Junior HR Business Partner - Finance & Central Services

Location: Icon 1, WA15 0AF

About Central Functions

Central Functions is formed of the teams and people that serve the entire business. These people are integral to the smooth running of the business; ensuring everyone is paid on time, that materials are sourced and arrive promptly, that we meet our legal obligations and that our health, safety, and security is safeguarded. 

Why be a Junior HR Business Partner for Finance & Central Services?

As a Junior HR Business Partner for Finance & Central Services you’ll: 

HR Business Partnering

• Build strong relationships with managers and senior stakeholders across Finance and Central Services, becoming a trusted point of contact for people matters.
• Support the delivery of the people strategy, ensuring people priorities are aligned to business objectives.
• Develop a strong understanding of the functions you support, including their structure, talent, resourcing requirements and business priorities.
• Work with leaders to identify people challenges and translate these into practical, commercially focused solutions.
• Support organisational design, restructures, workforce planning and wider change programmes.
• Coach and support managers to take greater ownership of people management and decision-making.

Employee Relations & Change

• Manage and support a broad range of employee relations matters, including disciplinary, grievance, absence, capability and performance cases.
• Provide clear, pragmatic advice to managers on employment legislation, HR policy and best practice.
• Support organisational change activity, including restructures, consultation processes and changes to roles or reporting structures.
• Help managers build confidence in addressing people issues early and effectively.
• Ensure ER and change activity is managed fairly, consistently and efficiently, balancing employee experience with commercial requirements.

Performance, Talent & Development

• Support the performance management cycle, helping managers set clear expectations and address underperformance effectively.
• Partner with leaders on talent reviews, succession planning and identification of high-potential employees and critical roles.
• Support career and development conversations, identifying opportunities to strengthen internal talent pipelines.
• Work with managers to identify capability gaps and appropriate development interventions.
• Support engagement and retention initiatives across Finance and Central Services.
• Coach managers on effective leadership and people management.

Reward & Workforce Planning

• Support workforce and headcount planning, helping leaders assess current and future resource requirements.
• Partner with leaders and the wider People team on salary reviews, promotions and bonus processes.
• Support benchmarking and pay decisions, ensuring recommendations are consistent, evidence-based and commercially considered.
• Work with Recruitment and business leaders to understand hiring requirements and support effective workforce planning.
• Help leaders understand the people and cost implications of organisational decisions.

People Data & Insight

• Produce and analyse people data across areas including headcount, attrition, absence, employee relations, recruitment and workforce costs.
• Identify trends, risks and opportunities and translate data into clear, actionable insight for leaders.
• Support regular people reporting and business reviews.
• Use data to challenge constructively and support evidence-based people decisions.
• Maintain accurate people information and work closely with People Operations and People Data teams.

People Projects & Operations

• Work closely with specialist People teams including Recruitment, Payroll, People Operations and Learning & Development.
• Support the delivery of wider People projects and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Identify opportunities to simplify processes and improve the manager and employee experience.
• Support onboarding, internal moves, promotions and other key points across the employee lifecycle.

What skills and experience do I need for this role?

• Previous experience in a generalist HR role, ideally at HR Advisor level or above, with approximately 2–4 years’ relevant experience.
• Experience supporting a professional, corporate or head-office population would be advantageous, particularly across Finance or Central/Shared Services functions.
• Good understanding of UK employment legislation with practical experience managing employee relations matters.
• Evidence of working effectively with managers and senior stakeholders, with the confidence to provide advice and constructively challenge where appropriate.
• Strong commercial awareness and an interest in understanding how people decisions impact business performance.
• Excellent communication and relationship-building skills.
• Strong analytical skills, with confidence using Excel and interpreting people data.
• Highly organised and comfortable managing multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Proactive, curious and solutions-focused, with a willingness to take ownership.
• An interest in developing beyond operational HR into broader areas such as organisational design, talent, succession, reward and workforce planning.
• CIPD Level 5 qualified or working towards this would be advantageous, although relevant practical experience will also be considered.

Why this role?

This is a strong step into true HR Business Partnering for someone who has built solid HR foundations and now wants broader commercial exposure. You’ll work across diverse corporate functions, gain experience of senior stakeholder partnering and develop your capability across talent, organisational design, workforce planning and people analytics, alongside core employee relations.

What’s in it for me?

Career Development

• Access bespoke development programmes that have been designed and developed by our in-house L&D team.
• Continued development through our upskilling programme that is delivered in partnership with an industry-leading training provider
• Exposure to a broad range of HR activities, projects and stakeholders across the business.
• Opportunities to develop your Employee Relations, analytics and business partnering capabilities.

Enhanced Leave

• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays.
• Don’t want to work on your birthday? We don’t either! Enjoy your day off on us!
• Enhanced maternity and paternity pay, depending on length of service.
• Up to 10 days compassionate leave.
• Buy back up to 3 days each year.
• Unlock 2 days volunteer leave after 12-months.

Wellbeing Support

• Access face-to-face and virtual appointments with our in-house GP.
• Access to our subsidised on-site dentist.
• Access our 247 Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) which is provided by Bupa.
• State-of-the-art on-site gym.
• Access to our on-site physio.

Other Perks

• Save up to 12% on the cost of personal tech through our salary sacrifice scheme.
• Subsidised bus pass from Manchester City Centre to our ICON office.
• Up to 50% staff discount on THG brands.
• On-site staff shop.
• Know someone who would be perfect for THG? Refer them and get up to £1000 when they pass their probation.
• Anniversary gifts when you hit 5 and 10 years of service.