HR Business Partner

Westland Milk Products; Christchurch; On-site; NZD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Westland Milk Products in Christchurch (Hornby) seeks an HR Business Partner for a 12-month fixed-term, full-time role. You’ll work closely with senior leaders across corporate and commercial portfolios, helping leaders get the best from their people and building capability.

Based at our Hornby office, you’ll coach managers, support workforce and succession planning, translate people data into meaningful conversations, and collaborate with People & Culture specialists to bring the right

Qualifications

• Solid generalist HR experience with management-level partnering
• Strong coaching and influencing skills for leaders
• Good commercial awareness and business understanding beyond HR
• Experience across capability, talent, performance and workforce planning
• Confidence using people data and insights for decisions
• Sound knowledge of New Zealand employment practices
• Ability to work through change and ambiguity without rigid guidance

Responsibilities

• Partner with senior leaders across corporate and commercial portfolios
• Coach and challenge managers to improve performance
• Support workforce and succession planning initiatives
• Translate people data into meaningful conversations and actions
• Collaborate with People & Culture specialists across Talent Acquisition, OD and Remuneration & Rewards
• Proactively partner with leaders to strengthen capability and workforce effectiveness

Skills

Generalist HR experience

Coaching & influencing

Commercial awareness

Capability & workforce planning

People data insights

NZ employment practices

Change management

Job description

Christchurch (Hornby) | 12-month fixed term | Full time | Competitive Salary + benefits

• Partner with senior leaders across a diverse and evolving business
• Make your mark across leadership capability, workforce planning and organisational effectiveness
• Join the wider Yili Oceania business with global scale and genuine opportunity to influence

A Bit About The Role

This is an HRBP role for someone who enjoys getting close to the business, understanding what makes it tick and helping leaders get the best from their people.

Based at our Hornby office in Christchurch, you'll partner across a predominantly corporate and commercial portfolio, supporting leaders across areas including Finance, Innovation and broader corporate functions.

There's plenty happening. As the business continues to evolve, we're looking for an HRBP who can help our leaders think ahead, build capability and make good people decisions based on a strong understanding of their teams and their workforce.

You'll coach and challenge managers, support workforce and succession planning, identify capability priorities and turn people data into useful conversations and action. You'll also work alongside our People & Culture specialists across Talent Acquisition, Organisational Development and Remuneration & Rewards to bring the right expertise into the business when it's needed.

Our philosophy is simple: know your people, know your numbers. We want someone who is curious enough to understand both.

You'll be part of a broader People & Culture team, so while you'll need sound ER knowledge and confidence handling day-to-day people matters, this isn't a role dominated by case management. The real opportunity is to work proactively with leaders and help strengthen capability, performance and workforce effectiveness. This emphasis is consistent with the HRBP position purpose, which specifically calls for proactive, strategic partnering rather than waiting for issues to arise.

A Bit About You

You're probably already operating as an HR Business Partner or experienced HR Advisor and looking for an opportunity where you can step further into genuine business partnering.

You can comfortably move between the people conversation and the business conversation. You're interested in what's driving the function, where the capability gaps sit, what the workforce data is saying and what leaders could do differently.

You'll Bring

• Solid generalist HR experience, ideally with experience partnering directly with managers and senior leaders
• Strong coaching and influencing skills
• Good commercial awareness and an interest in understanding the business beyond HR
• Experience across capability, talent, performance and workforce planning
• Confidence using people data and insights to support decision-making
• Sound knowledge of New Zealand employment practices
• The ability to work through change and ambiguity without needing everything mapped out for you

A Bit About Us

Westland Milk Products is a proud New Zealand dairy manufacturer with deep South Island roots and a genuinely international reach.

From our Christchurch, Rolleston and Hokitika locations, our people work across everything from manufacturing and technical operations through to finance, innovation, sales, marketing and corporate functions. Westland Milk Products' careers information highlights opportunities spanning corporate areas including Finance, Human Resources, Sales and Marketing, Legal and IT alongside its manufacturing operations.

We're part of the wider Yili Oceania group, giving our people the opportunity to work within a New Zealand business while being connected to the scale and reach of a global dairy organisation.

It's a business that's continuing to grow and evolve, which makes this an interesting time to join People & Culture. You'll have the opportunity to work with experienced leaders, tackle real business challenges and help shape how we build capability for what comes next.

Applicants must have valid work rights in New Zealand.