People Business Partner

Where you’ll work: Based at North Kent College’s Dartford campus, with travel to the Gravesend, Hadlow and Tonbridge sites as required. Remote working up to two days per week, dependent on business need.

Your hours: 37 hours per week (Monday to Friday), 52 weeks per annum.

Your pay: £43,000 per annum.

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a People Business Partner (senior advisory level) to join North Kent College’s People department, operating in a true generalist capacity during a period of continued positive change.

Working as part of a close-knit team (including Director of People, Deputy Director of People, a second People Business Partner, People Officer and two People Resources Coordinators), you’ll report to the Deputy Director of People and have line management responsibility for one of the People Resources Coordinators.

Providing an effective and efficient People partnering service to your designated areas, and working with staff and management at all levels, you’ll be a trusted, credible and business-minded professional, with an approach geared towards adding value to the organisation. You’ll be methodical and organised, ensuring the smooth running of the provision in line with College polices, procedures and legal requirements.

This could be the role for you if:

• you’re CIPD qualified at Level 5;
• you have sound experience of working within an HR / People team at a similar generalist level, or if you currently work at advisor level and are ready to take the next step in your career;
• you’re confident in providing a high level of HR / People support, including coaching and supporting managers through complex employee relations matters (disciplinary, grievance, conflict resolution, absence management, performance, change-related, etc.)
• you have excellent knowledge of employment law and maintain close attention to legislative changes which impact on and require application to the workplace;
• you have experience in handling a variety of difficult situations and resolving them in an appropriate, timely manner;
• you’re confident in prioritising your workload to successfully deliver the HR / People service and strategy, covering both operational and project based work;
• you have excellent IT and administration skills, with the ability to extract / present relevant information for reporting purposes.

It goes without saying that you’ll need to be a highly motivated team player with excellent interpersonal and communication skills, able to maintain a proactive, organised approach to your work, with a key eye for detail, whilst working to challenging deadlines. The ability to maintain focus and quality of service delivery at all times is key, as is the ability to constructively challenge managers to ensure the robustness of decision-making processes.

It’s important that you have a flexible approach and the ability to work collaboratively across departments, and with internal / external stakeholders, whilst also being able to work autonomously to achieve targets.

Although the role is based at Dartford, travel between College sites is necessary for the service provision and, therefore, you’ll need access to your own car during the working day.

In return, we’ll give you 33 days’ annual leave plus bank holidays (yes, really!) and, as part of the staff of North Kent College Business Services Ltd (a wholly owned subsidiary of North Kent College), you’ll be enrolled onto the People’s Partnership pension scheme. You’ll also benefit from free parking and have access to a range of onsite facilities including a nursery, restaurants and coffee shops.

To request a full job description, or to apply with your CV and a covering letter, please email HR@northkent.ac.uk.

The closing date for applications is Wednesday 15th May 2024, but we reserve the right to close before this date if the quality of existing applications allows.

North Kent College is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, and all staff have a responsibility to share and maintain this commitment. In line with the requirements of ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’, appropriate safeguarding checks (including an enhanced DBS check) will be undertaken on all individuals selected for appointment. Posts at the College, a specified establishment where the work gives opportunity for contact with children, are exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (ROA) 1974. It is an offence to apply for a post which involves engaging in regulated activity relevant to children if you are barred from doing so. Please be advised that, again in line with ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’, shortlisted candidates (who wish to accept an invite to interview) will be required to complete and submit prior to their interview a self-declaration of their criminal record or information that would make them unsuitable to work with children. Further guidance / information from the Ministry of Justice can be found on GOV.UK.