About the job

Job summary

Do you want to use your passion for making a difference and your professional HR experience to make valuable contributions in a complex environment?

Then HR business partnering within Defence could be the perfect challenge for you!

Our people are the difference that gives Defence its edge and as a HR Business Partner in the Navy you will have a critical role in ensuring they are motivated, valued, and committed and their talents are harnessed in delivering Defence outputs effectively.

You will also be joining the Civil Service HR profession, a cohort of over 3,500 HR professionals working across government. An unrivalled network of colleagues available to lend support as you broaden your knowledge, skills and experience and progress your HR career in this exciting, pivotal role.

 Navy Command Headquarters (NCHQ) in Whale Island, Portsmouth, is the nerve centre of the Naval Service. It supports operations around the globe and provides the ships, people, aircraft and equipment to deliver the UK’s defence policy. NCHQ supports all the Royal Navy’s activities from front-line operations to personnel support and training; finance and governance; safety; equipment acquisition; programmes and planning; and Defence Engagement.

Civil Servants and Armed Forces personnel work together in a wealth of interesting and challenging jobs in different disciplines, from finance; legal services; personnel and HR; project planning and managing contracts, to media and communications.

In Navy Command, our civil servants work alongside their military colleagues in jobs that matter; jobs which often have a direct impact on the quality of the operational capabilities we deliver.

Roles can offer great job satisfaction and there are many opportunities to develop and progress both within the Department and across the wider Civil Service.

The advertised role is suitable for hybrid working. The successful applicant should expect to attend the workplace (Portsmouth) three times a week, visit MoD locations around the UK and some working from home.

This position is advertised at 37 hours per week.

Job description

The work of an HR Business Partner is varied, with no two days the same. An exciting role that provides you with a phenomenal opportunity to demonstrate your dynamic expertise as a HR professional by engaging and supporting Leadership Teams to achieve successful outcomes. Balancing the need to get the most from our People for Defence with getting the best from Defence for our People.

We are looking for an enthusiastic and experienced HR professional to join the HR Business Partner team embedded with the Navy.  Reporting to the Navy HRBP Team Leader, you will be empowered to work autonomously, whilst also being part of a wider MOD HRBP community of practice. This means that team members are exposed to a wide range of MOD activity and deliver a broad spectrum of business partnering outputs through varied, interesting and rewarding portfolios.

Responsibilities

Although your portfolio will be influenced by the business area you partner, the responsibilities of an HRBP include: 

• Strategic Partnering - Supporting leaders to drive people strategies that enable the business to deliver their objectives. 
• Problem Solving - Providing strategic input on HR topics to help leaders develop effective people solutions. 
• Connecting - Helping the organisation to draw on appropriate Centres of Expertise and Shared Service support. 
• Coaching - Coaching leaders to manage people issues and to drive the people agenda effectively. 

We operate an integrated HR system at the Ministry of Defence, with our HR Business Partner teams embedded across the department, working with dedicated Deputy Directors HR to provide the strategic partnering element of a total HR service. This provides the unique opportunity for close working alongside military colleagues to deliver both civil service and what we refer to as “whole force” outcomes, that benefit the lived experience and outputs of both civil servants and military leaders and teams.

As HR practitioners, HR Business Partners benefit from the direction of our Civilian HR Director as Head of Profession, close working with our centrally held Policy and Shared Service teams, and developmental support from our Deputy Director HR for Business Partnering and OD&D. HR Business Partners are members of a pan-Defence Community of Practice through which we agree our standards, build our skills, share best practice, influence policy development and access career development opportunities.

Person specification

The successful candidate will have: 

• Experience of building strong, influential professional partnerships with a broad range of diverse and demanding customers within a large and complex environment. 

• Good communication skills, including experience of communicating confidently about HR issues and solutions in the language of the client business, and providing constructive challenge and appropriate feedback to senior leaders. 

• Practical experience of shaping and driving successful business change and transformation by identifying, advocating and deploying HR interventions. 

• Experience of using an evidence-based approach, including the analysis of HR and business data, to find opportunities for improving business outcomes. 

• Being resilient and results focused, with a sound track record of delivering at pace. 

• A proven understanding of HR policies, processes and practices across the breadth of the Employee Life-cycle.

The successful candidate can ideally demonstrate: 

• Current membership of the CIPD or a willingness to work towards it, through either study or experiential assessment, is essential.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £57,760, Ministry of Defence contributes £15,571 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.

We welcome applications from everyone irrespective of gender and ethnic group. Appointment will be based on merit alone.

We will ask for a CV to include job history, successes and professional qualification(s) and a Suitability Statement (max 1000 words) so please ensure you provide evidence of achievement and experience against the Person Specification.

Should there be a high volume of applications, the Suitability Statement will be the only information assessed at sift.

Interview: 

At interview we will assess the essential criteria using the following behaviours:

• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing
• Seeing the Big Picture 

Interviews are planned to be held face-to-face Wed 8th May 24 in NCHQ Portsmouth.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please contact: DBSCivPers-Resourcingteam3@mod.gov.uk .

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical.

The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.