Strategic People & OD Business Partner

Joining us, you get to work for not just one high performing London Borough, but two.

Sutton and Kingston councils have a number of shared services serving both authorities, with some teams and  roles more focussed on one Council than the other, but the majority are shared across both, meaning you get multiple opportunities to learn from a wider pool of activities and two different political bodies. 

We work flexibly in both Sutton and Kingston offices, and support working at home or flexible working patterns that enable you to tailor your working life to everything else in your life. We provide the equipment and tools to enable you to work flexibly, and in return ask you to use that flexibility to be creative and ambitious in the services we deliver.

There are some really exciting things happening in both Sutton and Kingston. We are developing the London Cancer Hub, a world leading cancer research and treatment hub that will bring together professionals from across different sectors to identify and test new treatments and therapies. We are undertaking the largest housing regeneration programme ever delivered in Kingston, building new energy efficient housing that will transform some of our oldest Council owned housing. Both boroughs have publicly committed to doing what they can to tackle the climate emergency and are investing in new technologies and societal change that will help bring carbon emissions down and improve our climate impact.

We work flexibly in both Sutton and Kingston offices, providing the equipment and tools to support hybrid working patterns that enable your working life;  in return we ask you to use this to be creative and ambitious in the services we deliver. You should choose Sutton and Kingston if you are looking for an opportunity that will challenge you to deliver more, support you to achieve personal ambitions, and expect you to put borough residents at the heart of what you do.

Sutton is a well connected attractive part of London that has a reputation for excellent schools, green and leafy open spaces, and a history that drives a thriving heritage and culture offer through our museums and libraries. The Council is controlled by a long established Liberal Democrat Administration and has high ambitions set out in its corporate plan “Ambitious for Sutton”, that will ensure Sutton remains a great place to live, work and raise a family. The Council plays a leading role in a number of local partnerships and places great emphasis on engaging effectively with its residents, listening to local voices and making their message heard across London Government.

Kingston is a beautiful Royal borough with a historic setting on the banks of the Thames with excellent schools and a bustling retail centre, all surrounded by open green spaces such as RIchmond Park and Bushey Park, former recreation grounds for Tudor kings and queens. The Council is controlled by a Liberal Democrat Administration and has a corporate plan “Making Kingston Better Together” that sets out a vision to be a vibrant, diverse and inclusive borough where residents are active, empowered, engaged and able to remain independent and resilient. The Council engages with residents through a number of forums and events through the year, and like Sutton plays a leading role in developing the South West Region of London.

The Strategic People & OD Business Partner is part of a team of three Business Partners. The role will support and advise the Adult Social Care directorate as well as the transformation Boards on all strategic workforce related matters. The role will take the lead in the delivery and embedding of the People & OD strategy for RBK with an understanding of local needs delivering activities and projects. They will be an agent for change, supporting the adoption and delivery of corporate programmes and plans in ASC, ensuring that implementation aligns with the workforce priorities. They will also support senior managers on policies and procedures aligned with restructures and business reengineering and support with complex ER cases.

A typical day will involve reviewing and analysing data to help inform OD interventions and activity, liaising with managers on specific work streams including change programmes. It will involve facilittaion at corporate initiatives and events as well as preparing and delivering presentations to the directorate.

Whilst this role has no direct reports, you will oversee and assist the development of an apprentice and report into the Head of People & OD. We are a hybrid working organisation and we are flexible when it comes to coming into the office - ideally we would like you to pop into the office once a week!

The Royal Borough of Kingston and the London Borough of Sutton employ nearly 500 staff across its shared services in HR, Finance, Customer Service, Neighbourhoods, Environment and ICT. This is a highly rewarding way of working that will help you develop new skills as you manage relationships and provide a consistent service across multiple partners.

This is an exciting opportunity to join a progressive HR and Organisational Development (OD) Shared Service that focuses on our customers’ needs across Kingston Council, Sutton Council and our traded services. We are building a strategically focused OD service that is responsive to our internal customer needs and enables them to provide the services needed for the communities we work with. This is a great place to be a HR and OD Professional!

We are an award winning HR Shared Service, because people are at the heart of everything we do and our Service is very proud to have won the MJ Award for community diversity and inclusion, 2022.

There are a total of 3 BP's - one for each directorate; Place, Corporate & Communities and Adult Social Care. While its a small team it is part of the wider People & OD team working alongside a number of strategic leads across Workforce Development, Employee Relations, Recruitment, Payroll & Systems, Business Development and Reward & Insight. The BP's will act as a conduit across the whole service ensuring that strategic objectives are achieved. The team works really flexibly in a hybrid way and comes together in person to collaborate. We like to be focused on our delivery but are keen to make work enjoyable and have some fun along the way.

We have attached our Organisational Development structure to the bottom of this page for a better understanding of the service.

To be successful in this role you will need to be be a strategic thinker with a focus on delivery as well as a strong communicator You will also need to have flexibility and adaptability.

Other skills, experience and knowledge you will need for this role is:

• An in depth understanding of people management and organisational development (evidenced by CIPD, equivalent qualification/experience).
• Excellent knowledge of legislation and statutory guidance.
• Significant experience advising at all levels of management on HR and/or OD disciplines.
• Experience of working with stakeholders across all levels of an organisation.
• Experience managing a service area within a large organisation. 

For more in depth information about the role and the skills, knowledge and experience, please refer to the job description attached at the bottom of the page.

As an organisation that values and nurtures talent, we’re committed to helping you fulfil your potential and will offer you a supportive, friendly and collaborative environment to grow and develop your career and skills. We’re constantly striving to improve our ways of working so putting your ideas across however big or small; will be fully encouraged and supported by your colleagues and our dynamic and experienced management team.

In addition we offer a modern and flexible working environment for our staff supported by our IT infrastructure, Google Chromebooks and Google Apps, which have acted as a key enabler for collaborative and streamlined working. The COVID-19 pandemic has required us to be even more flexible in how we work and manage staff workloads, ensuring they have the correct equipment and resources to be able to maximise their talents and looking after their wellbeing.

Employees have access to a wide range of benefits, some of which include:

• Generous annual leave entitlement plus bank holidays (pro-rata if part-time working hours apply)
• Three volunteering days per year
• Flexible and agile working arrangements
• Comprehensive learning and development programme
• Discounts on a range of local shops, restaurants, gyms and leisure centres
• Interest free season ticket loans
• Local Government Pension Scheme
• Bicycle loan facilities and cycle to work scheme
• Zip car scheme
• Free eye tests and contribution towards glasses
• Confidential wellbeing and counselling support
• Subsidised gym membership

We pride ourselves on being a diverse, tolerant and welcoming Borough and we aim to create a workforce which reflects the community we serve. We are respectful of difference and realise the positive value of diversity in our workforce. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds and particularly welcome applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates and disabled candidates as these groups are currently under-represented in our workforce.

We are proud to be recognised as a Disability Confident employer, and are committed to thinking differently about disability and taking action to improve how we recruit, retain and develop disabled people. We guarantee to interview all disabled applicants who meet the minimum/essential criteria for the role.   

We offer a range of family friendly, inclusive employment policies, flexible working arrangements, staff engagement forums, and inclusive staff networks who help drive our diversity agenda.

We are an accredited London Living Wage Employer and this means that everyone working at the Royal Borough of Kingston, regardless of whether they are permanent employees or third-party contractors and suppliers receive the London Living Wage. The real Living Wage is higher than the government’s minimum, or National Living Wage, and is an independently calculated hourly rate of pay that is based on the actual cost of living.

The UK has introduced a new points-based immigration system affecting EU and Non-EU workers and sponsorship requirements. We advise checking the GOV.UK website for right to work guidance.