Group HR Business Partner

Pinsent Masons LLP; Aberdeen City; On-site; GBP 60,000 - GBP 80,000; Full time

Job description

Job Description

Main duties and responsibilities

Implementation of strategy

• Understand the objectives and overall strategy of the Group and the firm and strive to support these through the provision of HR support.
• Act as lead HR contact for team restructure/consultation programmes.
• With the Group HRM, attend relevant leadership team meetings for allocated teams and lead on appropriate agenda items.

Talent Management

• Support cyclical talent processes, including performance reviews, career conversations, promotion cycles, and the delivery of the Group wide talent management plan and promotion pipeline.
• Support and encourage career mapping discussions for all individuals in the group to enable informed promotion planning for each promotion round.
• Support the management of promotion rounds for allocated teams within the Group.
• Work with the Senior Group HR Business Partner to ensure the annual performance appraisal process is completed in a timely, fair and consistent manner.
• Promote excellence in performance at all levels, encouraging continuous development across all teams.
• Coach, guide and influence managers on people management practices, building leadership capability and constructively challenging inappropriate behaviours or actions.
• Lead the management of all performance plans and provide day to day support to the business in managing under performance.

Recruitment/On‑Boarding

• Work with the central recruitment team to ensure effective end‑to‑end recruitment activity for the Group.
• Provide proactive recruitment support to allocated teams within the Group, ensuring recruitment excellence is maintained at all times.
• Review job descriptions with hiring managers to ensure alignment to role requirements.
• Partner with Early Talent to support the delivery of junior programmes.
• Act as the main HR point of contact for all new starter administration, in addition to HRSS support.
• Review the progress of new joiners across the designated teams, working with Hiring Managers prior to confirmation of permanent position and completing probation reviews.

Reward

• Support the Group HRM and the central Reward / projects team in implementing the annual salary review and bonus processes for allocated teams within the Group.
• Assist with the preparation of compensation data – including benchmarking, allocation, and manager guidance.
• Process approvals for promotions, salary changes and incentives accurately and in a timely manner.
• Coordinate and manage BonusPlus nominations received from the teams, supporting authorisation process and addressing challenges raised by relevant leadership.

Learning & Development

• Work with central L&D team to ensure that development programmes are relevant to Group needs and promoted accordingly.
• Identify training needs from people discussions or ER themes.
• Support with any ad‑hoc local training interventions as required, such as management capability sessions.

Employee Relations

• Responsible for managing all core ER cases across the Group, including misconduct, sickness absence, flexible working requests, performance management plans, grievance and disciplinary processes.
• Support investigations, documentation and meeting preparation, escalating complex or high‑risk situations to the Group HRM as appropriate.
• Provide timely advice and guidance to staff and managers as required.
• Champion the development of people management skills within the Group.
• Promote awareness of diversity, inclusion, wellbeing and fair people practices.

HR Metric Analysis

• Analyse and interpret HR metrics as appropriate to identify trends, inform decision‑making and support workforce planning.
• Prepare HR dashboards or reports for the Group HRM as required.
• Provide regular exit interview reporting to the business.

Commercial & Organisational Awareness

• Maintain and understanding of Group operations and strategy to provide informed and business‑aligned HR advice.
• Support the Group HRM and leadership team in identifying opportunities for operational improvements or efficiencies.
• Anticipate people‑related risks and escalating as appropriate.

Other

• Build strong, effective working relationships across the Group at all levels.
• Where required, support other HRBPs and Senior HRBPs across Practice Groups.
• Provide Group and HR project support as appropriate, taking account of capacity, skills and interests.

Relevant Experience

• HR generalist experience in a business partnering or advisory role.
• Experience supporting managers across the full employee lifecycle.
• Experience of working in professional services or complex matrix organisations is desirable.
• Experience of dealing with staff at all levels in a persuasive and credible manner.

Key Skills

• Strong relationship building and influencing skills.
• Ability to communicate clearly and confidently.
• Strong listening and problem‑solving skills.
• Commercial awareness and an understanding of how HR contributes to business performance.
• Strong technical HR skills and a good working knowledge of employment legislation and best practice.
• Strong organisational and prioritisation skills.
• Responsive and solutions focused.
• Strong customer service orientation.
• Collaborative approach to working.

Personal Qualities / Behaviours

• Professional, proactive and balanced approach.
• Proactively builds positive and influential working relationships with key stakeholders, and is regarded as a ‘trusted advisor’.
• Proactive and responsive in all areas - providing views, challenging appropriately, and taking ownership of task completion.
• Collaborative, open, approachable, consultative, able to work independently and as part of a team.
• Able to deal confidently with uncertainty and ambiguity.
• Demonstrates sound judgement.
• Demonstrates the ability to draw out information and seek facts using strong questioning and listening skills.
• Resilient, calm under pressure and able to handle sensitive issues with confidentiality and care.
• Adaptable with a positive attitude.

At Pinsent Masons we value diversity and inclusion. We are committed to creating a better workplace where all our talent can succeed and feel like they belong. We want to attract, retain and develop people at all levels and encourage applications from all suitably qualified candidates whatever your ethnicity, religion, age, physical or mental disability/long term condition, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression or any other characteristics protected by local law in the jurisdictions in which we operate.