Lead People Relations Partner in London

Canada Life UK looks after the retirement, investment and protection needs of individuals, families and companies. We help to build better futures for our customers, our intermediaries and our employees by operating as a modern, agile and welcoming organisation. Part of our parent company Great-West Lifeco, Canada Life UK has operated in the United Kingdom since 1903. We have hundreds of respected and supported employees committed to doing the right thing for our customers and colleagues. Canada Life UK is transforming to create a more customer-focused business by providing our customers with expertise on financial and tax planning, offering home finance and annuities propositions, and providing collective fund solutions to third party customers.

Job Purpose:

The role holder is responsible for shaping and implementing people strategies and delivery of people changes across our business. The role holder is a key member of the People Strategy leadership team and responsible for the delivery of organisational change, business partnering activity and employee relations for Canada Life LUK across all geographies. The role holder will lead within the People Partnering team, providing strategic direction, governance and oversight to ensure consistent execution of people priorities, effective risk management and delivery of business outcomes. Acting as a trusted delegate for the Chief People Officer when required, the role holder will lead key strategic initiatives, drive enterprise-wide people activities and ensure the People function delivers against its objectives while maintaining compliance, operational excellence and organisational effectiveness.

Responsibilities:

• Collaborate with senior leadership teams and their respective teams to shape and plan a commercially focused people strategy and future focused organisational model that fulfils both the needs of Finance or COO and the broader CLUK organisation.
• Develop people plans and solutions to support the achievement of the overall business objectives whilst ensuring compliance with relevant local legislation and best practice.
• Enable transformation and change across the organisation including leading the people aspects of potential M&A activity, operating model evolution, restructuring and merging of companies.
• Identify the people capability requirements to deliver the strategic agenda, oversee the effective deployment of talent plans & solutions, working across the Group, to ensure the organisation has the necessary talent and capabilities to meet business needs now and into the future.
• Elevate people leadership capabilities by providing advice, support and coaching to senior leadership level people leaders on all people and talent matters.
• Optimise the employee experience & engagement levels supporting local leaders to own people management practices & local engagement activities in addition to the organisation wide initiatives to continue our journey on building a great place to work.
• Lead and coordinate strategic People initiatives and governance activities on behalf of the Chief People Officer, ensuring the successful delivery of key organisational priorities.
• Provide leadership, direction and oversight to the People Relations Partner team, driving high-quality execution of people plans, organisational change, employee relations and business partnering activities.
• Ensure effective risk management, regulatory compliance, governance and operational discipline across the People agenda, maintaining a strong focus on delivering business outcomes, protecting the organisation and enabling sustainable performance.

Experience:

What you’ll bring to the role:

• Have significant experience operating at a senior level in a CPO function ideally within Financial Services with the skills, experience and confidence to operate at strategic level, guiding, influencing and collaborating with executive team.
• Have solid knowledge of various people disciplines such as Diversity, Compensation, Employee Relations, Performance Management, Talent Management, Staffing and Organisational Effectiveness.
• Show strong commercial acumen, be a trusted confidante and advise on fit for purpose people solutions to enable the organisation to shape & deliver business strategy.
• Experience of talent development and identifying the components required for developing talent & enabling People Strategies role in delivering a high-performance environment.
• Able to take a holistic approach to analyse business issues to develop & implement integrated people solutions, ensuring that the linkages between structure, people, process and technology are made.
• Able to bring a fresh perspective and insight to the assigned business area(s), where necessary challenging the status quo and acting as a sounding board and source of counsel on all people related matters.
• Ability to be a change catalyst who has the ability to successfully manage change that improves organisational performance.
• Strong decision-making capability, comfortable leading and directing in ambiguous, complex and fast-paced environments. Exercises sound judgement, balances risk and opportunity effectively, takes accountability for outcomes, and acts with the utmost integrity.
• Fosters collaborative relationships across functions and business to facilitate cooperation and information exchanges that improve customer and business outcomes.
• Demonstrable track record of operating both strategically and operationally, translating long-term organisational priorities into practical and executable people plans.
• Have the ability to influence, partner and negotiate with management at all levels and execute with excellence. Be a diplomatic individual with the ability to adapt to, coach and be effective with diverse leadership styles.
• Have a positive attitude, be motivated, be action oriented, and have a preference for working as part of a team.

Benefits of working at Canada Life:

We believe in recognising and rewarding our people, so we offer a competitive salary and benefits package that’s regularly reviewed. As a Canada Life UK colleague, you’ll receive a competitive salary and comprehensive reward package including a generous pension and bonus scheme, along with income protection, private medical insurance and life assurance. We have a fantastic number of other benefits and support services as well as regular personal and professional development.

How we work at Canada Life:

Our culture is unique and incredibly important to us. We care about doing the right thing for our people, customers and community and helping others to build better futures. Our blueprint behaviours shape and influence how we work, and are central to the relationships we have with others. Every day we are encouraged to be more curious, own the outcome, face into things together and find a way forward. We want colleagues to have rewarding careers with us so we invest in the development of our people, technology and workplaces. That’s why we offer a range of training, flexible working and opportunities to grow and develop.

Diversity and inclusion:

Building an inclusive workplace with a diverse workforce where everyone can feel they belong and achieve their potential regardless of gender, ethnicity or any other characteristic is a key commitment for us. We are proud of the progress we’re making in DEI, and we continue for it to be a significant focus.

“At Canada Life we believe in the power of great people from different backgrounds, experiences and perspectives coming together to build better futures. Emerging talent is crucial to our growth and creating an environment that continues to inspire us all.” Nick Harding, Chief People Officer, Canada Life UK.

We appreciate that everyone has different work and life responsibilities. We’re happy to discuss flexible working arrangements, including part time, for any of our roles should this be a requirement for you.