Associate People Partner

About the Role

This is an exciting time to join NPL as the organisation embraces the mission and opportunity to provide the measurement capability that underpins the UK's prosperity and quality of life. NPL's vision is to deliver extraordinary impact from excellent science and engineering as an exemplary national laboratory. This mission reaffirms the pivotal role the organisation plays in supporting the UK's national challenges as well as the needs of industry.

We work in a hybrid way, with a mix of remote and office working (minimum two days onsite in Teddington). This will be a fixed term contract until the end of August 2027.

Our close knit, supportive and experienced People Team are looking for an experienced People Partner who loves working closely with leaders and teams to embed change, improve capability and empower managers to resolve ER issues effectively. You will be a trusted partner who will play a key role in delivering people initiatives.

You will be a pivotal member of the People Team, this role promises a stretching experience with the opportunity to positively impact the NPL journey and boost the engagement of a diverse and talented workforce.

Role Focus

This is a role of many parts where you will be advising, guiding and coaching managers to help us deliver our mission and vision. You will:

• Work in partnership with a Strategic People Partner supporting specific business areas, and with specialist People team functions, to promote and support engagement, talent management resourcing, workforce management, team wellbeing, D&I and L&D initiatives, working to build a high-performance culture
• Provide advice and guidance on complex policy development, change and performance management to support business capability
• Act as a subject matter expert on complex ER and policy issues, providing quality advice to managers and leaders, supporting them to make risk-informed, confident decisions to enable timely and effective resolution of matters
• Support delivery of the People Strategy, taking ownership of specific allocated projects or parts of the annual People cycle, ensuring effective delivery and implementation
• Drive continuous improvement to respond to evolving business and statutory requirements
• Use data to provide informed advice based on analytics and business metrics
• Manage, coach and develop People Advisers within the team and act as a mentor to colleagues when required

Throughout your work, you will ensure that NPL’s interactions with employees are fair, aligned with agreed processes and legally compliant across all employment touchpoints, while mitigating risk.

About You

To be successful, you’ll bring:

• Demonstrable experience in a Generalist or People Advisor/Partner role
• Deep knowledge and strong employee relations experience, confident handling a variety of complex and sensitive matters
• Experience supporting business areas with change, performance management, workforce planning, engagement activities, and organisational effectiveness
• A good communicator with the credibility and confidence to challenge, influence and coach leaders and managers
• The ability to work autonomously while contributing effectively to a collaborative People Team
• A practical, solution-focused approach with strong judgement and attention to detail
• Experience of managing people (or interest and ability to take on people management). You will be responsible for two People Advisers.

Beyond that, we’re looking for someone who’ll thrive in an environment like ours. At NPL, we learn from and respect each other and work together to do better. And while we’re always looking to stretch beyond what we know, we don’t make things more complicated when there’s no need.

We strive to offer a great work-life balance — if you are looking for full-time, part-time or flexible options, we will try to make this work where possible.

Applications will be reviewed, and interviews conducted throughout the duration of this advert; therefore, we may at any time bring the closing date forward. We encourage all interested applicants to apply as soon as practical.

We actively recruit citizens of all backgrounds, but the nature of our work in specific departments means that nationality, residency and security requirements can be more tightly defined than others. You will be asked about this throughout the recruitment process. To work at NPL, you will need to obtain BPSS security clearance.

About Us

The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) is a world-leading centre of excellence that provides cutting-edge measurement science, engineering and technology to underpin prosperity and quality of life in the UK. Find out more about what it is like working here - The measure of us - Overview

NPL and DSIT have strong commitments to diversity and equality of opportunity, and welcome applications from candidates irrespective of their background, gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, or age, providing they meet the required criteria. Applications from women, disabled and black, Asian and minority ethnic candidates in particular are encouraged. All disabled candidates (as defined by the Equality Act 2010) who satisfy the minimum criteria for the role will be guaranteed an interview under the Disability Confident Scheme.

At NPL, we believe our success is a result of the diversity and talent of our people. We strive to nurture and respect individuals to ensure everyone feels valued by treating everyone on the basis of their own individual merits and abilities regardless of their own or perceived identity, as part of our commitment to diversity & inclusion, we ensure we’re creating an environment where all our colleagues feel supported and welcome. More about this on our Diversity & Inclusion page.

We are committed to the health and well-being of our employees. Flexible working and social activities are embedded in our culture to create a positive work-life balance, along with a broad range of rewards, benefits and recognition . Our values are at the heart of what we do, and they shape the way we interact, develop our people and celebrate success. To ensure everyone has an equal chance, we’re always willing to make reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process. If you would like to discuss, please contact us.