Pets at Home Limited
People Partner - Vets for Pets
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Purpose of the Role
The Regional People Partner (RPP), Vets acts as a trusted advisor and coach to our Regional Directors (RDs) and Area Relationship Managers (ARMs) across the Vet Group. Working in true partnership, you will shape and deliver people strategies that boost engagement, develop capability and improve performance, all in support of our ambition to create a better world for pets and the people who love them by building the world's best pet-care platform.
You will:
- Champion the full People Partnering model (HR Expert, Colleague Champion, Strategic Partner, Change Agent).
- Provide visible leadership across the region, role-modelling our values and behaviours.
- Collaborate closely with the wider People, Learning and Development, Talent Acquisition and Reward teams to deliver joined-up solutions.
- Build credible relationships with senior field leaders, vet practice teams and central support functions.
- Leverage people data and insight to inform decisions, mitigate risk and drive sustainable growth.
Responsibilities
Business Partnering and Strategic Support
- Diagnose regional people priorities and craft robust people plans that underpin commercial goals and the Group People Strategy.
- Coach RDs and ARMs on leadership impact, ensuring they role-model our values and foster high-performing, inclusive teams.
- Provide measured feedback and challenge to senior leaders, building capability and driving accountability for people outcomes.
- Act as the trusted conduit between field operations and the central People team, ensuring consistent policy application and swift issue resolution.
Talent, Learning and Capability Development
- Partner with LandD to identify skills gaps, design development interventions and track their impact on regional performance.
- Oversee the induction and ongoing development of newly appointed or promoted ARMs, enabling them to add value quickly.
- Create clear succession pipelines for critical roles, using objective talent data to inform actions.
- Support high-potential colleagues with tailored development plans, enhancing retention and career progression.
Workforce Planning and Resourcing
- Work with ARMs and Talent Acquisition to maintain the optimal headcount for each practice, area and region.
- Use data and insight to forecast future talent needs and influence proactive recruitment and retention actions.
- Champion an outstanding onboarding experience for every new colleague, reinforcing our culture from day one.
- Review establishment and vacancy trends quarterly, adjusting plans to meet business demand.
Colleague Relations, Risk and Policy
- Provide expert advice on complex employee relations and absence matters, mediating where necessary to achieve fair outcomes.
- Identify ER trends and collaborate with the Lead People Partner to refine policy, process and manager capability.
- Guide managers through effective performance management, ensuring consistency and legal compliance.
- Keep abreast of employment legislation and best practice, contributing to policy updates and knowledge sharing.
Engagement, Wellbeing and Culture
- Lead regional engagement and wellbeing initiatives, supporting leaders to translate survey insights into meaningful action.
- Embed our values and behaviours throughout talent attraction, selection and everyday leadership.
- Equip managers to make values-based decisions, fostering an inclusive and psychologically safe environment.
- Celebrate success and share best practice to strengthen the sense of community across the Vet Group.
Data, Insight and Continuous Improvement
- Analyse People MI (e.g. turnover, absence, engagement, ER metrics) to spot trends, measure ROI and recommend improvements.
- Present clear, actionable insight to senior stakeholders, ensuring decisions are evidence-based.
- Champion continuous improvement, experimenting with new tools and approaches to elevate the colleague experience.
- Contribute to cross-functional projects that advance our pet-care platform and future-ready workforce.
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People Projects and Collaboration
- Lead or support group-wide People projects (e.g. DEandI, reward initiatives, system upgrades) as required.
- Share regional insight to shape project scope and ensure solutions meet operational reality.
- Act as an ambassador for the People function, promoting collaborative working and a one-team mentality.
- Provide cover and support for fellow People Partners, reinforcing resilience across the team.
Values and Behaviours
Our values and behaviours underpin everything we do and how we do it. They help us stay true to our purpose, which is why we exist. It's what drives us to provide the very best pet care products, services and advice, in a way that's both socially responsible and environmentally sustainable, creating a better world for pets and the people who love them.
Education
Skills
- Communication
- Analytical
- Impact and influence
- Commercial Awareness
- Reward and Recognition Programme Management
- Change Delivery
- Compliance
- Problem Solving
- People Data Insight and Reporting
- Business Planning
- Continuous Improvement
- Organisational Design
- Resilience
- Decision Making
- People Management
- Stakeholder Management
- Employee Relations Case Management
- Looking after Wellbeing
- Driving Performance
- Labour Market Insight
- Building Relationships and Networks
Contract: 12 Month Maternity Cover
Start Date: January 2027
About the Role
At Vets for Pets, our people are at the heart of everything we do. As a Regional People Partner, you'll play a key role in bringing our People Strategy to life across your region, partnering with leaders to create thriving, high-performing practices where colleagues can do their best work.
Working closely with Regional Directors, Business Development Partners, Practice Owners and the wider People Team, you'll provide strategic guidance, insight and challenge to help drive engagement, develop talent, strengthen leadership capability and support sustainable business growth. Using data and people insights to identify priorities, you'll shape and deliver regional people plans that balance colleague experience, practice effectiveness and commercial success within our unique Joint Venture model.
This is a highly visible partnering role where you'll act as a trusted advisor, change champion and people expert, helping to build a great place to work while enabling growth, enhancing performance and fostering a connected, collaborative culture across the region.
This is a field-based role supporting practices across Northern Ireland, Scotland, North Wales and parts of England as far south as Worcester. You'll spend approximately 2-3 days per week travelling across your region, building strong relationships and providing hands-on support to leaders and practices.
With the flexibility to manage your own diary, the role requires regular overnight stays and a willingness to travel extensively. You'll also attend team and stakeholder meetings at our Handforth and Stafford Support Offices, typically once per month at each location.
Key Responsibilities
- Partner with Regional Directors, Business Development Partners and Practice Owners to translate the People Strategy into impactful regional people plans that support engagement, retention, growth and business performance.
- Act as a trusted advisor, providing coaching, challenge and expert people guidance to build leadership capability and drive a high-performing culture.
- Use people data and insight to identify trends, mitigate risks and implement initiatives that improve colleague engagement, retention and practice effectiveness.
- Support workforce planning, succession planning and talent development, ensuring strong pipelines for key clinical and non-clinical roles.
- Work closely with Talent Acquisition and Learning teams to attract, develop and retain great talent across the region.
- Provide expert support on complex employee relations, performance management, absence management and policy application, helping leaders navigate people matters confidently and consistently.
- Drive an outstanding colleague experience through effective onboarding, development, recognition and wellbeing initiatives.
- Partner with operational leaders to optimise workforce effectiveness, improve resource planning and support sustainable commercial performance.
- Lead and support people aspects of change initiatives, helping practices adapt successfully while maintaining engagement and performance.
- Champion collaboration across the wider People Team and Pets ecosystem, connecting leaders to the expertise, tools and support they need to succeed.
- Contribute to strategic people projects and continuous improvement initiatives that enhance the colleague and customer experience.
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About You
We're looking for an experienced People Partner who thrives in a fast-paced, commercially focused environment and is passionate about helping leaders and teams succeed.
You'll bring proven HR Business Partnering experience, ideally gained within a retail or similar multi-site environment, alongside a strong employee relations background and the confidence to coach, influence and challenge stakeholders at all levels. Equally comfortable shaping strategic people plans and managing day-to-day operational priorities, you'll be highly organised, able to manage your own workload and adaptable to changing business needs.
You'll be a collaborative team player who enjoys building relationships, working remotely and partnering with colleagues across different locations. With strong emotional intelligence, sound judgement and excellent communication skills, you'll be trusted to navigate complex people matters while supporting leaders through periods of growth and change. You'll be someone who can hit the ground running, manage your time effectively and understand the flexibility required in a field-based role that doesn't always fit a traditional 9-to-5 schedule.
Why Join Us?
This is an opportunity to work in a genuinely rewarding role where you'll build strong, trusted relationships with Practice Owners and leaders while supporting the incredible work they do every day. You'll join a friendly, experienced and supportive team that values collaboration, flexibility and trust, giving you the freedom to manage your own diary and work autonomously without micromanagement.
As part of a growing and exciting business, you'll work with talented colleagues across both our Support Office and field teams, influence meaningful people initiatives and play a key role in creating a great place to work for practices across the region.
Pets just see people. They aren’t biased and they don’t discriminate. We take our inspiration from pets, and we value and respect difference in all its forms. Our aim is to reflect the diversity of the communities we operate in, and every colleague can help us achieve this. We encourage our people to be themselves so even if your skills and experience don’t perfectly align, if you think you can make a unique contribution through your values and behaviours, we want to hear from you.
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