Associate People Business Partner

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Associate People Business Partner

The closing date is 26 February 2026

We are recruiting for an Associate People Business Partner who shares our vision to be trusted to provide consistently outstanding care and exemplary service to our patients.

Our vision is to be trusted to provide outstanding care and exemplary service to our patients. To help us achieve this, we are looking for an Associate People Business Partner who shares our commitment to putting people and patients first.

If you're ready to take the next step in your HR career within an NHS Trust that truly values its workforce, this could be the opportunity for you.

This is a rewarding role within our People Team, where you will work in partnership with managers to understand operational challenges and deliver high-quality, proactive HR support. You will contribute to strategic workforce planning and support the organisation's ongoing transformation and continuous improvement journey.

We operate in a complex, fast-paced and evolving environment. The successful candidate will be confident managing multiple priorities, comfortable working with ambiguity, and able to see the bigger picture within the wider NHS system. Strong relationship-building skills are essential, as you will work closely with a range of internal and external stakeholders, establishing credibility and trust at all levels.

At the heart of everything we do are our core values: Include, Respect, and Improve. We encourage you to embrace these values throughout the recruitment process and in your role with us.

Main duties of the job

• Support Strategic People Partners in providing HR advice to divisional or Trust wide workforce change / implementation projects, developing and supporting managers by reviewing all related documentation, participating in staff consultations (e.g. TUPE) and providing statistical or employee information to support project implementation.
• Development and delivery of expert sessions with managers to enable and establish high levels of staff engagement and early intervention of people related challenges.
• Communicate highly complex information across a range of HR subjects, including highly emotive and sensitive decisions in relation to changes in service delivery.
• Work autonomously to understand and analyse issues in order to undertake complex employee relations cases when required, e.g. detailed investigations, supporting managers with hearings and appeals.
• Advise managers on terms and conditions, contractual rights and interpreting and explaining employment legislation including providing guidance and advice in relation to Trust policies and procedures and working across wider HR teams where necessary.

About us

At East and North Hertfordshire Teaching NHS Trust, we are proud of the range of general and specialist services we provide and our 6,000 or so dedicated staff ensure our patients get the best care. Our ability to be flexible and innovative in the way in which we work and deliver our services to our catchment has never been more important than it is now.

We run the following hospitals: The Lister Hospital, Stevenage; New Queen Elizabeth II (New QEII), Welwyn Garden City; Hertford County, Hertford; Mount Vernon Cancer Centre (MVCC), Northwood.

We have ambitious plans to become an outstanding, patient-led Trust where dedicated staff provide high-quality, compassionate care to our patients. We continue to undergo significant transformation; our staff & patients are at the heart of delivering this ambitious agenda.

We are committed to a positive work life balance for our employees. Employees are entitled to seek to work flexible working patterns & we are committed to listen & consider all requests. Such requests, of course, have to be made & considered formally, & will need to be balanced against service needs, but our starting point will always be to find ways to support making them happen.

Job responsibilities

Please see the attached Job Description and Person Specification applicant pack for further detailed information regarding this role.

Person Specification Other

• Experience and evidence of engagement around equality, diversity and inclusion issues in relation to policy, service development and service delivery in respect of both services to users and the management of staff
• Role model our Trust values every day

Qualifications / Training

• Degree or equivalent level of experience
• CIPD level 5 qualification or equivalent
• Current CIPD membership
• Highly specialist expertise in one or more HR subjects / areas of work acquired to masters level / equivalent through additional training and / or equivalent experience
• CIPD Level 7 qualification or working towards this within the next 12 months
• Undertaken NHS Agenda for Change job evaluation training

Previous Experience

• Relevant generalist HR/employee relations
• Experience in devising and delivering training
• Experience of supporting organisational change
• Experience of supporting employee wellbeing
• Experience of job evaluation
• Experience of dealing with the full range of
• Experience of NHS job evaluation

Skills

• Able to communicate clearly at all levels of the organisation both verbally and in writing
• Able to influence and persuade effectively
• Excellent presentation skills
• Competent user of Microsoft Office, to include Excel skills to intermediate level, and experience of using HR systems
• Progressive / innovative approach to HR management and the contribution of HR management to service delivery
• Ability to manage own workload and meet deadlines with minimal supervision
• Ability to take ownership of projects
• Report writing skills
• Displays effective and adaptable interpersonal and influencing skills
• Ability to form positive relationships at all levels
• Displays innovative and lateral thinking
• Experience of using ESR database.

Knowledge

• Knowledge of current HR management issues/best practice
• Understanding of current employment law and its application
• Knowledge of NHS terms and conditions

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Employer name

East and North Hertfordshire Teaching NHS Trust