build organisational capability and resiliency. You’ll serve as a trusted advisor to our circa 180 employees, driving initiatives that align with organisation goals and that foster a high-performance yet uncommon culture.

We are searching for an experienced individual, junior to mid-level (3-5 years), who is searching for a values-aligned organisation to grow with us as we expand our business in the region. We seek out core Patagonia product users, people who love to spend as much time as possible in the mountains, ocean, and caring for nature. Folks who deal well with ambiguity, learn on the fly, demonstrate sound judgment, and solve problems creatively are most successful with us.

We’re looking for someone who builds and maintains relationships with ease and desires to put our people at the centre of everything they do. We don’t want someone who can just do a job– we want the best person for the job. Yet we don’t look for “stars” seeking special treatment and perks. Our best efforts are collaborative, and Patagonia culture rewards the ensemble player, while it barely tolerates those who need the limelight.

This role is full-time and onsite at our Torquay Victoria HQ.

Your responsibilities

Talent Acquisition and Onboarding

• Design and facilitate hiring strategies including sourcing channels, interview frameworks, and candidate assessment criteria.
• Oversee the full cycle of recruitment from qualifying the role with the hiring manager, to directly sourcing candidates through to managing the employment offer process.
• Shortlisting and presenting candidates to the hiring managers.
• Managing relations with candidates and hiring managers to ensure best-in-class service is provided.
• Developing candidate pipelines and innovative sourcing solutions which shorten the time to hire – managing expressions-of-interest and candidate database via our sourcing tool JobAdder and careers website (expressions-of-interest).
• Collaborating with hiring managers to write job ads, and advertise the job openings on careers pages, job boards and social networks (e.g. LinkedIn).
• Implementing innovative solutions to attract a diverse candidate list for every role, identifying and utilising diverse and alternative channels where appropriate.
• Working closely with hiring managers to ensure that equity leads every decision we make in the hiring process.
• Interviewing candidates during various hiring stages - coordinating the interview process with hiring managers.

Employee Relations and Conflict Resolution

• Facilitate and manage employee relations and conflict resolution, serving as an emotionally intelligent, confidential, and dependable resource for counsel, feedback, and coaching to all employees.
• Conduct investigations, fact-finding, and make recommendations for fair outcomes.
• Ensure consistent application of policies and employment law compliance while balancing business needs and employee experience.
• Mediate conflicts between individuals and teams, enabling productive resolutions and restoring effective working relationships.
• Work closely with the P&C Director as an escalation point for complex employee relations cases. Coordinate with internal and external resources as needed.

Employee Engagement, Feedback, and Performance

• Lead employee engagement, collaborating with the management teams, to share transparent, timely updates about priorities, key decisions, and efforts.
• Build a culture of feedback and candour and processes for soliciting and using feedback continuously at the individual and team level.
• Coach our management teams on the results from engagement surveys, ensuring action-orientated outcomes.
• Build managers’ acumen that fosters an inclusive workplace, management excellence, and active support for the skills and career growth of their teams.
• Support performance management tools and programs and drive the performance review process, guiding managers on the skills required to deliver effective performance conversations.

Occupational Health and Safety

• Develop and maintain an OHS strategy that aligns with business objectives and legal requirements, embedding safety into everyday retail operations.
• Partner with store leaders to identify hazards, assess risks, and implement control measures to reduce incidents and injuries.
• Lead incident response and investigations to determine root causes, implement corrective actions, and monitor effectiveness.
• Ensure compliance with OHS legislation by keeping policies, procedures, and records up to date and advising on regulatory changes.
• Drive proactive prevention programs including safety training, toolbox talks, ergonomics assessments, mental health initiatives, and return to work planning.
• Manage health surveillance and case management for employees affected by work-related injury or illness, coordinating with medical providers and rehabilitation services.
• Monitor and report OHS metrics such as incident rates, lost time, near misses, and corrective action closure to inform leadership decisions.
• Foster a safety culture through leadership engagement, visible safety leadership, recognition of safe behaviours, and continuous improvement.

Culture Engagement and Justice (DEI)

• Champion culture initiatives that reinforce core values, recognition, and inclusive behaviours.
• Embed Justice (DEI) in hiring, promotion, development, and policies to build an equitable culture and career pathways.
• Plan and facilitate learning and development initiatives in collaboration with leaders and the P&C Employee Experience Manager.
• Improve P&C processes to increase manager and employee productivity, reduce friction, and deliver consistent experiences.
• Pilot new initiatives and scale proven solutions across the business.
• Design leadership programs to build managerial capability and bench strength through training, coaching, and experiential learning.
• Maintain succession plans for key roles, identifying internal candidates, development gaps, and readiness timelines.

Who you are

• Strategic Thinker: able to think big picture and drive work accordingly.
• Leadership: build trusted relationships, influence decisions, and drive urgency on critical priorities.
• Influential: able to communicate through complicated matters, build trust easily, and get buy-in from partners.
• Strong Communicator: excellent communication and presentation skills.
• Emotionally intelligent: high level of self-awareness, empathy, and interpersonal skills.
• Inclusive: deeply experienced in collaborating with others across differences.
• Passionate: cares deeply about people practices and saving our home planet.

What you Bring

• Demonstrated mid-level experience of 3 - 5 years in a similar human resources generalist role, including talent acquisition, employee relations, OH&S compliance, coaching leaders, and leading change management initiatives.
• Degree in HR and / or Business or relevant experience in a related field.
• Talented, inclusive individual with proven ability to translate strategic thinking about complex challenges and organizational gaps into executed plans to deliver on strategic imperatives and solve problems large and small.
• Proven experience successfully leading the integration of justice (DEI) initiatives throughout organisational policies, practices, management, and culture.
• Demonstrated emotional intelligence, humility, cultural competence, feedback skills, and the ability to sustain trusted relationships with a wide array of people.
• Flexibility and experience working in a fast-paced, dynamic environment while exercising effective judgment in challenging situations and remaining calm under pressure.
• Working knowledge of employment law, state and federal rules and regulations, and their applications in all work products.

Equal Employment Opportunity: Patagonia is an equal opportunity employer. Patagonia recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes without regard to race, religion, colour, gender (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, or individuals with a disability. Patagonia is proud of our diverse workforce and encourages applications from diverse cultural backgrounds. Like our planet, our company is an interconnected network of ecosystems dependent on each other. Patagonia is a global community with members that seek to respect, uplift, and celebrate all the qualities that make each of us unique – members that look to champion justice, equity, and inclusion across our company and beyond.

Accessibility Support: Patagonia is committed to ensuring that our hiring process is accessible for talent of all abilities. If you require assistance and/ or accommodation in the search and/ or application process, please contact us at [e-mail] with your full name, best way to reach you, and the accommodation needed to assist you with the application process.

Benefits: Patagonia provides employees with competitive benefits packages (unique to each role) that may include environmental internships, employee discounts, generous clothing allowance, activism hours, a nine-day work fortnight, equal paternity leave, matching of charity donations, and much more.