Job Description

Strategic People Business Partner
Temporary, Full Time
500 per day (umbrella)
Location: Chelmsford
Working Style:
Closing Date: Friday 27th June 2025
Essex County Council (ECC) is one of the largest and most dynamic local authorities in the UK, serving a population of 2 million residents, and has a very successful track record of delivering transformational change. ECC anticipated change was needed in the public sector and has worked to deliver better quality at lower cost. We have an ambitious transformation agenda - one with the scope to reach every part of the council. We are changing the way we think, the way we work, and the ways in which we deliver our services. We are committed to becoming a place where individuals, partners and communities feel proud to play their role and genuinely want to belong. We're immensely proud of our flexible working options.
The Opportunity
Essex County Council are looking for experienced senior HR professionals to join them on an initial 6-month basis to work as a Strategic People Business Partner supporting the council through an exciting period of change. You will be an integral part of shaping the future of local government and service delivery for Essex residents and must be able share your vision with senior leadership teams within the organisation.
Accountabilities

• Build trusted relationships with senior leaders acting as confidant and forming alliances with internal and external stakeholders
• Lead the strategic workforce planning process, developing impactful plans that positively impact employees, the organisation and its customers over the short, medium and long term
• Provide expert advice, guidance, and challenge to senior leaders, members, and key stakeholders, presenting, explaining, engaging, influencing, persuading, and challenging corporate and political leadership teams and decision-makers to achieve consensus
• Lead complex programmes of work across organisational or systems boundaries, efficiently managing resources and relationships to deliver high quality outcomes on time and to budget
• Champion the change agenda and embed a culture of continuous improvement and learning to deliver high quality, sustainable results.
• Use HR advice and expertise to improve the employee experience and organisational outcomes as well as mitigate risk to protect the organisation

The Experience You Will Bring

• Experience of working as a people business partner in a large, complex, matrix environment with demonstrable evidence of developing, implementing and evaluating strategy aligned to organisational goals.
• Educated to degree level, qualified in a relevant professional field such as Human Resources, business management, employment law or equivalent by experience.
• Ability to design, develop and implement people policies and interventions to address complex business and people challenges (including high profile and complex casework) and improve business and organisational outcomes aligned to People and Organisation Development
• Demonstrable evidence of developing management and leadership capability and professional competency across People and Organisation Development delivering impactful results through professional application of the business partnering mode

To read more about us please visit:
Why Essex?
Essex County Council has a location to be proud of. Our 1,300 square miles stretch from Constable Country to the Thames Estuary, from the dynamic M11 corridor to the traditional seaside resorts of Clacton and Walton. England's oldest town, Colchester, and two of its newest - Basildon and Harlow - are right here. Along with the City of Chelmsford, the county town, they form our major population centres. It means real choice and makes Essex the ideal place for your career. Read more
Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We're committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process.
We're also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.
What you should do next
If you are interested in finding out more about this role, we would love to hear from you. Please apply via the Working for Essex website.
Please note that Essex County Council has determined that the off payroll working rules will apply to this assignment and where a worker elects to provide their services through an intermediary (such as a personal services company) then income tax and primary national insurance contributions will be deducted at source from any payments made to the intermediary.
As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please go to
Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.
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If you have queries on this role or require anything further, please email essexsharedservices@essex.gov.uk
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