People Partner

Location: UK - Remote/Hybrid

Salary: Up to £46,000 plus benefits

Our vision is to create a safe and sustainable world. Ricardo plc is a global strategic, environmental, and engineering consulting company. With over 100 years of engineering excellence and employing close to 3,000 employees in more than 20 countries, we provide exceptional levels of expertise in delivering leading-edge and innovative cross-sector sustainable products and solutions.

Role Overview

We are looking for a proactive, hands-on People Partner with strong HR advisory background and experience in managing high volumes of employee relations cases to join us for a 15 months’ maternity cover FTC. Working within a friendly, capable and fast-paced small team of People Partners supported by six HR administrators, you will contribute to delivering Ricardo strategic objectives through excellent people service. This is a UK remote role that will give you a lot of autonomy to manage your deliverables and achieve results with a flexible approach. This is an excellent opportunity for an experienced HR professional who is eager to roll up their sleeves, hit the ground running, and drive meaningful change.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as a trusted advisor to managers, providing coaching and practical support on a range of people-related matters.
• Guide and coach managers through employee relations cases, performance management, sickness absence, and capability concerns.
• Support the identification of training and development needs, offering tailored solutions and conducting skills gap analyses.
• Monitor casework, identify trends, and recommend strategies to reduce case volume.
• Analyse HR data and compile reports to highlight trends, informing recommendations to the HR Manager.
• Deliver monthly HR metrics reports (e.g. absence, sickness, turnover) and lead quarterly ‘lunch and learn’ sessions for managers.
• Review, update, and improve HR policies and associated documentation.
• Provide support for change initiatives, including restructures, redundancies, mergers, and acquisitions.
• Assist in the delivery of HR projects in line with business objectives.
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of employment legislation and best practice, sharing insights with the wider team.
• Support managers with apprenticeship and graduate recruitment activities across various business entities.
• Contribute to strategic HR initiatives in partnership with the HR Manager and HR Business Partners.
• Take ownership of your professional development with a proactive approach to learning.
• Ensure adherence to SLAs and KPIs.

Key Competencies and Experience

• Associate CIPD membership or equivalent relevant qualifications.
• Extensive HR experience within commercially focused, multi-site organisations.
• Strong track record in managing complex employee relations cases.
• In-depth and up-to-date knowledge of UK employment legislation.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite.
• Experienced in producing and analysing a range of HR reports and data.

Working here

You will be warmly welcomed into our workplace where every voice matters. We are diverse thinkers and doers, coming together to create a culture of inclusion. We will support you to find your place. We will encourage you to use your passion and expertise to make a positive impact through the projects you work on. Your knowledge and desire to bring about change will be invaluable in helping deliver innovative solutions that support communities across the globe in becoming safer and more sustainable.

Work life balance

We offer flexible approaches to work, whether that is working from home, being in the office, or as a hybrid worker. We're happy to discuss flexible working arrangements. Wellbeing is at the core of our culture, allowing employees to flourish and to achieve their full potential.

Benefits

We want you to know how much you are valued. Your remuneration and benefits package will reflect that. You will receive a range of benefits which include support for your physical and mental health. Our core benefits include 25 days' annual leave, plus 8 flexible bank holidays, a competitive company pension scheme, life assurance and professional subscriptions reimbursement. We also offer a wide range of flexible benefits to suit your lifestyle.

Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion statement

We are an Equal Opportunity Employer, we believe in each person's potential, and we'll help you reach yours. We have an ambitious diversity, equality, and inclusion approach. We value diversity; recognising that a more diverse workforce creates a richer and more varied working environment. Diversity also drives innovation, by allowing us to offer our clients the best consultancy service that we can. As part of our commitment to engage positively and pro-actively with all our employees and to ensure an inclusive culture, we are recognised as a 'disability confident' employer.

Next steps

Once you have submitted your application a member of our Recruitment Team will be in touch. Please be aware that the timing can vary dependent on the volume of applications that we receive for each role and in some cases, we may start to review applications prior to the closing date. Ricardo is a Disability confident employer please advise the recruitment team if you require any adjustments to support you throughout the recruitment process.