HR Business Partner - Aintree in Liverpool

Want to help us bring happiness to the world? Want to join an ambitious and fast growing global biscuits and confectionery business investing heavily in iconic global brands, infrastructure and people? Then this is the place for you. As proud bakers and chocolatiers and custodians of iconic global brands, we don’t compromise on the quality of ingredients in our products or on the people we hire. We are looking for entrepreneurial spirits who share our passion for bringing happiness to our consumers and who embody our Winning Traits.

To succeed at pladis you need to be purpose-led, resilient and positive because we expect pace and agility, insist on collaboration and demand accountability. If that is your thing, then pladis offers global ambition, a clear Vision and roadmap for success, challenge, and unrivalled opportunities to learn and make an impact.

This is an exciting new role as part of our new HR business partnering structure! Your purpose will be to provide HR leadership business partnering support at our Aintree site by working closely with the site leadership and management teams, as well as the various teams within the wider UK&I HR function to ensure all HR activity is contributing in line with the site plans and strategies, and is aligned to wider HR priorities for the region.

Key deliverables:

• Play a central role as part of the site leadership team developing strong credible relationships and bring instrumental in setting direction and strategy and leading on the creation of the people strategy.
• Directly manage a small team including an L&D Coordinator & Site Experience Lead.
• Own the HR agenda for site in line with agreed functional agendas.
• Lead and co-create the people and culture transformational agenda for the site.
• Work in partnership with senior leaders and senior managers on establishing and implementing solutions that support the ongoing development of leadership capability and provide mentorship support to the wider management team on people related matters.
• Identify key areas impacting upon business performance such as functional capability or engagement levels.
• Provide the vital link to other teams within the wider HR function and Centres of Excellence as required, including Recruitment, Experience, L&D, Talent, Employee Relations, Occupational Health & Wellbeing, HR Shared Services.
• Drive forward & manage the creation of site people plans that are fully aligned to site strategic priorities and wider HR priorities, ensuring full integration of the HR agenda for the site, including engagement and site driven L&D priorities.
• Build solid relationships with site trade union teams that champion positive employee relations across the site and partner with the Factory General Manager on ongoing engagement with the site trade unions.
• Own the site trade union consultation and negotiations, to include site re-organisations and pay negotiations, and working agreement reviews.
• Lead resolution of sophisticated function or site wide employee relations matters (including site wide), in partnership with site senior management and apply employment law expertise to situations which require a balanced risk assessment.
• Maintain close links with other HR Business Partners across the UK&I to ensure consistency of HR practices.
• Partner with the Site Lead on creation of future facing site change plans including organisation design, planning (including impact assessment, risk assessment and mitigation planning) and implementation of changes, and wider team member engagement of proposals.
• Through line management of the Site Engagement Lead, take accountability for ongoing measurement of engagement levels across all worker groups at site, as well as engagement action planning to address key areas.
• Develop Site driven CSR agenda – accountable for creation, maintaining and delivery of this agenda, and execution of central CSR agenda.
• Develop site driven Inclusion & Diversity and Employee Value Proposition plans, and execution of central IDE/EVP agenda.
• Execution of centrally driven Health & Wellbeing plans, including provision of support and leadership to the site Mental Health Ambassador network.
• Through line management of the Site L&D Coordinator, take accountability for Compliance training across site – including Health & Safety, Food Safety, Ethical standards, as well as inductions.
• Support central L&D initiatives as they arise.
• Develop and maintain a clear understanding of the L&D offering within pladis UK&I and optimise opportunities to ensure these are accessible to targeted groups/individuals in order to develop colleague, management and leadership capability levels.

Essential:

• Strong communication skills with the ability to engage, influence and empower a variety of team members at a senior level plus trade union representatives and officials at various levels.
• Previous experience of working in a fast moving HR environment with strong and associated understanding of interconnections/drivers of Employee Engagement/Employee Life Cycle.
• Previous experience in leading the development of medium to long term people plans linked to strategy and site priorities.
• A track record in leading people/organisational change from development to implementation.
• Experience of having developed people plans linked to strategy in collaboration with senior management.
• Experience of identifying and implementing improvements/solutions to people practices at a site level.
• A background of having experience of key employee relations matters – D&G, Absence Management, disputes.
• Experience of working closely with site Trade Unions or representatives on employee relations matters.
• Passion and drive to empower and engage colleagues to make a real difference to the business.
• Build respected, trusted and supportive relationships.
• Strong planning, project management and organisational skills, with the ability to work flexibly to ensure the efficient and successful delivery of the site people plan.
• A personal desire to continuously learn and develop to ensure new practices and thinking are understood and embraced.
• Able to demonstrate sound interpretation, understanding and application of employment law, case law and associated best practices.
• Experience of problem solving, prioritisation and decision making in pressurised/time critical environments.

Desirable:

• Previous experience of a manufacturing environment.
• CIPD qualification.
• Trade Union negotiation skills i.e. GAP Negotiator course or equivalent.

pladis is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to hiring a diverse workforce. All openings will be filled based on qualifications without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, marital status, veteran status, disability, age, religion or any other classification protected by law.