Junior HR Business Partner

What you’ll be doing

As a Junior HR Business Partner for HUK’s Adult Trade divisions, you will work closely with the Senior HR Business Partner to drive improvements in management capability, ensure a fair and consistent approach to employee relations and deliver continual improvement of the HR offering. You will also support the Senior HR Business Partner with implementing a wide range of HR solutions that support business objectives.

This is an exciting position within Hachette UK and will play a crucial role in supporting our managers across all levels whilst developing the current HR Assistant and HR Advisor.

What you’ll be doing:

• Build relationships with senior managers and be a visible presence in your divisions – be the eyes and ears on the ground.
• Manage complex informal and formal employee relations issues, with the support of the HR Advisor.
• Knowing when to escalate issues to the Senior HR Business Partner.
• Assist managers with recruitment processes – support the drafting of JDs, shortlisting applications, preparing interview questions and sitting on certain interview panels.
• Ensure HR policies and procedures are adequately implemented and advise managers / staff on their application e.g., flexible working policy
• Own a wide range of HR projects and support the projects led by centres of excellence including Reward, Talent & Development, and Diversity & Inclusion, where appropriate.
• Advise managers on pay using internal pay data and external salary survey data.
• Support the Senior HR Business Partner with redundancy consultation meetings including sitting in on consultations and writing supporting scripts.
• Keep up to date with headcount/ staff moves, be across all staff changes.
• Support both the HR Advisor and HR Assistant by exposing them to more complex case work, explaining outcomes and processes that lead to decisions and supporting them to lead on cases with ongoing support.
• Oversee all contractual paperwork that goes out to the business.
• Support the Senior HR Business Partner in talent management processes, ensuring that data is kept updated.
• Produce insightful dashboards for business areas including diversity statistics.
• Check and approve payroll changes for divisions and be responsible for all paperwork that the HR Assistant sends.
• Contribute to the ongoing review and development of HR processes and standard operating procedures

Who we are looking for

• Currently working as an Advisor or Junior HR Business Partner looking for the next step in their role
• Experience of working with and building rapport and strong relationships with senior managers
• Ability to prioritise, set a clear direction and be a role model within the function and the team that aligns with our culture and goals
• Proven experience of managing complex employee relations issues, restructures, advising on organisational design and talent management processes
• Strong understanding of employment legislation
• Comfortable using excel e.g., vlook up, pivot table etc.

What we offer

Our staff are our greatest asset and our benefits reflect this. In addition to 28 days annual leave days per year + bank holidays, we have an extensive list of benefits that include: a wide-ranging training library, development programmes including mentoring, Cycle to Work vouchers, Private Medical Insurance, eye care vouchers, up to 70% off book purchases, a charity book shelf, 2 community days per year, many employee networks to join, summer hours (finishing at 1pm on Fridays during the summer months!), season ticket loans, rent deposit loans, generous pension schemes and much more!

The role will be based at our London office, Carmelite House, with a blend of in-office (3 days) and homeworking (2 days) per week.

Our Commitment

Hachette employs people on the basis of their abilities. We aim to attract and develop talent from a base as broad as the world of readers we want to reach, with a wide and representative range of age, faith, disability, race, gender, sexuality and socio-economic, regional and cultural backgrounds.

If you are shortlisted and need us to make any adjustments to help you attend for interview, please let us know.

The Book Trade Charity offers financial support to people looking to enter the book trade but who may struggle to afford the costs of attending interviews and undertaking junior roles. For more information visit www.booktradeentrysupport.org

Who we are and what we do

About Hachette UK

Hachette UK is a creative powerhouse and the UK’s second largest book publishing group. Our mission is to make it easy for everyone to discover new worlds of ideas, learning, entertainment and opportunity.

We’re made up of 11 autonomous publishing divisions and over 60 imprints with a rich and diverse history and an incredible range of authors. We’re also the market leader in e-books and publish a range of bestsellers in audio format, the fastest growing part of our business.

Our award-winning adult publishing divisions are Orion, which won Publisher of the Year at the 2021 British Book Awards; Little, Brown; John Murray Press; Hodder & Stoughton; Headline; Quercus; Octopus and Bookouture. They publish fiction and non-fiction in digital, audio and print format, from the world’s best and most diverse authors, including Brit Bennett, Candice Carty-Williams, Martina Cole, Michael Connelly, John Grisham, Stephen King, Stieg Larsson, Nelson Mandela, Stephenie Meyer, Maggie O’Farrell, Delia Owens, Ian Rankin, J.K. Rowling, Colson Whitehead, and Malala Yousafzai. Hachette Children's Group publishes a wide and vibrant range of books for children across all age ranges, while Hodder Education is a market leader in resources for both primary and secondary schools.

Hachette UK is part of Hachette Livre, the world’s third largest trade and educational publisher. As well as our headquarters in Carmelite House, London, and our state-of-the-art book distribution centre in Didcot, Oxfordshire, we have recently opened five new offices in Manchester, Bristol, Sheffield, Newcastle, and Edinburgh. The UK region also includes offices in Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, the Caribbean, and Ireland.

It’s an exciting time to join our business because the publishing market continues to grow and thrive. The UK remains the largest exporter of physical books in the world and book adaptations for film and TV are the foundation of the UK’s creative industries.

The HR team are responsible for delivering the people vision of the Company working in collaboration with the business to provide strategic talent solutions that add value to Hachette UK and its people