HR Business Partner

Fifty5Blue; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

Fifty5Blue is seeking an HR Business Partner with a strong Employee Relations background to support the UK & Ireland, Europe, and APAC regions. The role sits between first line HR delivery and HR Director level support, focusing on complex ER activity, policy review, and operational HR processes.

The role partners with HR Directors to deliver a comprehensive HR service, balancing day-to-day people matters with identifying trends and opportunities for change.

Qualifications

• Strong UK Employee Relations background with global exposure to Europe and APAC.
• Proven experience managing grievances, disciplinaries, absence, and performance.
• Experience reviewing and updating HR policies and manager guidance.
• Confidence advising managers directly on people matters.
• Comfortable operating in volume, fast-paced environments.

Responsibilities

• Manage and advise on grievances, disciplinaries, disputes, and right-to-speak cases.
• Support sickness absence cases and OH referrals.
• Develop performance, succession and career plans aligned to strategy.
• Manage performance management including PIPs and probation.
• Handle flexible working requests and maintain ER governance.
• Review and update UK HR and ER policies; create manager guidelines.

Skills

Employee relations

Grievances & disciplinaries

Policy development

Manager guidance

Stakeholder engagement

English proficiency

Tools

ER tracker

Job description

We help partners understand the changing advertising landscape. Specialising in audience measurement, consumer targeting and in-depth intelligence into paid, owned and earned media, their global coverage and local expertise enable better understanding of media audiences and their relationships with brands.

Job Details

OVERVIEW:

We are looking for ‘hands on’, HR Business Partner professionals with a strong background in Employee Relations, supporting UK & Ireland, Europe and APAC regions (with a high proportion of work based for the UK). The role sits between first line HR service delivery and HR Director level support, working as part of the HRBP team. The role will own regional areas with complex and high volumes of ER activity, policy review and development, manager guidance, and operational HR processes, while escalating senior, strategic, or high-risk cases to the relevant HR Directors as appropriate.

The HR business partner role will support the Global and Regional HR Directors providing a comprehensive HR service to their designated regions. Supporting and guiding our people in the day to day people matters ensuring our practices and policies are aligned to business strategy and reflect best in class in HR. A varied role balancing operational needs with identifying trends and opportunity for change. Regions may be subject to change.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

The following responsibilities are not an exhaustive list and may change.

Employee Relations & Case Management

• Manage and advise on all grievances, disciplinaries, disputes between employees and managers, and right to speak cases, particularly during peak periods, demonstrating sound judgement, a knowledge of market legislation and commercial awareness

• Support short-term and long-term sickness absence cases, including OH referrals and process management

• Partner with key stakeholders to develop performance, succession and career management plans by assessing the effectiveness of career paths, aligning employee capabilities to the division / function’s overall strategic direction.

• Handle performance management case including PIPs and probation management, including objective setting, check-ins, and risk mitigation under UK Employment Rights changes

• Manage flexible working requests, including advising managers and supporting conversations

• Maintain and improve the ER tracker and case governance processes

Policy, Guidelines & Training

• Review, update, and maintain UK HR and ER policies, reflecting changes in legislation across the region(s)
• Create and refresh manager guidelines that sit underneath people and ER policies (e.g. grievance, disciplinary, probation, absence)
• Support development of manager training on ER capability and confidence
• Contribute to the global employee handbook, working with HR leadership on regional vs global alignment

Organisational Change & Risk Support

• Provide operational ER support for restructures and redundancies, particularly volume activity, with HRDs leading strategy and senior cases
• Support settlement agreements and exits at an operational level, escalating senior or complex exits to HRDs
• Support Data Subject Access Requests D(SARs) post search review in partnership with the relevant legal / data teams and HR Director

HR Operations & Cross Border Support

• Support ER matters in countries without local HR coverage (e.g. Netherlands, Singapore)
• Coordinate leaver activity including visa termination support, working with HR Ops and external partners
• Act as a key operational partner to HR Ops where ER, policy, and employee lifecycle issues overlap
• Supporting role out and completion of cyclical activities (PMR, Salary increases…)

Engagement & Diversity

• Drive and support leaders and managers with improving the employee experience to increase engagement within the workplace through leveraging data from employee listening programmes, leaver surveys and other formal and informal sources
• Champion diversity and drive portfolios of work that support the business to build an inclusive culture across all aspects of the employee journey, policies and practices and support our I&D strategy

Collaboration & Stakeholder Management

• Work closely with HR Directors, acting as the level‑2/3 ER owner, freeing HRDs to focus on appeals, senior exits, restructures, and strategy
• Manage, develop and coach others within the People Team to grow additional capability in line with the needs of the business and the aspirations of the individual
• Partner with TA and HR leadership on workforce and people risk topics where ER insight is required
• Engage with business leaders, managers and the wider People Team to understand challenges and areas for opportunities and translate these into relevant people initiatives
• Attend local and regional work councils where required seeking support and escalating to the HR Director where required.

CAPBILITIES AND EXPERIENCE

Essential

• Strong UK Employee Relations background but with global exposure to other regions in Europe and APAC
• Proven experience managing grievances, disciplinaries, absence, capability and performance including probation, and flexible working
• Experience reviewing and updating HR policies and manager guidance
• Confidence advising managers directly on a range of people matters
• Comfortable operating in volume, fast paced and ambiguous environments
• Solid in country HR experience supporting a region and a willingness to learn new countries and regions.
• Experience working with Work Councils
• Proficient in English
• Excellent active listening, verbal and written communication skills.
• Strong stakeholder engagement and expectation management.

Desirable

• Exposure to global or multi country ER environments (EMEA and APAC)
• Experience supporting restructures or redundancy programmes
• Background in HR Operations, Senior Advisor, or HR Manager type roles

Country

United Kingdom

Why join Fifty5Blue?

We pride ourselves on understanding people, and what makes us think and act the way we do.

And because we know people, we like to make sure our own people are being looked after as well. Equality of opportunity for everyone is our highest priority and we support our colleagues to work in a way that supports their health and wellbeing. While we encourage teams to spend part of their working week in the office, we understand no one size fits all; our approach is flexible to ensure everybody feels included, accepted, and that we can win together. We’re dedicated to creating an inclusive culture and value the diversity of our people, clients, suppliers and communities, and we encourage applications from all backgrounds and sections of society. Even if you feel like you’re not an exact match, we’d love to receive your application and talk to you about this job or others at Fifty5Blue.