Starling
People Advisory Team Lead
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Location: London, Cardiff or Southampton
Reporting to: Head of Employee Relations & Advisory
Closing date: Friday 31st July, 12pm
Hybrid working: All Starling colleagues spend a minimum of 10 days per month in the office with flexibility to work the rest from home.
About Starling
At Starling, we are on a mission to provide people with a fairer, smarter, and more human alternative to traditional banks. We are building a leading digital bank, driven by fast technology, fair service, and honest values. Our vision is to create a banking industry that serves everyone, which we accomplish by developing best-in-class proprietary technology, offering an exceptional customer experience, and establishing a strong, sustainable business.
Our five core values – Listen, Keep It Simple, Do The Right Thing, Own It, and Aim for Greatness – are at the heart of everything we do, guiding our strategy and shaping our culture. We're a branchless, largely paperless bank, committed to responsible banking, sustainability, and fostering an inclusive environment where everyone can thrive.
The Opportunity
In this role, you will lead and line manage our team of People Advisors, ensuring the delivery of high-quality, consistent, and efficient first-line advice to employees and line managers. You will act as the escalation point for complex advisory and operational enquiries, while driving a culture of continuous improvement across all People processes.
Working in close partnership with People Partners and Centres of Expertise (CoEs), you will champion a seamless, high-touch People experience across the organisation.
Role Scope:
- Team Leadership & Management: Direct line management of the People Advisory team. You will coach, mentor, and develop team members, managing workloads and ensuring the team hits its service delivery goals.
- Escalation & Complex Advisory: Act as the senior escalation point for multi-stranded or high-risk employee enquiries.
- Process Excellence: Own and drive the continuous improvement of broad People processes, partnering with CoEs to ensure efficiency, scalability, and an exceptional employee experience.
- Data & Insights: Analyse team caseloads and people data to identify trends, using these insights to proactively recommend proactive interventions, training, or policy updates to People Partners.
- Stakeholder Management: Build strong, trusting relationships with senior leaders and cross-functional teams, ensuring the Advisory function aligns with wider business objectives.
Risk:
- Risk Mitigation & Quality Assurance: Establish quality control checks across team caseloads to ensure advice aligns with current employment law, internal policies, and regulatory standards, minimising legal and operational risk.
- Audit Readiness & Governance: Ensure all employee data, case notes, and process documentation are meticulously maintained in line with GDPR and internal audit requirements, managing the team’s risk register as required.
- Regulated Environment Expertise: Robust knowledge of compliance and risk management practices specific to the Financial Services sector (e.g., FCA/PRA conduct rules and SMCR frameworks).
- High Risk-Awareness: A proven track record of handling sensitive, high-risk employee relations cases with discretion, ensuring commercial risk is balanced with a fair employee experience.
- Meticulous Record-Keeping: Strong attention to detail regarding data governance, compliance tracking, and maintaining robust audit trails.
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Knowledge:
- Leadership Experience: Proven experience leading, managing, or mentoring a team within a HR/People function, with a track record of developing junior team members.
- Advanced Advisory Expertise: Extensive experience in a fast-paced HR/People advisory role, with deep knowledge of UK employment law, HR best practices, and complex case management.
- Financial Services Experience: Deep understanding of working within the regulated Financial Services sector.
- Process & Change Orientation: Experience in reviewing, refining, and implementing HR processes to improve efficiency and service delivery.
- Agility & Organisation: Exceptional ability to prioritise team deliverables and manage competing deadlines in a flexible, fast-paced, and organic environment.
- Data Literacy: An analytical mindset with the ability to interpret data sets, spot trends, and translate them into actionable People strategies.
- Compliance & Governance: Strong awareness of relevant legislation (such as GDPR) and regulatory frameworks governing the financial sector.
- Communication & Influence: Outstanding written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to influence stakeholders and build trust both in person and remotely.
Qualifications:
Fully CIPD qualified (Level 5 or 7 preferred), or equivalent demonstrable commercial experience.
Behaviours & Competencies:
- People First Leadership & Coaching: A natural people leader who leads with empathy and active listening. You create a psychological safe environment where team members feel supported, motivated, and empowered to develop their careers.
- Pragmatic Risk-Based Decision Making: Capable of balancing strict regulatory compliance with commercial reality. You make sound, objective decisions under pressure, evaluating legal and business risks without losing sight of the human impact.
- Resilience & Ambiguity Tolerance: Thrives in a fast-paced, organic environment. You remain calm and focused during periods of high volume or change, helping your team navigate ambiguity and maintain performance.
- Collaboration & Trusted Influence: An exceptional relationship builder who establishes immediate credibility and trust across all levels of the business. You challenge constructively, manage stakeholder expectations effectively, and break down silos between teams.
- Proactive Continuous Improvement Mindset: Always looks at processes through the lens of "how can we make this better?" You challenge the status quo, championing changes that improve efficiency for the team and experience for the employee.
- Discretion, Integrity & Accountability: Demonstrates the highest standards of professional ethics, handling sensitive personal data and complex employee issues with absolute confidentiality and objectivity. You take full ownership of the team's outcomes.
Why Join Starling?
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- Make an Impact: Work on projects that directly shape the future of banking and improve the financial lives of our customers. Starling is technology-led, and you'll have the freedom to accomplish your goals in innovative ways.
- Culture of Excellence: Be part of a collaborative, empowered, and forward-thinking team. We encourage experimentation, ownership, and a relentless focus on "doing the right thing.”
- Growth and Development: We are committed to your professional growth, offering opportunities to learn new technologies, take on new challenges, and own interesting things from day one.
- A Bank That Cares: We're a Living Wage employer, committed to flexible working, and dedicated to creating a fair, open, and safe working environment with compassion and inclusion at its core.
Comprehensive Benefits:
- Company-enhanced salary sacrifice pension scheme (7% employer contribution)
- Private Medical Insurance with Vitality including mental health support and cancer care. Partner benefits include discounts with Waitrose, Mr&Mrs Smith and Peloton.
- 25 days holiday (plus take your public holiday allowance whenever works best for you)
- An extra day’s holiday for your birthday
- Life Insurance at 4x your salary.
- 16 hours of paid volunteering time a year.
- Ability to buy or sell annual leave.
- Generous family-friendly policies.
- Annual leave is increased with length of service, and you can choose to buy or sell up to five extra days off
- Incentivised refer a friend scheme
- Perkbox membership giving access to retail discounts, a wellness platform for physical and mental health, and weekly free and boosted perks
- Access to initiatives like Cycle to Work, Salary Sacrificed Gym partnerships and Electric Vehicle (EV) leasing
Our Commitment to Equality
Starling Bank is an equal opportunity employer, and we’re proud of our ongoing efforts to foster diversity & inclusion in the workplace. Individuals seeking employment at Starling Bank are considered without regard to race, religion, national origin, age, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, marital status, medical condition, ancestry, physical or mental disability, military or veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law. When you provide us with this information, you are doing so at your own consent, with full knowledge that we will process this personal data in accordance with our Privacy Notice. By submitting your application, you agree that Starling Bank will collect your personal data for recruiting and related purposes. Our Privacy Notice explains what personal information we will process, where we will process your personal information, its purposes for processing your personal information, and the rights you can exercise over our use of your personal information.
We use AI tools to support various parts of our recruitment process, helping our team manage applications and assessments more efficiently. These tools are strictly used for support and do not replace human judgment with all final hiring decisions being made by our team. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please reach out to us.
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