HR Business Partner, 12 month fixed term contract in Chelmsford

Kennedys is looking for a HR Business Partner to join our supportive and forward-thinking HR team in our Chelmsford office on a 12 month fixed term contract, working on a hybrid basis. As part of our HR Business Partnering team, reporting into a Senior HR Business Partner, you will provide an excellent standard of service to your allocated business divisions and play a key strategic role in supporting your stakeholders to achieve their commercial goals.

You will have strong HR experience, ideally gained within a partnership environment, with excellent communication and stakeholder management skills. You will also be well versed with key HR processes (including reward, performance and appraisals), with demonstrable experience of handling employee relations matters. You will also support on wider HR initiatives and projects, including an ongoing HR transformation project to improve the way we work as a global HR team.

The Kennedys HR team support the firm around the world with all people related matters. The HR team is based in various locations globally across Kennedys' 5 regions; APAC, EMEA, US, LATAM and UK. The areas of HR that we have responsibility for are Business Partnering, Talent, Recruitment, Responsible Business, Operations, and Reward. You will be working in a fast-paced, demanding, and global environment as we strive to make a difference for our people, clients and communities where we work.

• Lead on implementation of the People strategy for relevant client groups, supporting business plans and departmental strategies in line with the global Firm vision.
• Lead on the delivery of talent and performance management for client groups, including succession planning, also partnering with members of the Talent team on the design of associated frameworks.
• Lead on workforce planning for client groups, identifying skills and knowledge gaps, ensuring a talent pipeline, and delivering on large-scale change management programmes / restructures, working with Recruitment and other members of HR.
• Lead on employee and Partner engagement activity, working in collaboration with the Talent team and other Centres of Excellence as relevant.
• Work with Talent team on cultural and values work for relevant client groups.
• Lead on employee relations matters, including restructures, TUPE, grievances, disciplinaries and appeals as needed.

• Demonstrable HR business partnering experience, in a professional services environment, to deliver strategic HR solutions with knowledge of end to end HR processes (e.g. reward, talent, performance) and strong employment law knowledge.
• Self‑motivated and achievement oriented.
• Open minded with the ability to listen to and coach others.
• Works collaboratively with a consultative approach, and a strong ability to influence and guide senior stakeholders.
• Excellent written and oral communication, with excellent attention to detail.
• Strong project management skills and able to evidence ability to drive change and transformation.
• Strong knowledge and practice of inclusive and culturally sensitive practices.
• Excellent business acumen, commercial awareness and administrative skills.
• Able to manage competing / conflicting priorities effectively to achieve objectives.

Where a level of experience is indicated, this is a guideline only and represents the amount of time we would usually expect a candidate to accumulate the requisite level of experience. This does not preclude applications from candidates with more or less experience.

Please let us know if you require any additional support or adjustments to be made in order to submit your application to Kennedys.

About Kennedys: Kennedys is a global law firm with expertise in dispute resolution and advisory services. With over 2,750 people worldwide across 47 offices in the UK, Europe, Middle East, Asia Pacific and America we have some of the most respected legal minds in their field. Our lawyers handle both contentious and non-contentious matters, and provide a range of specialist legal services, for many industry sectors but we have particular expertise in litigation and dispute resolution, especially in defending insurance and liability claims.

We’re a fresh‑thinking firm, and we’re not afraid to bring challenging new perspectives to the table way beyond the traditional realm of legal services. We empower our clients with a diverse range of ideas, tools and technology to make their lives easier, as well as delivering exceptional results, every time.

What do we have to offer? We welcome high‑performing lawyers, business services professionals, secretaries, graduates and apprentices to join our rapidly expanding global firm. Whatever your role at Kennedys, you’ll be involved in exciting and stimulating work, where your input will make a difference. Our culture and values form a big part of who we are and we take them seriously. We make a difference by being approachable, straightforward, supportive and distinctive.

The Firm recognises the value of investing in our people’s development and believes our culture and values contribute to the quality of our work and of our client relationships. With a culture of on‑the‑job and experiential learning, peer to peer learning, mentoring, resources and tools that enable you to drive your career, we can support your development in your current and future roles. A variety of other opportunities are available including secondments to clients and our global offices.

We strive to celebrate and empower our people and ensure everyone can bring their authentic selves to work. We’ve created a culture based on client service, professional excellence, hard work and trust, where diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) is a key priority. We recognise that many of our people want to work for an employer that is aligned to their values, which is why we are building an inclusive culture, decarbonising our operations and supporting our people to thrive at work. Our people are the key to driving this change and helping us to make a difference to our clients, our people and the communities in which we live and work.

Kennedys is an equal opportunities employer and is committed to ensuring our recruitment processes are as inclusive as possible. We expect all employees to be aware of and comply with all relevant policies and procedures within their jurisdiction, including those relating to Information Security, Data Protection and Quality Management, refer any breach promptly to Risk & Compliance and to complete all mandatory training when requested.