Junior People Partner

Salary: £35-40k + bonus

Role type: Permanent, full time

Location: Stoke-On-Trent

Reporting to: Senior People Partner

About Hometree

Join Hometree Group and be at the forefront of transforming the residential energy landscape. Founded in 2015, Hometree began its journey in the home cover market. Today, we are spearheading the shift towards a future where home energy systems are decentralised, digitised, and reliant on renewable sources such as heat pumps, solar panels, batteries, EV chargers, and smart controls. This innovative approach is not just about sustainability; it's about empowering homeowners to manage their energy more efficiently and cost-effectively, thereby setting new standards in energy consumption.

We operate across three dynamic divisions:

• Financial Services: Here, you'll contribute to offering flexible financing options that make it feasible for homeowners to embrace renewable energy technologies and make essential upgrades.
• Energy Services: Be part of our extensive network of local installation businesses that equip homeowners with the cutting-edge, sustainable energy solutions necessary for reaching net-zero emissions.
• Home Services: Help maintain the comfort and functionality of homes with comprehensive coverage plans that protect the essential hardware in the home.

At Hometree Group, we are committed to guiding UK homeowners on their journey towards more sustainable energy solutions, and we need passionate individuals to support them at every step. Join us during this exciting time, and play a pivotal role in a business that supports sustainable homeownership in alignment with their readiness and needs.

Key Achievements

• £85m+ Capital Raised: We’ve raised over £85m to date from leading global investors including Legal & General Capital and specialist energy VCs.
• 7 Acquisitions: We've expanded our operations by acquiring four key companies across financing (Hometree Finance - formerly Bewarm), home cover (Your Repair) and energy services (Geowarmth, The Little Green Energy Company, IMS and GreenGen). And we have most recently announced the acquisition of OVO Home Services and Corgi Homeplan (subject to FCA approval).
• 100k Homes Covered: We cover over one hundred thousand homes across the UK.
• 550+ Employees: We have over 550 passionate employees transforming the industry across the Group, one home at a time.

The Role

This is a rare chance to step into a true People Partner role inside a high-growth, multi-entity scale-up at a genuinely pivotal stage. With the acquisition of OVO Home Services, we’re scaling fast, and the way we partner the business is growing and evolving with it. You’d be joining at a moment where you can make a real, visible difference from early on.

You’ll report to the Senior People Partner for Cover and partner two of our cover businesses, Hometree and Your Repair, supporting around 100 people across two distinct customer ops workforces. As the OVO Home Services integration lands, you’ll grow into supporting around 200 incoming colleagues, so your scope grows as you do.

Employee relations sits at the heart of the role. You’ll manage a real and varied ER caseload and coach managers through the tricky conversations, with the Senior People Partner alongside you on the toughest cases.

But the brief is broad. You’ll translate business needs and people data into clear People plans, support performance management and manager capability, and support talent management, development planning, retention and succession across your two cover businesses. You’ll help bring our culture, values and engagement to life in two very different teams, and play your part in pay and performance review cycles, policy changes and the OVO integration.

It’s built for someone with strong ER experience who’s also a commercial, data-driven self-starter: comfortable with ambiguity and excited to make their mark. You’ll get real ownership early, visible impact, and the chance to help shape how the People function works as we scale.

Responsibilities

• Employee Relations & Casework: Manage a varied ER caseload across Hometree and Your Repair, including absence, flexible working, reasonable adjustments, disciplinaries, grievances, conduct and capability, building to running cases independently.
• Support absence management when trigger points are hit, advising managers, handling occupational health referrals and managing long-term absence and ill-health cases.
• Handle flexible working and reasonable adjustment cases with care, balancing the needs of the individual, the team and the operation.
• Support managers with Performance improvement plans (PIPs), setting clear expectations, support and timelines, and seeing them through to a fair conclusion.
• Keep clear records and fair, consistent outcomes, stay close to employment law and our policies, and flag risk early, working with the Senior People Partner on the most complex cases.

People Partnering & Plan Delivery: Translate business priorities and people data (attrition, absence, engagement, performance) into clear, practical People plan activity for your two cover entities, and help track delivery against it.

Turn data into insight and a “so what”, spotting trends and risks early and bringing recommendations, not just dashboards.

Support managers through performance management, from goal setting and reviews to calibration and underperformance.

Support talent management and development planning, contributing to talent reviews and calibration and helping managers build development plans that grow and progress their people.

Contribute to retention and succession planning, helping spot flight risk and key-person risk before it becomes a problem.

Manager Coaching & Capability: Be the trusted first port of call for managers across both cover workforces, giving clear, practical advice on the people issues they face day to day, always with an eye on the needs of the business.

Coach managers through sensitive conversations so they grow more confident handling people issues themselves over time.

Equip managers with the tools, templates and confidence to handle the routine themselves, raising the standard of people management consistently across both businesses.

Engagement, Culture & Values: Help bring our values (Radical Candor, Ownership, Customer Obsession, Teamwork, Speed) to life in two very different operational environments.

Work with managers to support and build on employee engagement activity, from acting on survey feedback to recognition, comms and connection across onsite and remote teams.

Be a visible, trusted presence on the floor, building relationships that mean people come to you early.

Wider People Team, Integration & Change: Support Group-wide People cycles such as pay review and performance review, adapting and landing them well for our cover populations.

Contribute to policy introductions and amendments, and help managers and employees understand what’s changing and why.

Play your part in change management activity as the Group grows.

Bring ideas. We’re still building, so we want someone who improves how we do things, not just runs the playbook.

What we’re looking for:

• Strong ER experience: genuine, hands-on experience managing ER cases (absence, flexible working, reasonable adjustments, disciplinaries, grievances, PIPs), with the judgement and confidence to handle sensitive situations well. This is essential.
• A self-starter: you spot what needs doing and get on with it. You don’t wait to be handed a process, you build and improve as you go.
• Data-driven: you’re comfortable with numbers, can read what they’re telling you, and turn that into a clear recommendation or plan.
• Commercial mindset: you understand the business you’re supporting and frame people decisions in terms of risk, cost, performance and growth.
• Innovative: you bring ideas and aren’t precious about the status quo. You want to improve how things are done.
• Comfortable with ambiguity: you’re energised by a fast-moving environment where the answer isn’t always written down yet.
• Confident with managers: you give clear, practical advice and aren’t afraid to coach managers through tough moments.
• Hungry to have an impact: you want a role where you can make your mark and see real impact, and you’re excited to do that at a genuine moment of growth.

Extra Credit:

• CIPD Level 5 (or working towards it), or equivalent experience that gets you to the same place.
• Experience partnering a customer ops, contact centre or field-based workforce, where shift patterns, volume and pace are part of daily life.
• Experience supporting more than one business, brand or site at once.
• Exposure to integration or change programmes.
• A background in insurance or another regulated sector.

Our Recruitment Process:

• Initial Call (30 mins): An introductory conversation with our Talent Acquisition Partner to learn more about the role and explore your potential fit.
• Skills Interview (30 mins): A discussion with our Director of People & Culture and People Partner focused on your experiences, skills, and approach to problem-solving.
• Values Interview (30 mins): A conversation with two of your potential stakeholders within Hometree and Your Repair Customer Operations, our Customer Care Team Lead, Hometree and Allocations Manager, Your Repair, exploring how you align with Hometree’s values and ways of working.
• Snr Stakeholder Interview (30 mins): A final interview with the most important stakeholder for this position, the Director of Customer Operations to discuss your motivations and how you’d partner the team day to day.

Location & Travel: This role is based onsite, 4 days per week, in our Your Repair office in Stoke-on-Trent (parking available), alongside the onsite Customer Ops team. To partner both cover businesses well, you’ll also travel monthly to Peterborough pod days for our primarily-remote Hometree cover ops team, and quarterly to London to spend time with the wider People team. Travel and expenses are covered for all non-Stoke-on-Trent travel.

Perks of the job:

• 25 days holiday plus bank holidays and your birthday.
• Discounted gym membership across over 100 UK gyms (independent and chains) and free fitness, wellness and nutrition apps, through Wellhub.
• Support for your mental health, wellbeing and career coaching via Oliva.
• EV Salary Sacrifice through the electric car scheme.
• Free boiler & home emergency cover with Hometree plus 40% discount for friends & family.
• Menopause support from Stella, including friends & family access.
• Cycle to work scheme.
• Regular team socials including Summer and Winter parties.

FCA Code of Conduct: At Hometree, we prioritise ethical conduct and regulatory compliance. As a regulated financial services organisation, we operate under the strict guidelines and regulations set forth by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). We are committed to maintaining the highest standards of integrity and professionalism in all aspects of our business. As a prospective member of our team, you will be expected to fully embrace and adhere to the FCA Code of Conduct obligations. These obligations are designed to ensure the fair treatment of customers, the preservation of market integrity, and the promotion of healthy competition within the financial services industry.

Equal Opportunity Employer: At Hometree, we are committed to creating an inclusive and representative environment. We know that different experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds make for a better workplace and a better planet. Together, we celebrate differences and promote a culture where you can bring your full self to work. We promise to give you the same opportunities as everyone else and we won’t discriminate against you at any point in the hiring process or the working day. This includes how we source talent, our interview process, our conditions of employment, feedback and everything in between.