HR Business Partner, Netherlands

Korn Ferry; Amsterdam; On-site; EUR 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Korn Ferry is seeking an HR Business Partner for the Netherlands to work with the Managing Director and business leaders to drive talent, performance, and organisational development. The role focuses on culture, engagement, and ensuring compliance with local law while partnering on governance and advisory support across the business.

Key responsibilities include talent management, employee relations, change management, and collaboration with regional HR leadership to deliver effective HR

Qualifications

• Significant experience as an HR Business Partner or Senior HR Generalist.
• Strong knowledge of Dutch employment law.
• Proven experience managing Works Council relationships.
• Commercial mindset with strong business acumen.
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills.
• Demonstrated experience supporting organisational change.
• Ability to balance strategic thinking with hands-on delivery.
• Fluent English; Dutch language skills preferred.

Responsibilities

• Partner with Managing Director and country leadership to serve as dedicated HR partner for the Netherlands.
• Lead Talent Management, Employee Relations, and performance improvement initiatives.
• Own relations with the Netherlands Works Council and employee representatives; manage consultation processes.
• Guide organisational change, culture and engagement initiatives in line with Dutch laws.
• Provide governance of HR operations, payroll, benefits, and data quality.
• Support compensation activities and annual performance reviews in the region.

Skills

HR Business Partner

Dutch employment law

Works Council relationships

Stakeholder management

Organisational change

Analytical thinking

English fluency

Education

Bachelor's degree or equivalent

Job description

Korn Ferry is a global organizational consulting firm, combining strategy and talent to drive superior performance for our clients. We can help organizations be more than.

KORN FERRY IN NUMBERS

• We partner with 96% of the FORTUNE 100.
• 100,000 people take part in our leadership programs each month.
• We hold engagement, reward, & management data on 20+ million professionals.
• We’ve published 50+ books.
• We employ more than 7,000 colleagues.
• We have more than 120 offices worldwide.

TOGETHER WE ARE MORE THAN

No one knows more about aligning talent and organizational strategies than Korn Ferry. With our unique expertise, we can help organizations release the power of their collective genius and drive superior performance.

Key Responsibilities

The HR Business Partner Netherlands will work closely with the Managing Director and business leaders across the Netherlands to serve as a dedicated partner, focusing on talent, performance, organisational development, culture and engagement. Core responsibilities of this role will include:

Dedicated Business Partner

• Work closely with the Managing Director and broader country leadership teams.
• Partner with and provide sound counsel and guidance to country business leaders.
• Be approachable and act as a trusted confidant to those across the business at all levels.

Talent Management & Employee Relations

• Work with the leadership teams to identify training and executive coaching needs within individual teams and take positive action to implement such. Participate in evaluation and monitoring of training and executive coaching programs to ensure success, and that training objectives are met.
• Support the leadership teams to identify team and/or individual performance issues, and provide counsel / coaching to line managers, to allow them to proactively manage such performance issues in an appropriate and proportionate manner (from 1-2-1 conversations with employees, through to additional training, mentoring and where appropriate formal Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs)).
• Work with the leadership teams to identify high performers and emerging talent within the business, with a focus on cross team mobility, mentoring programs, succession planning, and promotion candidates.
• Support Business leaders with talent review processes so as to identify and nominate candidates for Promotion as part of the Company’s annual / bi-annual global promotion processes.
• Work with the VP HR, EMEA and Associate General Counsel, EMEA on the resolution of any employee relations issues that arise from time to time (e.g. Disciplinaries, Grievances, Performance Management Processes, Flexible Working Requests etc).
• Act as the subject matter expert on Dutch employment legislation, ensuring all employee relations matters are managed in compliance with local legal requirements.
• Lead complex employee relations cases including disciplinary, grievance, performance management, sickness absence, flexible working requests and organisational change.
• Own the relationship with the Netherlands Works Council and employee representative bodies.
• Lead consultation processes in accordance with Dutch legislation.
• Partner with business leaders to ensure timely communication and consultation on organisational changes.
• Build trusted relationships with employee representatives while balancing business and employee needs.

Change Management

• Partner with the business & HR leadership to provide guidance and support in relation to change management activities, from initial conception of ideas, through to the implementation and communication strategy / process (aligned always with local statutory considerations).
• Responsible for rolling out talent initiatives, programs and communications in the region and core solution areas.

Employee Life-Cycle Management & Operations

• Serve as representative back to HR operations team to ensure all events and related transactions are effectively and efficiently initiated and supported as one central repository of reliable accurate employee data.
• Constantly evaluate, update and make recommendations to contribute to a seamless experience for employees providing overall client service excellence in support of the One Korn Ferry strategy
• Provide governance and oversight of local HR administration, payroll inputs and employee benefits in partnership with HR Operations to ensure compliance and an excellent employee experience.

Policy & Procedure

• Effectively communicate and implement relevant HR policies and processes
• Work to continuously identify areas for improvement with an eye on access, scalability and growth
• Ensure local HR policies and practices remain aligned with Dutch employment legislation.

Culture & Engagement

• Drive, deliver and model a culture of inclusion and collaboration always aligned with our Company core values.
• Promote a culture ofclient service excellence – continuously identifying opportunities for enhancement aligned with Company strategy.
• Work with management teams to improve working relationships, build morale and increase productivity & retention.

Organizational Development & Capability

• Help attract, retain and build top talent by partnering with relevant COEs and driving workforce planning and talent review activities to integrate, onboard, develop and retain key talent. Regularly identify opportunities for improvement

Data & Analytics

• Partner with the regional and global HR Operations teams to support business leaders access to employee data and reporting needed.
• Analyze data and look at trends and metrics, to partner with the business leaders and regional and global HR leadership to develop solutions, programs and policies aligned to such.
• Compensation execution - provide guidance related to new hire, promotion and annual compensation review activities- ensure smooth and accurate execution of decisions per approval matrices and process in place from decision to communication including any annual compensation events (mid-year, year-end etc) and all lead supporting activities in the region

Performance Management

• Partner with COE resources to administer and manage annual performance management programs for the region to ensure active participation, training and compliance for all employees and manager accountability.
• Provide support for annual goal-setting and talent review activities including program administration, follow-up and related decisions and processes consistent with overall Company programs

Project Management & Enterprise-Wide Initiatives

• Represent solution area and region on key global talent initiatives to include key account inductions, new technology implementation and roll-outs, etc.
• Actively participate on HR team, local/office/lob calls and committees/activities etc

Professional Experience/Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent professional qualification.
• Significant experience within an HR Business Partner or Senior HR Generalist role.
• Strong knowledge of Dutch employment law.
• Proven experience managing Works Council relationships.
• Experience operating within a global matrix organisation.
• Commercial mindset with strong business acumen.
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills.
• Demonstrated experience supporting organisational change.
• Ability to balance strategic thinking with hands-on delivery.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving capability.
• Experience within professional services, consulting or another fast-paced international environment would be advantageous.
• Fluent English essential; Dutch language skills preferred.