People Services Associate

The people team develops the capabilities, culture and experiences that create a human and commercial edge for Baillie Gifford. We exist to make the firm the world’s most distinctive place to grow a career, investing in our people with the same long-term conviction as our portfolios and continually reimagining how work is done to outpace the industry. The team supports the full people lifecycle, including people operations, people partnering, leadership, learning and capability development, attraction and resourcing, organisational culture, reward, wellbeing and the end-to-end people experience. Through this work, we ensure that people and performance are deeply connected and that our colleagues are equipped to deliver long-term value for clients.

Our People Services team brings our people strategy to life through the day-to-day moments that matter, resolving colleague queries and delivering the core operational processes that support people throughout their time at the firm. Supporting around 1,700 colleagues across 11 countries, the team combines responsive support, accurate and consistent operations, sound judgement, strong controls and continuous improvement to make the everyday people experience seamless, scalable and reliable. In doing so, the team is a critical enabler of pace, performance and confidence across the organisation.

As a People Services Associate, you’ll play a central role in making everyday interactions with People Services feel simple, responsive and well supported. Combining care, accuracy and sound judgement, you’ll help keep the operational foundations of the People team running smoothly. You’ll take ownership of day-to-day queries, cases and core operational processes from start to finish, ensuring colleagues and managers receive clear answers and dependable support. Alongside delivering a high-quality service, you’ll contribute practical ideas and help deliver improvements that make People Services simpler, more consistent and more effective over time.

Responsibilities

• Delivers high-quality people services across the employee lifecycle, taking ownership of core operational processes to ensure a clear, responsive and supportive colleague experience.
• Acts as a trusted first point of contact for colleagues and managers, ensuring queries are understood, prioritised, resolved or escalated in line with agreed service standards.
• Identifies operational incidents, service failures and data-quality issues, takes appropriate action and records, resolves or escalates them in line with agreed procedures.
• Uses day-to-day experience, colleague and manager feedback and recurring query themes to identify friction, risks, unclear guidance and improvement opportunities.
• Shares learning, contributes practical ideas and helps deliver defined improvements that make services simpler and more effective.
• Contributes to team knowledge by sharing learning, identifying gaps in guidance and maintaining accurate documentation for the work they deliver.
• Builds knowledge across a range of People Services areas, with opportunities to deepen expertise and take ownership of defined processes or improvement activity over time.

What success looks like:

• A trusted and responsive service: colleagues and managers know where to go, receive clear support and have confidence that commitments will be followed through.
• Reliable, high-quality delivery: core processes, queries and cases are handled accurately, on time and to clear service standards.
• Accurate data and strong controls: systems and records are kept up to date, required checks are completed and risks or errors are identified and addressed promptly.
• Sound judgement: day-to-day issues are resolved confidently, with advice sought and matters escalated at the right time.
• Practical improvement: learning from operational delivery is shared and translated into changes that reduce friction and strengthen the service.
• Growing capability: knowledge and confidence develop over time, enabling a broader contribution across the team and greater resilience within the service.

Knowledge and experience

• Experience delivering excellent customer service or operational support, ideally within HR, People Services or another operational environment.
• Strong organisational skills with the ability to manage multiple tasks, prioritise work and deliver accurately to agreed timescales.
• Experience using business systems and maintaining accurate records, with excellent attention to detail and an appreciation of the importance of data quality.
• Clear written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain information in a helpful and accessible way.
• A collaborative approach, with the ability to build positive relationships and work effectively with colleagues and stakeholders.
• A proactive mindset, with an interest in identifying opportunities to improve processes and enhance the colleague experience.

We’re looking for someone who enjoys helping people and takes pride in delivering a high-quality service. You’ll take ownership of your work from start to finish, balancing pace with care and accuracy to ensure colleagues and managers receive timely, thoughtful and dependable support. You’ll enjoy working collaboratively, building your knowledge across different areas of People Services and developing your skills over time. You’ll be comfortable managing competing priorities, adapting to changing demands and using sound judgement to resolve day-to-day queries and operational issues, knowing when to seek advice or expand. You’ll naturally look for opportunities to make things simpler, whether that means improving guidance, streamlining a process or sharing ideas that enhance the colleague experience. Whether you’re building your career in People Services or bringing transferable experience from another customer-focused environment, you’ll be motivated by delivering an excellent service and continually improving how work gets done.

Critical skills

• Team working
• Nurture relationships
• Improvement mindset
• Digital effectiveness (including AI)
• Adaptability

At Baillie Gifford, we are committed to fostering an inclusive and respectful culture in which each of our colleagues can thrive and develop. We believe that our clients are best served by a diverse workforce with the experiences, ideas and perspectives that this brings.