HR Business Partner

Crawley, Sussex
William Reed

We are William Reed.

We are the leading expert in the global Food & Drink industry.

From manufacturing through to retail and hospitality – we provide the inspiration, insight and connections to power our customers’ success.

We have offices in Gatwick and London, UK; Montpellier, France; Singapore and Chicago, US. In line with the Company’s current Agile Working Policy, the successful candidate would be eligible to work part of the week from our Crawley office and to work remotely for the rest of the week.

Position

Are you an experienced HR generalist, confident at working across a diverse range of HR areas and autonomously managing employee relations issues? Are you looking for a collaborative team environment, dedicated to shaping an inclusive workplace culture? If so, we have an exciting opportunity for an HR Business Partner to join our supportive team on a 12-month fixed term contract.

We offer a flexible working environment and candidates seeking either full-time or part-time opportunities are encouraged to apply.

What you’ll be doing:

• Overseeing pay, pension and benefits by ensuring accurate monthly payroll changes for business units, auto-enrolment and administration of benefits.
• Maintaining accurate and up to date records across the HR database and reporting on information and metrics when required by the business.
• Preparing offer letters and contracts for new starters within allocated business areas.
• Supporting both managers and employees during the onboarding and probationary period, ensuring effective role inductions and regular feedback.
• Contributing to the development of a wellness programme including mental health support and other innovative wellbeing initiatives.
• Monitoring absence rates in allocated business areas and supporting managers in any absence management or capability issues within their teams.
• Advising managers on team and individual performance including effective use of feedback / PDRs and providing coaching through any performance improvement issues within their teams in accordance with our performance policy.
• Competently and compassionately dealing with employee relations, including reorganisations, redundancy processes, disciplinaries and grievance issues.
• Supporting the learning and development by advising teams on available training and regularly review development needs.
• Assisting the recruitment function during busy periods to support on the recruitment and selection of vacancies with your allocated business areas.
• Lead or participate in HR related projects and initiatives.

What you’ll need:

• Excellent communication skills, able to convey information in both written and verbal form effectively using appropriate tone and language.
• Strong interpersonal skills to listen, interpret and empathise effectively and ask appropriate questions in order to obtain full information. Adept at balancing an authoritative manner with approachable / flexible style, appropriate to the circumstances.
• Effective relationship building skills to gain trust and respect through quality of advice and delivery.
• Business and commercial awareness to align performance and decisions with the overall objectives of the business.
• Strong management and teamworking skills in order to maximise team performance and contribute to a culture of belonging and of excellence.
• Knowledge of payroll and benefits
• Relevant HR qualification equivalent to CIPD level 5 or above
• Strong experience as an HR generalist, confident in autonomously managing absence, performance, redundancy/restructure, disciplinary/grievance related issues in a legally compliant and highly professional way.
• Ability to interpret and compile data and information ranging from pay and benefits information to employee relations documentation.
• Up to date knowledge of employment legislation, HR trends and best practice.
• Ability to administrate and advise on payroll and compensation/benefits matters to extent appropriate to role.
• Experience of Cezanne, Culture Amp and ATS systems would be beneficial

Company Benefits Include:

• 25 days annual leave in addition to bank holidays- increasing by one additional day after 6 years, up to a maximum of 30 days.
• An additional day of leave for you to take on a cultural celebration day or on your birthday if you like. A day for you! At William Reed, we call this our “MeDay”.
• A volunteer day to take for supporting a chosen charity and giving back to the community.
• Opportunity for hybrid working
• Contributory Pension
• Life Assurance Scheme
• Group Income Protection
• Enhanced family-friendly leave pay entitlements
• Wellbeing benefits, including: A health care cash plan, Employee assistance programme and a 12-month wellness calendar for company-wide health, wellbeing, diversity & inclusion awareness dates.
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Electric Car Scheme

Why work for us:

We provide a supportive work environment and are committed to maintaining a healthy work/life balance for all of our employees. Working for William Reed means that you will be joining a stable organisation that is committed to developing its employees and brands.

We warmly welcome and encourage applications from talented individuals of all backgrounds and characteristics.

If you need any support in accessing this opportunity, please do not hesitate to discuss this with us.