People Business Partner

It’s the people at Shakespeare Martineau that make us so special. By understanding what our people want, giving them the support they need, recognising everyone’s contribution and realising the unique power of teams, together we win.   As a firm we are focused on proactively building and developing diverse teams, bringing different backgrounds, personalities and perspectives together. We play to our strengths, pushing ourselves to be consistently better than yesterday and deliver amazing solutions for our clients. We empower our teams with a high degree of individual responsibility; we self-manage and encourage everyone to be responsible for their own learning, knowing it makes us even better at what we do!    

We believe in trusting our people to make the right decisions for themselves, from when and where you work, to how you dress; we focus on outputs.  

Want to find more about our amazing benefits?

Our Marketing & People Team comprises People Business Partnering, Development, Talent & Culture, Reward and People Operations functions all focussed on building a high-performance and people centric culture with strong engagement and a reputation for developing talent and enabling success at all levels.

The People Business Partnering team lead the delivery of the people aspects of the group strategy and culture; providing a dynamic infrastructure that continuously builds capability across the business. Influencing, coaching, impacting and delivering positive change through an outcome focussed approach that aligns to our growth ambitions.

As a People Business Partner you will lead the delivery of the people agenda, building business and leadership capability and developing a high performance culture; being brave and exploring progressive commercial ways of working to facilitate business growth. 

You will generate insight from data evidence, converting this into tangible deliverables that are aligned to the business’s goals. The People Business Partner is an outcome focused, influential change agent who challenges the status quo, whilst navigating their way through ambiguous and complex situations.  They continuously progress the people experience, embedding the firm’s values and behaviours.

This role is offered on an initial 12 month fixed term contract.

What you will be doing:

• Partnering with our leaders to understand and interpret strategic initiatives, and develop tangible measurable outcomes
• Acting as trusted advisors, who coach leaders (Members & managers) on people-related activity, including business, plans, decisions and direction
• Defining and leading the business unit people agenda, ensuring this is aligned to the firm’s strategic ambitions and cultural experience that we want to create for our people
• Analysing financial information to assess both team and individual performance, and anticipate workforce planning
• Liaising with the Recruitment & Member Services on senior level and lateral partner hires
• Informing and influencing reward decisions, ensuring compliance with the firm-wide Reward approach and moderation of decision making
• Planning, forecasting, coordinating and brokering people activity (oversee delivery by calling upon the services of other People teams – i.e. Recruitment, Ops, L&D, ER, etc.)
• Working across the business to co-design people initiatives aligned to our culture and values
• Building leadership capability (e.g. people management and development), facilitating team conversations and measurable goal setting, whilst driving positive change 
• Facilitating discussions around change and transformation, providing expert and pragmatic, commercial advice based on a deep understanding of the business
• Providing our people with a range of different options, resources and experiences to encourage them to take ownership of of their own performance, careers and learning
• Working with the Talent and Culture team to embed our culture and values, including our Responsible Business initiatives
• Leading and participating on projects to support the People Change Programme, as well as other annual activities

Skills and experience you will have:

• solid generalist HR experience
• previous experience of partnering with a business on a range of people related projects
• experience of working across a diverse range of industry sectors
• excellent stakeholder relationship management skills

Key competencies you will need:

• a high degree of organisation and the ability to prioritise effectively
• a flexible approach with the ability to adapt business plans when necessary
• the ability to interact with, and influence, key stakeholders at all levels with confidence and credibility
• to have strong problem solving skills
• an excellent level of empathy and emotional intelligence
• high standards and strong attention to detail
• to enjoy and thrive working in a collaborative team, supporting others when required

About you – you will be:

• highly enthusiastic and willing to go the extra mile
• a self-starter who is positive with a ‘can do’ attitude
• a solutions focussed individual

We embrace agile working and offer a blended approach to where and how we work.

We appreciate that people have different needs and preferences and we’re keen to be flexible, after all, we value what you do, not where you do it.

We have hubs in Birmingham, Leicester, London, Milton Keynes, Nottingham, Solihull, Stratford-upon-Avon and Sheffield. This role has the flexibility to be remote with travel as required into Birmingham or one of our other hubs.

Please be aware, for some vacancies, where we receive high numbers of applications we may need to bring the close date forward.

Due to the nature of the work undertaken, confirmation of employment will be subject to a variety of checks which will be carried out once an offer of employment is accepted. Details of the checks can be found here.

Shakespeare Martineau is a committed equal opportunities employer. We seek to attract, develop and retain talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds and cultures. We value and respect individuality and encourage a culture within our business where people can be themselves and be valued for their strengths and experiences. Everyone who either applies to or works for the firm is treated equally, regardless of their gender, age, ethnic origin, nationality, marital status, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.