Global Policy, Advocacy and Campaigns and International Programmes Division Business Partner

Global Policy, Advocacy and Campaigns and International Programmes Directorate Business Partner

Contract: Permanent, 35 hours per week, Full time

Salary: £48,314 - £50,729 with excellent benefits

Location: London, UK

Hybrid Working: 60/40 hybrid working: 60% of employee’s time in a location of their choice; 40% face to face, defined as in the London office; conferences or stakeholder meetings or other locations as relevant for the proper performance of the duties of the role. WaterAid is located at Canary Wharf, London and this will be your location and contract base. 

About WaterAid

Use your skills to play a vital role in changing the world through water. We need passionate, creative and dedicated people. In return, you will have the opportunity to be yourself at your very best. Together, we will make a bigger difference.

Join WaterAid as People Business Partner to change the world through water, so millions of people can break free from poverty and change their lives for good.

About the Role

The People Business Partner is the main point of contact and provides generalist people advisory support to teams based in the UK in the GPAC and IPD directorates. Through effective partnerships with managers and employees, the role contributes towards employee engagement, employee experience and WaterAid’s culture. The role supports both line managers and employees who are in the GPAC and IPD directorates. The role also partners with HR colleagues across WaterAid UK to provide support and people advisory services to team members with managers in the UK, who are based in other countries (IPD and GPAC directorates).

You’ll: 

• Provide generalist people advisory service and support through effective partnerships with leaders in the IPD and GPAC functions. 
• Provide generalist people advisory services and support to employees across the two directorates and contribute towards employee engagement.
• Work closely with the Senior Business Partner, People Leads across the Federation and the UK People Support Team to ensure HR matters arising are addressed and resolved in an effective and timely manner and contribute to and/or lead on HR projects as required.
• Collaborate with internal experts & centres of excellence to help deliver effective business solutions.
• Be a contributing and collaborative member of the WAUK People team to ensure the effective delivery of the Global People Strategy.
• Work across the International Programmes Directorate (IPD) and the Global Policy, Advocacy & Campaigns Directorate (GPAC); understand their opportunities / challenges and deliver agile, and pragmatic HR solutions and recommendations.
• Act as an advisor to London-based line managers: providing an effective balance of support and challenge, enable excellence in people management across geographical boundaries and address underperformance while also acknowledging outstanding contributions. 
• Advise and support change activities: including restructures, redeployment or redundancies, ensuring team changes are implemented and communicated effectively and in line with our values, best practice and legislation. Effectively coordinate change across geographies through effective partnerships with the relevant People Lead and stakeholders.
• Support line managers by providing job design advice, conducting job evaluations underpinned by our job evaluation methodology and tools.  For roles based outside the UK, coordinate across the People team network to reach an outcome. 
• Support workforce planning to identify future recruitment, resourcing and talent needs. Collaborate across WAUK to ensure successful recruitment / selection approaches and resourcing challenges are resolved. 
• Facilitate / support global and local staff mobility in collaboration with key stakeholders, in partnership with the Global Reward Lead.  
• Bring a diversity, equity and empowerment lens to Business Partnership and advice.  Proactively apply this lens to people policies, practices, and initiatives. Continue to grow own awareness and expertise and build capability in others.

Requirements

To be successful, you’ll need: 

Essential skills

• Experience of supporting change management (e.g. restructures, job evaluations). 
• Demonstrable HR generalist experience with a successful track record of advising on reward, recruitment, selection, talent management, performance, DEE and leading on ER matters.
• Proven ability and confidence to influence, challenge and negotiate with stakeholders. 
• Good attention to detail, and ability to manage competing priorities and deadlines.
• Good numeracy and communication skills in English (verbal and written), with the ability to provide clear, concise and effective advice on HR matters.
• Curiosity, agility and commitment to operational excellence and delivery.
• Commitment to personal learning and development. 
• Ability to draw insights from data for effective partnership and decision making.

Desirable Skills

• In depth experience in one or more of the following areas: reward, talent management, resourcing, HR metrics, line management development, diversity & inclusion.
• Training delivery knowledge and / or experience. Facilitation skills / coaching qualification.
• An interest in and/or knowledge of development issues and the work of INGOs
• Experience of working in multi-cultural environments and an appreciation of how different cultural, legal and labour markets influence people management practices.
• Human Resources / Business Degree. A master's degree would be an added advantage (not a core requirement).
• 5-10 year’s generalist HR experience in a medium sized organisation.

How to Apply: Click ‘Apply’ to complete the pre-screening questions and upload your CV.

Closing date: Applications will close 12:00pm UK time on 31 March 2025. Shortlisting and interviews will take place on a rolling basis and the application process will close if a suitable candidate is found prior to the advertised closing date.

Can I use Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology in my application? At WaterAid, we strongly advise against using AI technology at any stage of the recruitment process. Our goal is to ensure a fair and transparent process that provides every applicant with an equal opportunity to succeed. We value hearing about your unique experiences and perspectives in your application, and, if shortlisted, during the interview as well.

Benefits

• 36 days' holiday (including 8 Bank Holidays)
• Option to buy an extra 5 days annual leave
• We offer a generous pension plan with employer contribution of up to 10%
• Wide range of flexible and agile-working arrangement
• Season Ticket Loan
• Free annual eye tests
• Pay as You Give charitable giving scheme
• Enhanced Maternity and Adoption/Surrogacy pay, Shared Parental Leave and Paternity Leave.
• Sabbaticals
• Volunteer Day

Our Commitment:

Our People Promise:

We will work with passion and focus to ensure safe and sustainable water, toilets and hygiene are available to everyone, everywhere. WaterAid is a place of purpose – where people have a real commitment and shared responsibility for the impact we have.  We are a global community with diverse backgrounds and perspectives, motivated by inspiring, stimulating work. We are determined to put the wellbeing of our people first, to be a place where people feel safe and able to contribute their voice and truly live our values.    

Equal opportunities:

We are an equal opportunity, disability-confident employer and are dedicated to achieving the highest standards of diversity, equity and inclusion. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, beliefs, customs, traditions and ways of life. This includes, but is not limited to, race, gender, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion, national or social origin, health status, and economic or social situation.

Safeguarding:

We are also committed to protecting everyone we come into contact with. We have a zero-tolerance approach to abuse of power, privilege or trust across our global work, and any form of inappropriate behaviour, discrimination, abuse, bullying, harassment, or exploitation. Safeguarding the people and communities we work with, our staff, volunteers and anyone working on our behalf is our top priority, and we take our responsibilities extremely seriously. As a safeguarding measure, WaterAid carries out background checks on all potential employees. This is done following the conclusion of recruitment and prior to assuming full employment.