Director of HR Business Partnering

Alternatively, Grant Thornton

At Grant Thornton we do things differently - looking to the future, driving ambitious growth and pioneering positive change in our industry. Providing audit, tax and advisory services, we empower clients through strategic insight, curiosity, and genuine partnership. And we empower our people with real opportunity, an inclusive culture and work life balance. A true alternative.

With over 5,000 people in the UK, and a presence in 150 global markets, we're on an ambitious journey, from great to exceptional, and we need the best people to help us achieve our potential. And with that comes the opportunity to help redefine what our industry looks like, and what you want from your career.

Job Description:

NEW GROUND WON’T BREAK ITSELF.

Every day our teams help people in businesses and communities to do what is right and achieve their goals.

Grant Thornton’s HR Business Partner team plays a critical role in enabling the firm’s people strategy, partnering closely with senior leaders to translate business priorities into practical, impactful people solutions. The team provides strategic guidance across the full employee lifecycle, covering workforce planning, organisational design, performance and talent development, employee relations, leadership capability and cultural initiatives. With a deep understanding of both the business and its people, the team acts as a trusted advisor, coaching leaders, navigating change and ensuring the organisation has the capability, culture and talent it needs to succeed.

We’re happy to talk flexible working and consider reduced hours and job shares, we’ll support you to balance your work and life.

A look into the role

As a Director of HR Business Partnering within our team practice, you will:

• Line manager the People Advisory team, drive high performance within this team and work to embed the strategic people agenda into the service lines.
• Create a consistent approach to the way HR is delivered across the service lines and to share best practice between the service lines. The role will need to work closely with the centres of expertise within HR to ensure their outputs align to what is needed to support the HR Business Partner team and the business.
• Support the CPO with the Partner performance agenda, working with the SLL to embed best practice partner performance management to influence, support and manage conversations.
• Support the HR Business Partner team to navigate complex strategic issues such as workforce planning/target operating models.
• The role will support the CPO as Chief of Staff with strategic projects for example data dashboards across HR, embedding the people strategy and working with the learning and development and talent team to create frameworks that can be rolled out and tailored within each of the service lines.
• Working with the HR leadership team to embed the HR digital agenda.
• Work with the data team to enhance our ability to deliver reports that tell a story across all of the HR areas to showcase progress or highlight opportunities that need further work.

Knowing you’re right for us

Joining us as a Director of HR Business Partnering, the minimum criteria you’ll need is significant experience operating at senior HR leadership level, ideally within a complex, matrixed firm. Experience embedding a strategic people agenda across multiple business areas or service lines and a strong capability in partnering with senior leadership, influencing decision making and shaping people strategies. It would be great if you had some of the following skills, but don’t worry if you don’t tick every box, we’ll help you develop along the way.

• Background in shaping or embedding leadership and management development frameworks, and working closely with L&D and Talent teams.
• Experience designing or implementing people strategy dashboards or HR reporting frameworks.
• Exposure to professional services, partnership models, or environments with complex stakeholder landscapes.
• Experience rolling out frameworks or toolkits that require local tailoring across service lines or different business units.
• Strong change management experience, particularly around shifting culture, embedding new ways of working, or influencing senior leaders to adopt new processes.
• Demonstrated experience leveraging HR analytics to identify trends, tell a clear story, and highlight opportunities for improvement.

Knowing we’re right for you

Embracing uniqueness, the culture at Grant Thornton thrives on the contributions of all our people, we never settle for what is easy, we look beyond to deliver the right thing, for everyone.  Building an inclusive culture, where we value difference and respect our colleagues helps our people to perform at the best of their ability and realise their potential.

Our open and accessible culture means you’ll interact with leaders who are interested in you and everything you bring to our firm. The things that set you apart, we value them. That’s why we give you the freedom to bring your whole self to work and pursue your passions inside and outside of work.

Beyond the job 

Life is more than work. The things you do, and the people you’re with outside of work matter, that’s why we’re happy to look at flexible working options for all our roles, and we’ll always do our best to keep your work and life in balance.

The impact you can make here will go far beyond your day job. From secondments, to fundraising for local charities, or investing in entrepreneurs in the developing world, you’ll be giving back to society. It’s that drive to do the right thing that runs through our every move, grounded in our firm’s values – purposefully driven, actively curious and candid but kind.

We’re looking for people who want to contribute, spark fresh ideas and go beyond expectations. People who want to be able to proudly do what’s right, for the firm, our clients, our people and themselves. It’s how it should be.

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