HR Business Partner

EKC Group; United Kingdom; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous Annual Leave

Competitive Pension Scheme

Learning and Development Opportunities

Culture and Recognition

Wellbeing and Health Support

Exclusive Discounts & Perks

Flexible Personal Leave

Job summary

East Kent Colleges Group (EKC Group) is seeking a HR Business Partner to join our 5‑strong Business Partnering team across six sites (Ashford, Folkestone, Dover, Broadstairs, Canterbury and Sheppey). Full or part-time hours and flexible working will be considered.

You will act as a trusted adviser to leadership, delivering people strategies and using metrics to shape solutions, culture and performance. This generalist role requires strong communication and relationship building across all levels

Job description

About The Role

Cultivate Inclusion, Drive People Strategy and Empower our Workforce - Join us as HR Business Partner

We are looking to recruit a dedicated and passionate HR Business Partner to join our Business Partnering team on a permanent basis. You will act as a trusted advisor, partnering the EKC Group’s leadership and management teams on all people related activity to deliver group wide objectives at operational, tactical and strategic levels.

HR Business Partners are an integral part of the HR delivery team, supporting the company in a generalist capacity to develop effective business relationships with key stakeholders and to deliver the overarching HR strategy and business objectives.

A key part of the HRBP's role is the cultivation of a culture, which enables leaders to create the right environment where people thrive and feel included, valued and respected.

You will be one of 5 HR Business Partners, each with a portfolio of business units working across our 6 sites in Ashford, Folkestone, Dover, Broadstairs, Canterbury and Sheppey.

Full or part time hours will be considered and happy to discuss flexible working.

The EKC Group is one of the largest further education providers in the South East of England, with more than 1,500 staff delivering education to over 13,000 students. We are relentless in our drive to deliver an inspirational education experience for young people and adults across our family of six Colleges and three Business Units.

At the heart of everything we do is community and as an education provider, we're committed to ensuring the very best for students who choose to study with us, as well as providing opportunities for those who need them most.

Here are just some of our benefits when working for the East Kent Colleges Group:

• Generous Annual Leave-29 days FTE per annum+3 Days after 5 years
• Competitive Pension Scheme- 18% employer contribution
• Learning and Development Opportunities- 3-4 annual paid group development days and bespoke programmes e.g. Professional Workforce Development Programme and strong internal progression-1 in 3 roles are filled internally
• Culture and Recognition- Being part of Community Days, an Annual Staff Celebration Day, and an eco-friendly organisation dedicated to reaching net-zero by 2030
• Wellbeing and Health Support- Generous sick pay, health checks, free flu jabs, free eye tests, glasses vouchers, flexible support for medical appointments and return-to-work support
• Exclusive Discounts & Perks- Inc. restaurant, grocery, retail and holidays discounts as well as car leasing and tech purchasing schemes
• Flexible Personal Leave- Time off for your child's first day at nursery or school, moving homes and for interviews

About You

This is a varied and fast‑moving HR Business Partner role, ideal for someone who enjoys working at pace and making a real impact.

You will provide high‑quality, customer‑focused HR support while confidently using people metrics and data to spot opportunities, shape solutions and drive improvement.

You will be a trusted and commercially astute HR partner with experience in a Business Partnering role, known for your strong communication, influencing skills and ability to build positive relationships across all levels of the business.

About Us

Outstanding Ofsted Provider East Kent Colleges Group is an Ofsted Outstanding rated provider. It is proud to be the first General Further Education college organisation in the country to have received the Outstanding grade against each of the strands under the new Ofsted inspection framework. An inclusive provider, our colleagues place our students and the communities we serve at the heart of everything they do across EKC Group and this is illustrated in our ‘Strong’ skills grading by Ofsted.

Commitment to Safeguarding We are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and we ensure that all staff are aware of their responsibilities for upholding these principles.

As a designated establishment, we are exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and therefore have an obligation to carry out checks to ensure that staff are suitable to work with children and vulnerable adults. These checks include conviction/caution self-declaration, Enhanced DBS check and obtaining sufficient referencing.

It is a criminal offence to apply for a post which involves engaging in regulated activity relevant to children if you are barred from doing so.

If you are successful in being shortlisted to interview, your suitability to work with children and vulnerable adults will be explored as part of the interview process.

Commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion East Kent CollegesGroup is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all members of our communities. We are particularly keen to increase the diversity of our staff body and encourage applications from candidates where there is underrepresentation in our workforce.

We are proud to hold the Positive About Disability Award and are a Disability Confident Employer. This confirms our commitment to interviewing all applicants who declare that they have a disability and who meet the essential criteria outlined in the person specification. With any successful candidate, we will explore any reasonable adjustments to a role due to a health needs or disability.

Similarly, we have a commitment to Care Leavers (Care Covenant Pledge) and to current or previous Armed Forces personnel (Armed Forces Covenant Pledge) with a commitment to interview applicants who meet the positions essential criteria and who have declared this on their application.

We welcome applications from anyone wishing to work flexibly and those considering a return to work from a career break.

We do not engage with agencies for permanent staff and have an in-house recruitment team.