People Business Partner

People Business Partner - Food Stores (Field based in North East)

£38,400 to £42,000 plus benefits (Work Level 6A)

We're looking for a People Business Partner to join our People Delivery team in delivering our Co op colleague strategy and enabling our Leaders to enhance colleague experience. Our world is constantly evolving and, now more than ever, it's critical that people are integrated throughout our business plans. We're looking for proud co operators who are forward thinking, commercially focused and can role model our ways of working in an ever changing environment.

In this role, you'll build strong relationships within the wider People team and with the leaders you support, enabling delivery of all people cyclical activity and supporting operational change as well as providing generalist HR advice and creating pragmatic people solutions. This is a varied role with exposure across our Co op and you'll collaborate with a variety of teams across business areas. If you have the communication, partnering, and relationship building skills that we're looking for, we can offer you the opportunity to make a genuine impact on our colleagues' experience.

We are looking for someone with experience delivering national change initiatives with a people lens who can balance both operational elements of a role with ever evolving project work. The successful candidate will work as part of a national food stores team and cover areas in the North East so the ability to travel regularly is essential. In addition to supporting field leaders, there'll also be occasional travel to our head office in Manchester, but other days can be worked from home or a local depot or store depending on your preference (find out more about our hybrid working policy at ).

What you'll do

• Plan, design, deliver and evaluate work whilst engaging multiple partners to enable delivery of our people plans
• Work alongside business leaders to put in place robust solutions to listen and improve our colleague experience and support transformational change
• Provide generalist support, advice, and direction to leaders across the business on key focus areas such as absence, talent, succession and change activity
• Make sure that cyclical people related activity (e.g performance management, talent development, people metrics) are delivered in the right way
• Analyse people data to provide insight and recommendation to leaders so teams can focus on the things that make the biggest difference to our colleagues
• Coach and mentor line managers in relation to the full range of people activity, with a focus on improving performance, building leadership capability, and increasing colleague engagement
• Build great relationships with central functions to optimise and improve our processes
• Make sure that Co op's vision, values, and dedication to inclusion are integrated into the day to day mindset of our teams

What you'll bring

• Experience of people change, or business transformation projects paired with excellent stakeholder management
• A good understanding of the people challenges and opportunities across our store estate and food retail more generally
• Previous experience of effective communications and facilitating sessions with leaders including the ability to 'read the room', tailor, adapt in the moment and drive great outcomes that do right by our people
• Strong analytical skills, with the ability to interpret data and draw meaningful insights
• High levels of pro activity with the ability to work both autonomously and collaboratively
• The ability to quickly adapt to change and a willingness to bring ideas and explore improvement opportunities
• Previous experience of coaching and influencing senior leaders
• Self awareness and commitment to continuous personal growth as well as the ability to inspire others with the same

Why Co op?

• An annual bonus (based on personal and business performance)
• 28 days holiday (rising to 32 with service) plus bank holidays
• A pension with up to 10% employer contributions
• Access to a subsidised onsite gym (at our Manchester HQ)
• 30% discount on Co op products and 10% off other brands
• Stream - early access to a percentage of your pay as you earn it
• Virtual healthcare including GP appointments, mental health support, nutrition and fitness advice
• 24/7 colleague support service
• Training and support for your development and career progression
• Cycle to work scheme

A place you'll belong

We're building diverse teams that reflect the communities we serve. We welcome applications from everyone, and our support centre is an inclusive environment where all our colleagues can thrive.

If you have a disability, we'll make reasonable adjustments to support you through the recruitment process. We're also proud to be part of the Disability Confident scheme - if you're disabled and you meet the minimum criteria for this job, we'll guarantee you an interview.

Learn more about our recruitment process at

Explore our commitments to diversity, inclusion and wellbeing at