People Business Partner

Schillings handles high stakes opportunities and threats for an international clientele: successful individuals, businesses and high-profile organisations across the world. 

We support our clients to achieve their goals by developing winning strategies to protect their freedom to operate, and are the first port of call in a crisis, defending our clients from attacks on their reputations, privacy and security. Schillings’ offer is unique to the market, combining strategic communications with law, intelligence & investigations, digital resilience and security.

Schillings is a collaborative and welcoming place to work, with a positive culture, strong values and a developed service ethic.  We require commitment, diligence, curiosity, agility and professionalism, and in return provide competitive packages, stimulating challenges and interesting work.  We are committed to sharing learning and creating development opportunities so you can progress your career with us.  Our people’s career trajectories and average longevity at Schillings underline this.  

Join us and become part of our story.

Job Purpose

The People Business Partner will provide high-quality, proactive, strategic and practical support to the business which has a current headcount of around 190 staff and partners.  This is a new role which provides an exciting opportunity to launch a more explicitly business-facing model, supporting our employees and leaders, while maintaining continuity during a period of maternity leave.

The People Business Partner will work closely with the Chief People Officer, wider People team and business leaders to translate business needs into practical people solutions. The role will combine day-to-day employee support with proactive coaching, practical problem-solving and influencing a more proactive approach to people issues.  The remit is primarily UK focused however, will likely have an international element as the firm grows and expands into oversees jurisdictions (e.g. UAE and USA).

The Role

The successful candidate will provide coaching and guidance to leaders and managers, ensuring they take ownership of people issues. Working closely with the People team, the People Business Partner will implement people initiatives appropriately across the business and provide timely data and insight to relevant team members across the employee lifecycle to inform the development, evolution and delivery of wider people and talent strategies and which will help inform our people priorities.

Overview of responsibilities (which include but are not limited to):

• Acting as the main People contact for an employee client group, providing responsive, pragmatic and values-led advice.


• Coaching leaders and managers to handle day-to-day people matters confidently and consistently, escalating material risks or sensitive issues appropriately to the CPO or talent team.


• Building strong relationships across the business and becoming a trusted adviser on people issues.


• Managing the People Executive and overseeing the operational delivery of the employee lifecycle, including onboarding, probation administration, employee relations, reward and benefits administration and employee exits. The role will support managers to implement firmwide approaches to performance, development, career conversations, engagement and retention. This involves working in collaboration with the Talent and Development team who retain ownership of the talent acquisition, performance, reward, development and retention strategies. You will share timely data to inform strategy development and identify key people priorities.


• Managing employee relations matters from start to finish, including performance concerns, disciplinary issues, grievances, absence management and workplace disputes. Where appropriate, working with the CPO on more complex ER projects or cases.


• Horizon scanning, monitoring employment law developments, translating relevant developments into practice implementations across the firm.


• In conjunction with the Talent team working with leaders and managers to identify future staffing needs, skills gaps and succession risks, and supporting team changes or restructures in a fair and practical way.


• Using people data and trends, including trends in turnover, absence, engagement, performance and employee relations activity, to identify emerging risks, support decisions and recommend practical interventions.


• Partnering with colleagues across Talent, Learning and Development, Payroll and Global Mobility to provide a joined-up service.


• Helping to design and embed the firm’s new business partnering model, including clear ways of working, service expectations, tools and manager guidance.


• Supporting the delivery of people initiatives and policy changes and using feedback and experience to improve the way the People team works.


• Maintaining accurate case records and clear documentation, completing an effective handover from current incumbent at the start of the assignment and ensuring an orderly transition back at the end of the fixed term.


• Leading and suggesting people projects where appropriate including for example, the roll out of engagement surveys

Knowledge, skills and experience

• Significant business partnering and ideally employee relations experience gained in professional services, a regulated business or another fast-paced, client-facing environment.


• Excellent working knowledge of UK employment law and substantial experience managing employee relations matters from initial assessment through to resolution, including the ability to identify risk, recommend proportionate action and escalate appropriately.


• Experience building strong relationships with managers and senior leaders, providing strategic and practical advice and being confident to challenge where appropriate.


• The ability to balance longer-term priorities with day-to-day delivery, manage several pieces of work at once and work independently from the outset.


• Data driven – regularly using people data and insight to identify issues, shape recommendations and support decisions.


• Ability to persuade and influence at all levels.


• Strong judgement, discretion and the ability to handle sensitive matters with care and appropriate challenge.


• Excellent communication, relationship-building and organisational skills.


• Comfortable operating in a new role where some processes and ways of working will need to be designed and refined as the role develops.


• CIPD qualification, or equivalent professional experience, is desirable.

Life at Schillings

Given our bold and innovative business strategy, it is not surprising that Schillings has a very strong culture. The atmosphere is highly collaborative and focused on excellence. We have worked hard over the years to develop a coaching culture. Schillings has adopted a set of values to put at the heart of this and they reflect the intention and tenor of our ambitious plans. They are: ‘Innovative; Bold; United; and Excellent’. Our client list speaks for the outstanding results that have been delivered over many years and the task now is to grow without losing any of the commitment to delivering for clients or our service ethos. Finding people who share our values and can thrive in this environment is key to our success. 

It takes a unique mix of people to create something truly great. We appreciate that diversity of thought, background and culture creates the best environment to truly innovate, solve problems and achieve our goals. We welcome candidates from all backgrounds – if you are driven and want to achieve your best then we will give you the platform and support to succeed.

Please let us know if there are any extenuating circumstances we should consider, or any adjustments we may need to make to our selection process, when making your application.

Find our candidate privacy notice here, Candidate Privacy Notice (schillingspartners.com)