Senior Human Resources Business Partner

ENGINEERINGUK; Birmingham; On-site; GBP 55,000 - 64,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player seeks a Senior Human Resource Business Partner to empower teams and enhance performance. This role involves collaborating with senior leadership to drive HR strategies, manage employee relations, and implement change initiatives. The ideal candidate will possess a Chartered MCIPD qualification and extensive HR experience, showcasing a strong ability to influence and build relationships. Join a forward-thinking organization committed to diversity and inclusion, where your contributions will play a pivotal role in shaping a high-performance culture and ensuring a safe, accessible railway for everyone.

Benefits

28 days annual leave

Discounted online shopping

Childcare vouchers

Healthcare offers

Subsidies on rail season tickets

Pension schemes

Paid reserve leave for Armed Forces

Qualifications

• Chartered MCIPD qualified or extensive HR experience required.
• Strong stakeholder management and change management skills are essential.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement HR Strategy/People Plan to support business objectives.
• Manage employee relations case portfolio and coach senior leaders.

Skills

Stakeholder Management

Change Management

Communication Skills

Employee Relations

Organizational Development

Education

Chartered MCIPD Qualification

Graduate Calibre

Job description

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Employer Network Rail Location Birmingham, GB Salary £ 55,596.00 per year; £ 63,797.00 per year Closing date 13 May 2025

View more categories View less categories Sector Human Resources Role Senior Executive Contract Type Permanent Hours Full Time

About Network Rail

Network Rail operates and maintains the railway infrastructure. Our passengers and freight users are at the heart of everything we do. We help connect people to their friends and families and get goods to their destination safely and efficiently. We're an organisation where people matter. When you're part of our team, you matter to us and you matter to millions.

We're continuing to build a more diverse and inclusive organisation which is representative of the passengers we serve. To do this, it's essential we become a more open, diverse and inclusive organisation, harnessing the skills and expertise of all our people and attracting the best talent to help us have a safe, accessible railway for everyone. We're an inclusive employer of choice and we welcome applications from everyone.

About our Route

We are Central route. We are the Heart of Britain's Railway. More than a million people rely on us every week, and we help transport nearly a million tonnes of freight every month. But we are more than just tracks and trains, we are a catalyst for jobs and opportunities, a connection to leisure and time with family and friends, and a foundation for communities and neighbourhoods.

We are a key part of the national network, with Birmingham New Street - the busiest station outside of London and the hub of the railway - connecting England, Scotland and Wales, with hundreds of services arriving and leaving every day.

Brief Description

What will you be doing as a Senior Human Resource Business Partner?

If you are passionate about empowering people to perform their best and support them through numerous challenges, this could be the role for you.

As a Senior Human Resources Business Partner within Central Route, you will work as an integral member of the supported business senior leadership team, to proactively identify, plan and meet the people needs of the business through a coaching and facilitative approach, in order to improve business performance. You will build effective relationships and scan for emerging trends, innovations, and current best practice to develop people's capacity, capability, and commitment. You will also provide support and deputise for the Head of HR as and when required and will be responsible to proactively manage the routes employee relation case portfolio.

You will need to use your business partner expertise to gain credibility from day one, enabling you to operate as a member of the senior management team. You will be solutions-focused, able to deliver at pace and confident to challenge at senior levels.

The successful candidate will be Chartered MCIPD qualified or have extensive general HR experience. Your experience will need to include consulting and delivering on organisational development, design or change projects; and supporting and advising managers on complex employee relations matters. If you also have strong stakeholder management, change management and communication skills combined with a deep understanding of relevant current employment law, we would like to hear from you.

This role is based out of Birmingham Baskerville House, with frequent travel to Network Rail sites across the route.

About the role (External)

Some of your day-to-day duties....

• Working closely with the supported business area/s to develop, drive and implement the HR Strategy/People Plan to include; talent, succession planning and change management, in order to support the delivery of business objectives and drive a high performance culture.

• Act as an integral member of the business leadership team, building strong relationships with senior business leaders and other relevant stakeholders. Coach, advise and challenging thinking in addition to co-development, design and execution of integrated medium to long term people initiatives to meet current and future business needs.

• Act as a change agent; lead, support and contribute to change programmes, driving and championing the implementation of HR solutions within the supported business area, gaining acceptance from key stakeholders.

• Proactively manage trade union relationships, working with the Employee Relations team, appropriate HR Business Partners and managers across the business.

• Reinforce and support the ownership of people management by the business and line managers and the HR Business Partner model.

• Influence the centres of expertise development of strategy and policy through sharing business/functional requirements and inputting into development and execution planning.

• Work in collaboration with; Centres of Expertise, HR Shared Services, HR Direct and HR Business Partner teams to proactively identify and influence changes that improve HR service.

• Liaise with HR Business Partners in other areas of the business in order to work collaboratively on cross business/geographical issues.

What we're looking for...

In order to be successful in this role, we would like you to have/to be:

• Demonstrates strong business/commercial approach and understanding of business needs.

• Proven experience of working in partnership with senior business leaders in order to improve people management.

• Passionate about customer service with ability to articulate previous achievements through business deliverables.

• Knowledge and experience of implementing best practice HR solutions to drive a high performance culture.

• Ability to establish professional credibility quickly.

• Experience of coaching, influencing and building strong working relationships with senior business leaders.

• Excellent communication skills and ability to negotiate and influence effectively with all levels of an organisation.

• Experience of working with senior leaders to identify, develop and retain talent.

• Excellent technical HR Knowledge - CIPD qualified or relevant experience to demonstrate level of competence.

• Proven track record of operating in a complex working environment.

• Broad experience of managing organisation change programmes e.g. TUPE, Organisation re-design, redundancy programmes, etc

• Graduate calibre

• Experience of working within a highly unionised environment (Essential for roles supporting Maintenance & Operations Functions).

It's not mandatory to have the below, but it would be desirable to have:

• MCIPD/post-graduate human resources qualification.

• Understanding of project management principles and experience of managing complex projects to successful conclusion.

• Experience of working within a unionised environment.

Key Leadership Capabilities:

• Influencing others

• Creating solutions

• Understanding others

• Making things happen

• Thinking flexibly

• Customer focus

How to apply (External)
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Salary: starting from £55,596 raising to £63,797 per annum. Network Rail adheres to a structured pay framework, any salary offered will be within the pay range advertised.

Closing date : 13 th May 2025 . Late applications will not be accepted.

This note is a 6-month fixed term opportunity.

Want to find out more about what fantastic benefits we offer? Click here

All offers of employment are conditional upon satisfactory completion of a range of pre-employment checks. Click here for more information

We're a Disability Confident Leader employer and we'll try our best to adapt the process and offer a reasonable alternative to help support people with disabilities access, apply and interview for roles.

Company

Every day, 4.8 million people use our network. Keeping Britain moving and building a better railway for the future is full of challenges – but also tremendous opportunities.

From our commitments to your development, our range of benefits and our approach to Diversity & Inclusion, we believe there are many reasons to join the team at Network Rail.

We’re proactive in empowering employees with the knowledge to help them progress. We encourage all our employees to be ambitious, and offer great training and career development opportunities. As the railway becomes bigger and more technologically advanced, it’s crucial that our employees have the right skills to develop their careers and meet the challenges ahead.

We believe that investing in our people is one of the most effective ways of improving the safety, reliability and efficiency of the railway.

We also know that it’s vital to get each individual’s training programme just right. As well as helping us to meet our immediate needs, we believe this is an approach that encourages people to stay with us and develop their careers.

Your health, wellbeing and benefits

We believe that safety and performance go hand in hand and this doesn’t just mean safety on the railway! We are committed to the wellbeing of our employees and believe, that should come first.

We provide access to support services such as our employee assistance program to help you with finances, family, health and wellbeing. In addition to this, we offer excellent benefits, are sensitive to work-life balance and encourage our employees to use their 5 volunteer days for their favourite causes.

We have a range of benefits including:

• 28 days annual leave entitlement.
• My benefits – Our discounted online shopping site.
• A range of discounted offers including, childcare vouchers, Healthcare offers – cycle to work, healthcare club discounted membership and other benefits.
• Subsidies of up to 75% on rail and underground season tickets.
• A range of pension schemes.
• 2 weeks paid reserve leave for our Armed Forces community.

What Diversity and Inclusion means to us

‘Diversity’ means recognising differences between people while valuing the contribution they make. ‘Inclusion’ means creating safe and welcoming workplaces with fair cultures that encourages innovative and fresh ways of thinking.

Our aspiration is that the behaviours and actions that support diversity and inclusion will come from the conviction of everyone here at Network Rail – making diversity and inclusion a conscious part of how we run our business throughout Britain.

Disability Confident Leader

Network Rail is an accreditedDisability Confident Leader . This means, where a disabled applicant meets the essential criteria for any of our vacancies, they will receive an interview.

Find out more about our recruitment processhere

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