HR Business and Development Partner

BACB; City Of London; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

BACB is a UK bank specialising in trade finance with a strong regional focus across Africa and the Middle East. The HR Business Partner & Development Partner will be a strategic HR advisor to designated business units, driving people performance, organisational effectiveness, talent development, engagement and culture alignment across the bank.

Reporting to the HR Director, this role blends core HR partnering with leadership development, succession planning, and capability building, ensuring

Qualifications

• Excellent communication and negotiation skills.
• Ability to build rapport with colleagues and develop and nurture excellent working relationships.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to understand key business requirements and act in a solution focussed way.
• Experience designing or supporting learning, leadership and capability development programmes.
• Professional certification is a plus but not required.

Responsibilities

• Act as strategic HR advisor to designated business units, supporting leaders in people performance, organisational effectiveness, talent development and engagement.
• Lead talent development, succession planning and capability building across the bank.
• Guide performance management, coaching managers and ensuring fair, compliant practices.
• Partner with business to design development plans and oversee recruitment lifecycle for assigned areas.
• Drive engagement, culture alignment and continual learning in line with BACB values.
• Support change management, organisational design, and governance in HR processes.

Skills

Communication & negotiation

Stakeholder relations

Analytical skills

Learning & development design

HRBP experience

Job description

About Us

BACB is a UK bank that offers trade finance and complementary products to clients in specialist markets, especially Africa and the Middle East.

We have been helping businesses with trade finance and complementary products for over half a century, focusing on trade flows to and from Africa and the Middle East as well as real estate in the UK.

Our in-depth knowledge of the countries and practices where our clients operate ensures that we put them first.

Additional Info

• Hybrid Working: 3 days onsite, 2 from home

• Location: City of London

• Contract Type: Permanent

Job Summary

Reporting to the HR Director, the HR Business Partner & Development Partner will act as a strategic HR advisor to designated business units within the bank, supporting business leaders in driving people performance, organisational effectiveness, talent development, employee engagement, and culture alignment.

The role combines core HR business partnering responsibilities with a strong focus on learning, leadership development, succession planning, performance improvement, and capability building across the bank.

The HR Business Partner & Development Partner ensures that people strategies are aligned with business objectives, regulatory expectations, and the bank’s values.

Key Work Outputs and Accountabilities

HR Business Partnering

• Partner with senior managers and business leaders to understand strategic priorities and translate them into effective people plans.
• Provide expert HR advice on workforce planning, employee relations, performance management, organisational design, restructuring, and change management.
• Build strong, effective, and trusting relationships with key stakeholders through regular and meaningful engagement. Through establishment of a regular meeting cycle, develops an understanding of the key objectives, drivers and performance issues and supported by the HR Director, uses this knowledge to identify areas where HR can add value.
• Support managers in resolving complex people issues in a fair, consistent, and compliant manner.
• Coaches/advises managers in the implementation of robust HR initiatives, processes and tools and facilitates timely delivery, including supporting all employee relation matters. Evaluates the activities/solutions, which ensures the business needs are met.
• Engage with the wider HR team to support the implementation of the people agenda, including HR policies, processes, practices, and tools which support the future requirements of the Bank in the following areas: Reward, Employee Relations, Organisational Design/ Development, Organisation Capability, Talent Management, Performance Management, etc.
• For all areas of the business, supports in analysing HR reporting trends, such as, turnover, absence, headcount, engagement, etc and building relevant local plans to address any concerns. This includes utilising available metrics from sources including the HRMIS and the employee engagement survey tool.
• Works in collaboration with assigned areas of the business to ensure that the Bank maintains its desired culture, identifying practical steps. Role models the desired behaviours while driving the Bank’s overall brand to foster a positive employer brand, ensuring that the Bank can attract and retain talent.
• Ensure HR policies, procedures, and practices are applied consistently and in line with employment law, regulatory expectations, and internal governance standards.

Talent and Workforce Development

• Work in partnership with the business to design and implement development plans that strengthen employee capability and leadership effectiveness. Supports and guides line managers in the development and maintenance of the Banks workforce, coaching managers on skill and capability assessments and advising and inputting into organisational design.
• Identify skills gaps across business units and recommend appropriate learning, coaching, mentoring, or development interventions.
• Support succession planning, talent reviews, career development frameworks and the maintenance of the Skills Matrix and job descriptions for all areas of the business supported.
• Work with leaders to build high-performing teams and improve employee readiness for future business needs.
• Partners with the business and members of the HR Operations Team to oversee all stages of the recruitment lifecycle activities for assigned business areas to attract top talent. This includes facilitating effective recruitment briefing sessions, assisting with the development of qualifying application questions, supporting hiring managers on the application review process and ensuring momentum is maintained throughout the process to ensure candidates have a positive experience in line with the BACB brand.
• Promote a culture of continuous learning, accountability, and professional growth.

Performance Management

• Support the effective operation of the performance management cycle within their business areas, including objective-setting, mid-year reviews, year-end evaluations, calibration, and development planning. Provide coaching to managers on setting stretching objectives, conducting appraisals, raising performance levels, implementing performance enhancement or performance improvement plans, driving talent management and guiding pay decisions within the provided reward framework.
• Coach line managers on giving effective feedback, proactively managing underperformance, and recognising high performance.
• Ensure performance outcomes are fair, evidence-based, and aligned with the bank’s values and conduct standards.
• Partner with the business leaders to develop targeted performance improvement plans where required.
• Support the development of a proactive performance enhancement culture through encouraging early intervention to address performance concerns, supporting all colleagues to be successful.

Learning, Leadership and Capability Building

• Collaborate with HR colleagues and external providers to design and deliver relevant value-adding programs in areas of training, development, talent management, succession planning, career mobility, and job performance.
• Support leadership development initiatives for managers and emerging talent.
• Facilitate workshops, training sessions, and team development interventions as required.
• Measure the effectiveness of development initiatives and recommend improvements.
• Ensure learning solutions support regulatory, technical, behavioural, and leadership capability requirements.

Employee Engagement & Culture

• Partner with business leaders to improve employee engagement, retention, and overall employee experience.
• Support engagement surveys, action planning and culture-building initiatives such as business area on-sight/offsites, team building sessions, etc
• Champion the bank’s values, diversity and inclusion agenda, and ethical conduct expectations.
• Advise leaders on initiatives that strengthen collaboration, accountability, customer focus, and risk awareness.

Change Management and Organisational Effectiveness

• Support business transformation, restructuring, process improvement, and organisational change initiatives.
• Advise leaders on people impacts, communication plans, stakeholder engagement, and change readiness.
• Help embed new ways of working and ensure colleagues are supported through transition.
• Contribute to organisational design reviews to improve efficiency, role clarity, and business performance.

Risk Compliance and Governance

• Plays an integral role with the coordination of the HR policy review cycle, including monitoring updates in line with the yearly cycle and drafting or recommending policy updates for review by the HRBP Director.
• Keep up to date with relevant employment legislation changes and make recommendations relating to any updates to practices or policies that may be needed in order to ensure compliance.
• Promote a strong conduct and risk culture across the business.
• Support audits, regulatory reviews, and HR governance reporting where required.
• Maintain accurate HR records and ensure confidentiality of employee information.
• Owns or assists with ad hoc initiatives/ projects as necessary while providing assistance to the wider HR team as required, including with the preparation of papers and presentations.

Required Qualifications and Experience

• Experience in providing HR Support as a HRBP, HR Generalist, Talent Development Partner, Learning and Development Partner or HR Advisory level or similar role is highly desirable, coupled with a willingness to develop strong HR business partnering skills.
• Excellent communication and negotiation skills.
• Ability to build rapport with colleagues and develop and nurture excellent working relationships.
• Knowledge of employment laws and HR practices.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to understand key business requirements and act in a solution focussed way.
• Strong knowledge of employee relations, performance management, talent development, workforce planning and organisational change.
• Ability to comprehend, interpret, and apply the appropriate sections of applicable laws, guidelines, regulations, ordinances, and policies in a way that is collaborative and focussed on business needs.
• Experience designing or supporting learning, leadership, and capability development programmes.
• Professional certification is a plus but not required.
• Experience within financial services is a plus but not essential.