People Business Partner - South London

As People Business Partner for Ark’s South London region, you will deliver excellent stakeholder engagement to all of your region’s secondary and all-through schools. Ensuring the effective delivery of a proactive and efficient People service and ensuring that strategies are in place to balance the needs of individual academies whilst supporting the delivery of Ark’s strategic objectives. 

You will join a skilled and experienced Business Partner team as well as being expected to be a contributing member of the wider People team, bringing your professional knowledge and personal creativity to continuously improve the quality of the People service. 

This role requires someone who is able to flex their management skills to work with a broad range of stakeholders and ensure a consistently high standard of service to the Ark schools in the South London region.

The People Business Partner for South London Schools will report into Head of Business Partnering. This role is currently operating hybrid working in our West London Office with travel to our South London schools in the network on a permanent basis working full time.

Interviews will be arranged as suitable candidates are identified, so an early application is strongly advised. First-round interviews will be held virtually and second-round interviews taking place in person.

Key Responsibilities:

• Partner with the South London Regional Director to enable the effective development and implementation of People strategies, plans and practices
• Support your region on all key People processes, providing guidance, coaching and constructive challenge when appropriate
• Effectively engage, and work collaboratively with Central function leaders to positively influence the high performance and professional Central support services to your region
• Lead on local trade union consultations and negotiations
• Own, analyse, and report People data in ways that underpins best practice and effective people management and planning (including management intelligence and on which strategic decisions can be made)
• Support and/or lead project work in support of Ark’s plans and priorities

Key Requirements:

• CIPD Level 7 (or equivalent)
• Right to work in the UK
• Strong experience working at a senior HR capacity including responsibilities for senior stakeholder management
• Demonstrates resilience and adaptability, maintaining professionalism and effectiveness in high-pressure, fast-paced, and ambiguous environments
• Up-to-date knowledge and understanding of HR best practice and a thorough understanding of the practical application of employment law
• Knowledge and understanding of the education sector
• Sound experience of managing and bringing to a successful conclusion complex ER matter, ideally within a Trade Union environment
• Drive and enthusiasm for delivering a quality HR service that consistently produces positive and business focused outcomes
• Ability to make sound judgements and assess potential problems at both strategic and operational level
• Ability to communicate in a fluent and adaptive manner; experience of successfully influencing opinion and generating support
• Able to use discretion intelligently; resourceful and solution-oriented
• Experience of working in partnership and collaboration; able to work effectively with a broad range of stakeholders and partners
• We expect you will already be operating in a similar role and be comfortable and confident in working directly with senior leaders

• Our hybrid working model aims to offer the best of both worlds, striking the right balance between in-person collaboration and remote working.  You will work a minimum of two days per week in our state-of-the-art office in West London allowing you to connect with colleagues, with the flexibility to work remotely, or in the office over the remaining days
• In addition to our current hybrid working arrangements, employees can request to work fully remotely for up to 10 working days a year, whether this be in the UK or abroad
• Our flexitime policy allows you to work your hours around our core hours of 10.00 - 16.00, helping you prioritise your work-life balance and personal commitments
• 27 days annual leave plus bank holidays, rising with each year of service up to 30 days after 3-years’ service. This entitlement is pro rata for part time employees. This entitlement excludes bank holidays
• Full office closure between Christmas and New Year
• As an Ark employee, you will have the opportunity to be part of the TPT (The Pension Trust) scheme, our workplace pension scheme where we make an 11% contribution; you are not required to contribute towards this scheme unless you choose to. Depending on your role you may also be entitled to LGPS which is a defined benefit scheme where you contribute a percentage based on how much you earn (as do we) in exchange for a guaranteed amount in your pension pot every year
• Access to high-quality professional learning throughout your career, offering both face-to-face sessions and a bespoke online learning platform
• Access to Ark Rewards scheme offering savings from over 3,000 major retailers, interest-free loans available for season tickets or a bike, gym discounts offering up to 40% off your local gym and free eye tests

We’re an international charity, transforming lives through education. We exist to give every young person, regardless of their background, a great education and real choices in life. In the UK, we’re a network of 39 schools, educating around 30,000 pupils in areas where we can make the biggest difference and we’re recognised as one of the highest achieving academy groups in the country. We want to change the lives of children everywhere, not just in our own schools. So, we create and incubate Ventures designed not only to help pupils in Ark schools, but also to improve education systems.

You’ll be joining a group of like-minded, ambitious individuals who work collaboratively and are all committed to our core mission, that every child has the potential to succeed. Having just celebrated our 20^th anniversary, we are shaping our goals for the next 20 and there has never been a more exciting time to join us.