Junior People Partner

But the brief is broad. You’ll translate business needs and people data into clear People plans, support performance management and manager capability, and support talent management, development planning, retention and succession across your two cover businesses. You’ll help bring our culture, values and engagement to life in two very different teams, and play your part in pay and performance review cycles, policy changes and the OVO integration.

It’s built for someone with strong ER experience who’s also a commercial, data-driven self-starter: comfortable with ambiguity and excited to make their mark. You’ll get real ownership early, visible impact, and the chance to help shape how the People function works as we scale.

Responsibilities:

Employee Relations & Casework

• Manage a varied ER caseload across Hometree and Your Repair, including absence, flexible working, reasonable adjustments, disciplinaries, grievances, conduct and capability, building to running cases independently.
• Support absence management when trigger points are hit, advising managers, handling occupational health referrals and managing long-term absence and ill-health cases.
• Handle flexible working and reasonable adjustment cases with care, balancing the needs of the individual, the team and the operation.
• Support managers with Performance improvement plans (PIPs), setting clear expectations, support and timelines, and seeing them through to a fair conclusion.
• Keep clear records and fair, consistent outcomes, stay close to employment law and our policies, and flag risk early, working with the Senior People Partner on the most complex cases.

People Partnering & Plan Delivery

• Translate business priorities and people data (attrition, absence, engagement, performance) into clear, practical People plan activity for your two cover entities, and help track delivery against it.
• Turn data into insight and a “so what”, spotting trends and risks early and bringing recommendations, not just dashboards.
• Support managers through performance management, from goal setting and reviews to calibration and underperformance.
• Support talent management and development planning, contributing to talent reviews and calibration and helping managers build development plans that grow and progress their people.
• Contribute to retention and succession planning, helping spot flight risk and key-person risk before it becomes a problem.

Manager Coaching & Capability

• Be the trusted first port of call for managers across both cover workforces, giving clear, practical advice on the people issues they face day to day, always with an eye on the needs of the business.
• Coach managers through sensitive conversations so they grow more confident handling people issues themselves over time.
• Equip managers with the tools, templates and confidence to handle the routine themselves, raising the standard of people management consistently across both businesses.

Engagement, Culture & Values

• Help bring our values (Radical Candor, Ownership, Customer Obsession, Teamwork, Speed) to life in two very different operational environments.
• Work with managers to support and build on employee engagement activity, from acting on survey feedback to recognition, comms and connection across onsite and remote teams.
• Be a visible, trusted presence on the floor, building relationships that mean people come to you early.

Wider People Team, Integration & Change

• Support Group-wide People cycles such as pay review and performance review, adapting and landing them well for our cover populations.
• Contribute to policy introductions and amendments, and help managers and employees understand what’s changing and why.
• Play your part in change management activity as the Group grows.
• Bring ideas. We’re still building, so we want someone who improves how we do things, not just runs the playbook.

What we’re looking for:

• Strong ER experience: genuine, hands-on experience managing ER cases (absence, flexible working, reasonable adjustments, disciplinaries, grievances, PIPs), with the judgement and confidence to handle sensitive situations well. This is essential.
• A self-starter: you spot what needs doing and get on with it. You don’t wait to be handed a process, you build and improve as you go.
• Data-driven: you’re comfortable with numbers, can read what they’re telling you, and turn that into a clear recommendation or plan.
• Commercial mindset: you understand the business you’re supporting and frame people decisions in terms of risk, cost, performance and growth.
• Innovative: you bring ideas and aren’t precious about the status quo. You want to improve how things are done.
• Comfortable with ambiguity: you’re energised by a fast-moving environment where the answer isn’t always written down yet.
• Confident with managers: you give clear, practical advice and aren’t afraid to coach managers through tough moments.
• Hungry to have an impact: you want a role where you can make your mark and see real impact, and you’re excited to do that at a genuine moment of growth.

Extra Credit:

• CIPD Level 5 (or working towards it), or equivalent experience that gets you to the same place.
• Experience partnering a customer ops, contact centre or field-based workforce, where shift patterns, volume and pace are part of daily life.
• Experience supporting more than one business, brand or site at once.
• Exposure to integration or change programmes.
• A background in insurance or another regulated sector.

Our Recruitment Process:

• Initial Call (30 mins): An introductory conversation with our Talent Acquisition Partner to learn more about the role and explore your potential fit.
• Skills Interview (30 mins): A discussion with our Director of People & Culture and People Partner focused on your experiences, skills, and approach to problem-solving.
• Values Interview (30 mins): A conversation with two of your potential stakeholders within Hometree and Your Repair Customer Operations, our Customer Service Manager, Your Repair and Complaints & Retention Team Lead, Hometree, exploring how you align with Hometree’s values and ways of working.
• Snr Stakeholder Interview (30 mins): A final interview with the most important stakeholder for this position, the Director of Customer Operations to discuss your motivations and how you’d partner the team day to day.

Location & Travel

This role is based onsite, 3 days per week, in our Your Repair office in Stoke-on-Trent (parking available), alongside the onsite Customer Ops team. To partner both cover businesses well, you’ll also travel monthly to Peterborough pod days for our primarily-remote