Culture of professionalism. Example of leadership. Core of company support.   

HR Business Partner

£57,000 - £62,000 per annum + benefits

Reports to: Head of HR Business Partnering

Directorate: Chief Operating Office

Contract: Permanent

Hours: Full time 35 hours per week

Location: Stratford, London. Office-based with high flexibility (1-2 days per week in the office)

Visa sponsorship: You must be eligible to work in the UK to apply for this vacancy. Cancer Research UK is not able to offer visa sponsorship. 

Closing date: 23 September 2024, 23:55

This vacancy may close earlier if a high volume of applications is received or once a suitable candidate is found, therefore we strongly recommend that you apply early to avoid disappointment. If you require more time to apply as part of a reasonable adjustment, please contact [email protected] as soon as possible.

Recruitment process: Two competency-based interviews

Interview date: From the week commencing 30 September 2024

How do I apply? We operate an anonymised shortlisting process in our commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion. CVs are required for all applications; but we won’t be able to view them until we invite you for an interview. Instead, we ask you to fully complete the work history section of the online application form for us to be able to assess you quickly, fairly, and objectively.

At Cancer Research UK, we exist to beat cancer.

We are professionals with purpose, beating cancer every day. But we need to go much further and much faster. That’s why we’re looking for someone talented, someone who wants to develop their skills, someone like you.

The HR department plays an essential role in engaging and inspiring Cancer Research UK’s large and dynamic workforce (c. 4,000+ headcount) by delivering operational transformation, governance, and an employee experience that enables us to be an inclusive, sustainable, and agile organisation. We are searching for an HR Business Partner to partner with key stakeholders (including Heads and Directors) within the Marketing, Fundraising & Events (MFE) directorate who are essential to engaging with the public in deep and meaningful ways, ultimately growing the charity’s fundraising and income capabilities to fund and raise awareness for our life-saving research.

In this role, you will business partner with MFE leaders to develop and deliver our medium to long-term people objectives, while driving employee engagement and business performance. This involves supporting the development and delivery of MFE’s ambitious people plans in support of the directorates’ strategies and business needs while ensuring these align with the wider HR operating plan and priorities. Furthermore, you will have the opportunity to collaborate with a diverse range of specialist HR colleagues (e.g. Talent, Reward, Learning & Development) to ensure a seamless HR service and solutions to the MFE directorate.

If you are an experienced HR Business Partner who has built influential stakeholder relationships in fast-paced medium to large organisations, we would love for you to join our mission.

What will I be doing?

Business Partnering:

• Developing influential and meaningful relationships and partnering with key stakeholders within the Marketing, Fundraising, & Events (MFE) directorate (primarily at Head level and with selected Directors).

• Participating in the MFE leadership team whilst bringing data-driven insights to people/ business issues and holding leaders accountable for the effective delivery of the people agenda.

• Developing and maintaining an in-depth knowledge of MFE, keeping up to date with directorate strategies and priorities.

  • This will involve partnering with leaders to deeply understand the operation, strategy and priorities of the business and constraints on performance to identify targeted, effective, and sustainable HR solutions.

• Acting as the primary HR interface with MFE to understand their issues and needs.

  • This includes proactively linking with colleagues in the Centres of Excellence across HR (e.g., Talent Acquisition, Talent Development, Reward, Learning & Development, Internal Engagement and Comms) to co-design and support key interventions and ensure MFE has the appropriate expert support.

• Establishing sustainable and influential working relationships with key stakeholders within HR (including the HR Leadership Team, business leaders and peers), whilst bringing the right balance of challenge and support to ensure progress on key issues.

• Acting as a coach to stakeholders and raising awareness of Cancer Research UK’s expected leadership behaviours.

• Supporting the development and delivery of annual people plans for MFE.  

Core HR activity and partnering with HR Specialist teams:

• Leading and delivering organisation design and development within MFE (at both departmental and team level).

• Ensuring structural, behavioural, and cultural change are successfully implemented.

• Utilising tools such as engagement surveys and manager insight to drive performance, provide feedback, and challenge the status quo within HR.

• Facilitating and coordinating key HR processes within HR departments and MFE (e.g. EDI discussions, Annual Salary Reviews, Talent/ Leadership Programme nominations etc).

• Collaborating closely with Reward to ensure appropriate pay positioning and benchmarking data is available for MFE.

• Developing and leveraging analytics to test hypotheses, draw out key insights, and identify target action areas.

• Ensuring senior Employee Relations matters in MFE are dealt with robustly and pragmatically, acting as a point of escalation.

• Coaching both ER Advisors and senior managers in MFE in managing people scenarios in line with HR processes and policies.

What are you looking for?

• Experienced HR Business Partner in medium to large organisations (i.e., 3,000+ headcount) with exposure to fast-paced and creative business areas/ industries (e.g., Marketing, Fundraising, Events, Sales, FMCG, Retail etc).

• Proven ability to build credible and collaborative stakeholder relationships with experience influencing at all levels (including leadership teams) and building cases for effective HR interventions.

• HR generalist with a strong knowledge and application of organisational design, employment law; and HR policies, principles, and procedures.

• Successfully collaborated with specialist HR functions to deliver a seamless HR service.

• Has generated, interpreted, and presented HR analytics to drive insights, strategic thinking, practical solutions, and tangible action. 

• Managed business change projects through the application of strong project management skills 

• Demonstrates resilience and the ability to use judgement when navigating ambiguity and addressing key priorities/focus areas.

Our organisation values are designed to guide all that we do.

Bold: Act with ambition, courage and determination  

Credible: Act with rigour and professionalism   

Human: Act to have a positive impact on people  

Together: Act inclusively and collaboratively

We’re looking for people who can believe in and embody these organisation values and can use them to drive forward progress against our mission to beat cancer.

If you’re interested in applying and excited about working with us but are unsure if you have the right skills and experience we’d still love to hear from you.

What will I gain?

We create a working environment that supports your wellbeing and provide a generous benefits package, a wide range of career and personal development opportunities and high-quality tools. Our policies and processes enable you to improve your work-life balance, take positive steps in your career and achieve your personal wellbeing goals.

You can explore our benefits by visiting our careers web page

Additional Information

If you want to know more about this role, here is a full job description. Please note this is a generalist profile used for internal & external purposes meaning we don’t expect candidates to meet all the criteria included (we will be shortlisting based on the essential criteria advertised).

For more information about working with us please visit our website or contact us at [email protected].  

For more updates on our work and careers, follow us on: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube.

Our vision is to create a charity where everyone feels like they belong, benefits from and participates in, the work we do. We actively encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and cultures, in particular those from ethnic minority backgrounds who are currently under-represented.

We want to see every candidate performing at their best throughout the job application process, interview process and whilst at work. We therefore ask you to inform us of any concerns you have or any adjustments you might need to enable this to happen. Please contact [email protected] or 020 3469 8400 as soon as possible. 

Unfortunately, we are unable to recruit anyone below the age of 18, so that we can protect young people from health & safety and safeguarding risks.