So Energy
Head of People Partnering (12 Month FTC)
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Our priority is to match the right person to the right role, and we never want salary to be a barrier to applying. Regardless of your current pay, we’ll ask about your salary expectations during the application process, and our Talent Team will have an open, honest conversation during the talent call to understand your skills and explore our salary options. If you have questions around salary, please feel free to ask us!
Location: Chiswick, London - Hybrid
Sponsorship: We are unable to offer sponsorship for this role
The Role
Reporting to the People Director, the Head of People Partnering will lead and develop an established People Partnering function, ensuring the delivery of a strategic, proactive and commercially focused people service across the organisation.
Working closely with senior leaders, the role will provide expert advice and challenge on a broad range of people matters, helping to align people initiatives with organisational priorities while supporting leaders to build high-performing, engaged teams.
Leading a team of People Partners, this role will drive a consistent approach to people management, organisational change, employee relations and organisational design. The postholder will ensure compliance with employment legislation and organisational policies, champion an outstanding employee experience that reflects our values, and play a key role in shaping and delivering the wider People strategy to support the organisation's continued success.
Reporting to the People Director
⭐ Why So Energy?
So Energy was created in 2015 because we knew energy suppliers could be better. Since then, we’ve grown rapidly but sustainably, with 300,000 customers and over 450 Energists (what we call our people). But we’re not done! We’re on the road to a net-zero future, and thanks to our partnership with ESB, we’re well on the way. We’re customer-centric, tech-led, and passionate about sustainability.
We’re driven to do our best for our customers, for each other, and for our planet. That’s why we’ve built a workplace culture that’s supportive, empowering, inclusive, and full of opportunities to grow and make an impact.
At So Energy, we take pride in our values-driven culture. We live and breathe by our six core values that guide everything we do:
- Clear
- Honest
- Ambitious
- Inquisitive
- Caring
- Sustainable
What you’ll be getting up to in this role:
Strategic Leadership & Business Partnering
- Lead and continuously develop the People Partnering function, ensuring the delivery of a strategic, proactive and commercially focused people service across the organisation.
- Shape the People Partnering operating model, ensuring consistency, quality and a customer-focused approach across all business areas.
- Act as the strategic people advisor to Directors and senior leaders, providing expert guidance, challenge and coaching on all aspects of the employee lifecycle.
- Build credible, trusted relationships with senior stakeholders to understand business priorities, organisational challenges and future workforce requirements.
- Influence strategic business decisions through the provision of people insight, workforce data and evidence-based recommendations.
- Contribute to the development, implementation and ongoing review of the People Strategy, ensuring alignment with organisational objectives.
Leadership & Development of the People Partnering Team
- Lead, inspire and develop a high-performing team of People Partners, creating a culture of collaboration, accountability and continuous learning.
- Provide coaching, mentoring and professional development opportunities to enhance capability across the team.
- Embed commercial acumen, digital agility, data literacy and people advocacy within the partnering model, ensuring the team adds measurable value to the organisation.
- Set clear objectives and performance expectations for the team, supporting their development through regular coaching, feedback and performance reviews.
- Foster a culture of continuous improvement, encouraging innovation and the sharing of best practice across the People function.
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Organisational Design & Workforce Planning
- Lead organisational design initiatives that support the delivery of organisational strategy, ensuring structures are fit for purpose both now and in the future.
- Partner with senior leaders to review organisational effectiveness, identifying opportunities to improve capability, efficiency and ways of working.
- Support business transformation programmes through effective workforce planning and organisational change.
- Collaborate with the Talent team to ensure workforce plans align with recruitment activity, succession planning and future capability requirements.
- Use workforce data and organisational insight to support strategic decision-making and long-term planning.
Performance, Talent & Leadership Capability
- Co- lead the organisation's performance management approach alongside the Head of Learning, Performance and Development ensuring effective delivery of performance review cycles, calibration meetings and continuous performance conversations.
- Drive a high-performance culture where leaders are equipped and accountable for setting expectations, recognising high performance and addressing underperformance.
- Coach and support senior leaders to strengthen leadership capability, improve team effectiveness and create high-performing, engaged teams.
- Partner with Learning and Development colleagues to identify organisational capability gaps and develop targeted development solutions.
- Support talent identification and retention strategies across the organisation.
Employee Engagement, Culture & Wellbeing
- Lead the design, implementation and evaluation of employee engagement surveys working alongside the internal communications lead, ensuring meaningful analysis and robust action planning across all business areas.
- Support leaders to translate engagement feedback into practical initiatives that improve employee experience and organisational performance.
- Champion initiatives that strengthen organisational culture, wellbeing, inclusion and belonging.
- Ensure organisational values are embedded throughout the employee lifecycle and reflected in leadership behaviours and decision-making.
- Promote a positive, inclusive and high-performing workplace culture where colleagues feel valued, supported and empowered to succeed.
Employee Relations & Employment Law
- Provide strategic oversight of complex employee relations matters, ensuring consistent, fair and legally compliant outcomes.
- Coach and support the People Partnering team in managing complex cases including disciplinary, grievance, absence management, performance and organisational change.
- Build management capability by providing practical advice and coaching to leaders on employee relations and employment legislation.
- Support the Head of People Operations to ensure policies, procedures and people practices remain compliant with current employment legislation and reflect organisational best practice.
- Liaise with external organisations, including ACAS and employment lawyers where appropriate, ensuring organisational risk is effectively managed.
- Identify trends within employee relations data and implement preventative interventions to reduce risk and improve manager capability.
Change Management & Strategic Projects
- Lead and support complex organisational change programmes, ensuring people impacts are effectively planned, communicated and managed.
- Provide expert advice on consultation processes, restructures, redundancy and organisational redesign.
- Develop change management approaches that support successful adoption of new ways of working while maintaining colleague engagement.
- Lead cross-functional strategic people projects that improve organisational effectiveness, employee experience and operational performance.
- Work collaboratively with stakeholders across the organisation to ensure successful delivery of People initiatives.
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Governance, Data & Continuous Improvement
- Drive continuous improvement across the People Partnering function, identifying opportunities to enhance service delivery, processes and customer experience.
- Use people metrics, workforce analytics and business insight to inform strategic decision-making and evaluate the impact of People initiatives.
- Develop regular reporting and dashboards to provide meaningful insight to senior leaders and support organisational decision-making.
- Ensure robust governance and compliance across all people activities, maintaining high standards of confidentiality, accuracy and professionalism.
- Champion the effective use of HR systems and technology to improve efficiency, data quality and the overall employee and manager experience.
Collaboration & Stakeholder Management
- Build effective partnerships across the wider People team to ensure joined-up delivery of Talent Acquisition, Learning and Development, Reward and People Operations initiatives.
- Work collaboratively with Finance and business leaders to align workforce planning, budgets and organisational priorities.
- Develop strong relationships with leaders across the organisation, understanding departmental priorities, risks and interdependencies.
- Act as an ambassador for the People function, promoting a collaborative, solutions-focused and values-led approach across the organisation.
You’re a great match if:
- Significant experience operating in a senior HR Business Partnering or People Partnering leadership role within a complex organisation.
- Experience leading, developing and coaching a high-performing People Partnering or HR Business Partnering team.
- Proven experience of partnering with senior leaders to develop and deliver people strategies that support organisational and commercial objectives.
- Experience leading organisational design, workforce planning and organisational change initiatives.
- Demonstrable experience managing complex employee relations matters and providing expert advice on employment legislation and best practice.
- Experience of leading organisation-wide performance management and employee engagement initiatives.
- Experience using people data and insights to inform decision-making, influence stakeholders and drive continuous improvement.
- Experience of building strong relationships with senior stakeholders and influencing at executive level.
- Experience of leading cross-functional people projects and delivering measurable organisational outcomes.
Skills & Knowledge
- Strong strategic thinking with the ability to translate organisational priorities into practical people solutions.
- Excellent leadership, coaching and people development skills.
- Strong stakeholder management, influencing and relationship-building skills with the ability to challenge constructively.
- Excellent knowledge of UK employment legislation and HR best practice.
- Strong organisational design and change management capability.
- Highly developed communication and presentation skills, with the ability to engage and influence audiences at all levels.
- Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret people data and translate insight into action.
- Commercial awareness with the ability to balance organisational objectives with employee experience.
- Excellent planning, prioritisation and project management skills.
- High levels of professionalism, discretion and sound judgement when handling sensitive and confidential matters.
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