Regional People Partner in Maidstone

And there’s no feeling quite like helping people create a space that feels truly theirs. That’s what we’re all about at Dunelm. We’re proud to be the UK’s number one choice for homewares, because we know how to make home life that little bit lovelier. It’s not just our customers who feel it. The care we put into our culture means Dunelm is a place where you’ll feel right at home, too.

A little about us: We’re the UK’s leading homewares retailer, offering more than 70,000 products across every room and every style. Our customers shop with us in-store, online, and everywhere in between, thanks to our fast-growing, multichannel approach. We’ve got big plans. We’re working hard to reach more people, more often, with even more choice. That means exciting developments in digital, physical services, innovation and tech, all with the customer at the heart. From store refurbishments to smarter supply chains, we’re investing where it counts.

People Team: Our People Partners are a bold bunch. They work across our regions and central teams to uncover what really makes people tick—and what might be getting in the way. They help stores spot the opportunities, solve the snags, and celebrate what’s working. All with a laser focus on supporting our Stores Plan.

As a Regional People Partner, you’ll be part of our Retail People Operations team and report to the Senior People Business Partner for our stores. You’ll work hand-in-hand with Regional Coaches and the wider People team to bring our People Strategy to life across stores. That means empowering our teams to grow, spotting potential, and helping our people build the skills they need to thrive. Everything you do will have purpose. You’ll act with intention, move at pace, and always look for ways to add a little extra Value, and Joy, wherever you can.

What you'll be doing:

• Develop long term succession plans across the Region ensuring all leadership roles have successors identified to mitigate risks.
• The role includes responsibility for our Northern Ireland stores with a requirement to visit Northern Ireland a minimum of once per month.
• Using the data available and being driven with this to make informed collaborative decisions.
• Ensure you drive Quality and Productivity by validating that all colleague conversations are correctly executed throughout the year, with meaningful objectives and development plans being kept alive.
• Ensure key people processes are adhered to e.g., absence management, maternity/paternity/adoption leave, disciplinaries and grievances.
• Support the stores in improving the end-to-end recruitment and onboarding processes.
• Be the advocate of all apprenticeship and training programmes, identifying potential colleagues to be on these courses, and support them through their journey.
• Be the voice of reason through listening to our frontline colleagues, help to influence decisions and ultimately winning the hearts and minds of all.
• Identify talent, and work collaboratively to develop their capabilities with our retail and central teams, and always we lead with a D&I lens.
• Create a great environment to work, ensuring the basic wellbeing and psychological needs of all colleagues are being met.
• Connect with the community of our stores in order to support our Employment Value Proposition.
• Drive colleague engagement and communication across all channels and champion the reward and recognition tools available.
• Be the drivers of appreciation and recognition.
• Own the total listening system on the region, that all ladders up to our National Voice.

What we'll look for in you:

• Full driving licence (field based role).
• A visible and energetic leader with strong strategic capability who is able to enthuse, motivate and mentor their team and has the ability to “take people on the journey”.
• A ‘brave’ approach, keen to drive performance improvement and impact bottom-line profit throughout the organisation.
• Evidence of successfully working in a multi-site environment, where relationship building and influencing skills are essential.
• A good networker who is able to influence and pull people, teams, and ideas together.
• A low-ego personality with evidence of strong self-awareness, sensing/perceiving skills, who values the power of team working.
• A resilient ‘can-do’ and pragmatic disposition, eager to embrace operational and strategic elements of the role.
• A hunger for personal development and learning which is admired by all those that interact with them.
• Being a strong communicator who can also listen to others and work on actioning to support feedback.
• Confident in both written and verbal communication. You listen and embrace input from others.
• Motivate others. You have the leadership qualities to motivate people towards the future. You help achieve by helping take people forward with drive.
• Be a problem solver. Enjoys the challenges we face from around the business and turning them into viable solutions.