Senior HR Business Partner - 12 months FTC

Howden is a global insurance group with employee ownership at its heart. Together, we have pushed the boundaries of insurance. We are united by a shared passion and no-limits mindset, and our strength lies in our ability to collaborate as a powerful international team comprised of 24,000 employees spanning over 56 countries. People join Howden for many different reasons, but they stay for the same one: our culture. It’s what sets us apart, and the reason our employees have been turning down headhunters for years. Whatever your priorities – work/life balance, career progression, sustainability, volunteering – you’ll find like-minded people driving change at Howden.

12 month FTC Full time position, 5 days a week (hybrid working).

A confident HR professional able to lead initiatives directly with business stakeholders to drive high performance and engagement.

A motivated team player with strong HR expertise and solid commercial knowledge of employment law, HR trends, organisational and performance development, and reward strategies.

An opportunity to partner with UK Underwriting teams to support business plans and foster an entrepreneurial, high-performing culture.

Be part of a fun, collaborative UK HR team.

Role overview

We are looking for a motivated and enthusiastic individual, with excellent organisational and communication skills and a strong attention to detail. The successful candidate will have the ability to work quickly, efficiently and methodically and have in depth knowledge of HR processes and procedures, including but not limited to employee relations, talent management, performance development and workforce planning, with the ability to lead HR initiatives to drive influence and deliver the HR People Plan to complex and specialised lines of business. The successful individual will be required to work closely with the Head of HR, respective Business Partners, Chief Underwriting Officer, Chief Distribution Officer as well as the wider UK Underwriting business (Commercial & Specialty), whilst collaborating with the Group HR Centres of Excellences - experience working in a matrix style organisation is essential. You will be able to work in a fast paced, complex and entrepreneurial environment and have the ability to work with a degree of ambiguity that comes with growth and transformational change.

Role responsibilities

• Leads the implementation of HR projects to support the achievement of the HR functional objectives, including but not limited to projects relating to integration, change transformation and building efficiencies.
• Leads HR initiatives with UK business stakeholders to deliver a first class people strategy aligned to attracting and retaining talent, embedding performance development, supporting business growth and encouraging better business alignment and synergies both at a strategic and operational level including delivery of the people plan for the Commercial underwriting business strategy.
• Become the point person/lead for all people related issues in current and future M&A activity, attending Steering Committees and driving integration plans for all new team initiatives, ensuring appropriate plans are in place to ensure the seamless integration of new businesses and employees, protecting our culture and values.
• Holds a strong awareness of business strategy, operational plans and commercial insight with a solid understanding of how the people plan/agenda complements this.
• Acts as a role model to support in coaching and developing the HR Assistants/Advisors within the team and provides support and counsel to other Business Partners with their respective business areas.
• Works collaboratively with the Group HR Centres of Excellences (e.g. HRES, L&D, Recruitment, HRIS, Reward) to continuously improve the offering to the business, thinking differently and innovatively of how best to support the business to achieve their highest potential through the successful delivery of programmes.
• To be a valued people partner, that offers insight, challenge and new innovative thinking to people managers and business leaders.
• Promotes a high performance management culture to drive the delivery of objectives, working with employees and coaching managers, to ensure a more robust process/framework is in place.
• Works with the Head of HR and internal stakeholders to deliver on year end compensation review with data insight and benchmarking process from beginning to end.
• Provides technical HR expertise and guidance to the business and to the wider HR team to ensure the management of people resources is cost efficient, effective and compliant with best practice, factoring in legislative and regulatory standards.
• An active member of the Group ERGs, to provide valuable insight and tangible actions to improve inclusion, diversity, culture and engagement on behalf of DUAL HR and the UK business.
• Collaborates with the DUAL Marketing and Communications team to ensure a high level of engagement through communication channels internally and externally (websites, social media) reviewing and redefining our Employee Value Proposition to drive inclusion, engagement and encourage greater talent attraction and retention.
• Uses data from HRIS, People Surveys and market intelligence, combined with personal influence to inform decision making, draft papers and provide business insight, to make positive change.
• Identifies and communicates potential people risks and opportunities, influencing the business with solution based action.

Key requirements

• Ability to influence and manage senior relationships.
• Strong business acumen and commercial awareness.
• Strong coaching and mentoring skills.
• Innovative thinker/initiative led thinking.
• Consultation and negotiation skills.
• Resilient.
• Ability to solve complex people issues, mitigating risk.
• Able to adapt in a fast paced and changing environment with ambiguity.
• Good technical HR knowledge, including employment legislation, internal and external trends in HR, organisational development techniques and change management disciplines.
• Strong understanding of the regulatory environment.
• Strong experience of working in HR partnering role, ideally in a financial services/insurance organisation.
• CIPD membership and/or relevant qualification.

What do we offer in return?

Our successes have all come from someone brave enough to try something new. We support each other in the small everyday moments and the bigger challenges. We are determined to make a positive difference at work and beyond.

Reasonable adjustments

We’re committed to providing reasonable accommodations at Howden to ensure that our positions align well with your needs. Besides the usual adjustments such as software, IT, and office setups, we can also accommodate other changes such as flexible hours or hybrid working. If you’re excited by this role but have some doubts about whether it’s the right fit for you, send us your application – if your profile fits the role’s criteria, we will be in touch to assist in helping to get you set up with any reasonable adjustments you may require.