Interim HR Business Partner

Location: Walsall (3–4 days per week on-site)

Contract: Interim – 6 to 12 months

Sector: Further Education

About the Role

Spirehouse is delighted to be supporting a well-established Further Education College in Walsall with the appointment of an Interim HR Business Partner on an initial 6–12 month contract.

Working closely with the Head of HR, you'll partner with senior leaders across the College, providing expert HR advice and leading on complex employee relations, organisational change and strategic people initiatives. This is a highly visible role, requiring an experienced HR professional who can quickly build credibility, influence stakeholders and operate autonomously in a fast-paced education environment.

The successful candidate will play a key role in supporting the College through an exciting period of change, helping to shape a positive, high-performing culture while ensuring operational excellence across the people agenda.

Key Responsibilities

• Partner with senior leaders and managers, providing expert HR advice across a broad range of people matters.
• Lead on complex employee relations cases, including disciplinaries, grievances, capability, long-term absence, performance management and organisational change.
• Support and advise on restructures, organisational design, consultations, redundancy programmes and workforce planning.
• Coach and develop managers, building confidence and capability in managing people issues.
• Ensure employment legislation, College policies and best practice are consistently applied.
• Support the delivery of strategic HR projects, including change management, culture and engagement initiatives.
• Analyse HR metrics and trends to provide insight and recommendations to senior leadership.
• Work collaboratively with the HR Operations team to ensure seamless delivery of HR services.
• Develop strong relationships with Trade Union representatives, supporting consultation and positive employee relations.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of HR policies, processes and ways of working.

About You

We're looking for an experienced HR Business Partner who combines strong strategic thinking with a practical, hands-on approach.

You'll ideally have:

• Previous experience as an HR Business Partner or Senior HR Business Partner within a complex organisation.
• Extensive experience managing complex employee relations casework.
• Proven experience supporting organisational change, restructures and consultation processes.
• Excellent knowledge of UK employment legislation and HR best practice.
• Strong stakeholder management skills with the ability to influence and challenge at all levels.
• Experience coaching and developing managers to improve people management capability.
• Excellent communication and relationship-building skills.
• CIPD Level 5 or Level 7 qualification (or equivalent experience).

Desirable

• Previous experience within Further or Higher Education.
• Experience working within unionised environments.
• Knowledge of HR systems such as Zellis ResourceLink or similar HRIS.
• Experience supporting large-scale change and transformation programmes.