HR Business Partner

University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust; England; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust is seeking an experienced HR professional to join HealthSet as a HealthSet HR Business Partner. You will provide strategic HR leadership across workforce planning, recruitment and retention, organisational development and workforce analytics, influencing senior leaders to deliver programme objectives.

You will travel across partner trusts to build relationships, support workforce initiatives and ensure a consistent approach to HR across the

Qualifications

• Masters level or equivalent experience required.
• Member of Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).
• Evidence of Continuing Professional Development (CPD).
• Fellow of CIPD or related Coaching qualification.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic HR leadership across workforce planning, recruitment and retention, OD, employee engagement and leadership development.
• Support workforce transformation and organisational design with data-driven insight.
• Collaborate across four NHS partner trusts to ensure a consistent workforce approach.
• Line-manage HealthSet Workforce Lead and HealthSet Workforce Coordinator to coordinate priorities.

Skills

Strategic HR leadership

Influence & leadership

Change management

NHS workforce knowledge

Education

Masters level or equivalent

CIPD membership

CPD evidence

CIPD Coaching fellowship

Job description

University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust

HR Business Partner

The closing date is 12 November 2026

Join HealthSet and help shape the workforce behind a major digital transformation

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced senior HR professional to join the HealthSet programme, working across:

• Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
• Dorset HealthCare University NHS Foundation Trust
• Somerset NHS Foundation Trust
• University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust.

HealthSet brings together colleagues across four NHS organisations and this role will provide strategic HR and workforce leadership to the programme.

Working with HealthSet programme leadership, HR Business Partners and senior leaders across the partner Trusts, you will lead and influence the people and workforce agenda required to support successful programme delivery.

Interview Date: TBC

Main duties of the job

As the HealthSet HR Business Partner, you will provide strategic HR leadership across workforce planning, recruitment and retention, organisational development, employee engagement, leadership development, workforce transformation, organisational design and workforce analytics.

Working closely with senior leaders, you will provide expert advice, challenge and support to develop workforce solutions that enable the successful delivery of programme objectives.

A key element of the role is working across organisational boundaries. You will build strong relationships across the four partner Trusts and collaborate with HR and People teams to ensure a consistent and effective workforce approach.

You will also provide line management and support to the HealthSet Workforce Lead and HealthSet Workforce Coordinator, helping to coordinate workforce activity and priorities across the programme.

About you

You will be an experienced HR professional with a strong background in workforce strategy, organisational development and change management. You will have experience influencing senior stakeholders, delivering workforce initiatives and supporting service transformation.

You will be skilled at building trusted relationships, working across organisations and using workforce information to support decision-making. Knowledge of the NHS workforce agenda is essential.

This is a highly visible partnership role requiring travel across the HealthSet partner Trusts and an on-site presence.

About us

Healthsetis a joint programme across four trusts in Dorset and Somerset to deliver a shared electronic health record (EHR) for acute, community and mental health services, working with our system provider, Epic. This once-in-a-generation programme will transform how information is recorded,sharedand accessed, enabling colleagues to spend less time working around systems and more time caring.

Our teams deliver safe, compassionate care every day, but we still rely on multiple systems, separaterecordsand paper processes. This can mean patients repeating their story and colleagues spending valuable time duplicating work or managing gaps in information. For our digital teams, this means managing multiple legacy systems and data sources to support users to deliver services.

Healthsetis our shared response. By introducing one EHR across our organisations, we will support morejoined-upworking, saferdecision-makingand better use of information, freeing up more time for care.

This ambitious programme will fundamentally change how health and care is delivered across Dorset and Somerset in a way that is clinically and financially sustainable. We will be guided by doing the right thing for our patients, carers,peopleand communities, while creating a working environment that better supports our colleagues.

Job responsibilities

To understand the role in more detail please read the full job description and person specification documents which are attached to this advert.

Person Specification

Qualifications

• Educated to Masters level or equivalent experience
• Member of Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
• Evidence of Continuing Professional Development
• Fellow of Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development Coaching qualification

Experience

• Substantial generalist and senior HR experience in advising senior managers on best practice HR approaches, particularly relating to change management.
• Experience in successful leading and delivering OD and/or workforce projects
• Experience in developing and implementing OD and Workforce strategy.
• Experience in managing complex and sensitive employment relations issues.

Skills

• Demonstrable knowledge of current thinking on good HR practice on all aspects of HR management.
• Knowledge of current workforce and HR agenda in the NHS
• Ability to relate to managers, understanding different education, approaches, styles and expertise and utilise this knowledge to develop effective relationship and cooperative ways of working to achieve the Trust's aim
• Ability to work effectively and be comfortable with achieving through influence and leadership.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust