West Midlands Fire Service
Reward & Recognition Business Partner
Get notified of more jobs like this · No spam, ever
How your CV stacks up
Upload your CV to see how well it fits this job role
?%
Reward and Recognition Business Partner
Professional 2B
Salary: £40,777
Hours: 37 per week, full time
Overview
West Midlands Fire Service (WMFS) is the second largest fire and rescue service in England, serving an area of 902km square and a population of over 2.9 million people.
'Our Strategy' drives the people, professionalism, and pride with which we serve our communities, as we work to make them safer, stronger, and healthier.
WMFS is a dynamic and innovative organisation, committed to fostering leadership excellence and driving organisational success. We’re dedicated to empowering our people to be the best version of themselves and are seeking to improve the employee experience through inclusive and equitable workplace practices.
Reporting to the Head of HR and EDI Business Partnering, this role will be vital in ensuring that our reward and recognition strategy attracts and rewards our people. You will lead on the implementation of that strategy.
You will work with leaders, stakeholders, and people programme colleagues to shape, develop, and deliver strategic and operational people plans and solutions in line with WMFS priorities, ensuring that the service is always improving. As an experienced HR Professional, you will provide expert advice and guidance on reward and recognition matters, including appropriate avenues of recognition and benefits for our employees.
Responsibilities
- Collaborate with the People Leadership team to understand programme priorities; understand and interpret how these link to the reward and recognition programme of work to be developed
- Design, develop, and implement effective reward and recognition initiatives, aligned with service priorities
- Lead the development and delivery of holistic employee recognition, considering both formal and informal, and local and service-wide methods
- Implement a framework for recognising individual and team achievements, milestones, and contributions – all of which should have clear methodologies
- Work closely with communications colleagues to promote awareness of reward and recognition programmes
- Maintain a clear pay and grading structure – ensuring that the governance of the structures maintains pay integrity
- Directly manage internal job evaluation processes and any external pay benchmarking exercises
- Work closely with Workforce Planning and People Systems colleagues to understand pay, reward and recognition data through a diversity and inclusion lens
- Work closely with Corporate Communications to organise and coordinate events and celebrations, to recognise individual and team accomplishments, including coordinating nominations for internal and external awards
- Ensure all reward and recognition initiatives and events are inclusive and contribute towards a positive culture
- Monitor competitive reward trends, evaluate options, and make recommendations as appropriate to ensure that WMFS attracts and retains talent
- Line management of Reward and Recognition Advisor.
Reasons to use Rodeo
Start with a chat, not a search bar
Grad scheme, placement, apprenticeship? Not sure what you want yet — that's fine. Your agent talks it through with you and turns "I have no idea" into a shortlist.
It searches the market for you
Every day your agent scans the market matching roles against what actually matters to you, not just keywords on a CV.
Only hits
No noise. No "maybe this fits." Just roles with a clear explanation of why they're right — and where to focus when applying.
Essential skills or experience
- Proactive, with strong communication skills (verbal and written)
- Strong organisational and administrative skills, including the ability to prioritise based on business need
- Experience of managing HR projects
- Experience of managing pay and grading projects, including grading of roles, job evaluations, and benchmarking exercises
- Ability to support and influence a range of stakeholders at varying degrees of seniority
- Project management experience, with a proven record of delivering on time, within budget, and to a high standard
- Practical and logical; able to solve problems quickly and accurately through a human experience lens
- Strong attention to detail
- Able to identify improvements, promote benefits, and implement change.
Desirable
- Proven experience in developing and implementing successful employee reward and recognition programmes
- Up-to-date knowledge of employment legislation
- Hold or be working towards a CIPD level 5 qualification
- Confident and resilient, able to offer professional challenge to individuals and the organisation when needed.
Get help with your application
Your very own career expert that helps elevate your application to the next level.
Please see Job Description for full details of skills.
Benefits
We offer a friendly working environment and benefits including:
- Enhanced family leave, including 52 weeks fully paid maternity and adoption leave
- Flexible and agile working arrangements
- On-site free gym facilities
- Free parking
- Access to an in-house occupational health facility – including occupational health and fitness advisors, sports therapists, physiotherapists, cognitive behavioural therapy practitioners, and counsellors.
- 24/7 Employee Assistance Programme
- Wellbeing programmes
- 'Blue light' discounts across many retailers through partner schemes
- Sports and Welfare scheme (for a small fee) – with access to discounted products and services.
Diversity
We welcome applications from all eligible candidates. However, as women and Black and minority ethnic employees are currently under-represented in our service, we particularly encourage applications from these groups.
WMFS is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people, and adults. We expect the same of every staff member.
Successful candidates will be subject to necessary pre-employment checks, including – where applicable – relevant level Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, qualifications, medical clearance, identity, and right to work. All applicants will be required to provide two suitable references.
How to apply
Send your CV and answer the questions, outlining previous experience, to outline your suitability for the role.
When submitting your CV please keep this to a minimum of 2 sides of A4 and your covering letter to 1 side of A4, in a minimum font size of 11.
Interview date: 8 September 2026
Questions
If you have any questions about the role, or would like an informal discussion, please contact Narinder Gould by email at narinder.gould@wmfs.net
“It took my CV and asked me questions relevant to understanding what kind of jobs to suggest for me. Suggestions were almost perfect. Jobs were exactly what I’ve been looking for.”
Jessica, London
Skills