Merkle UK Hiring for HR Business Partner – 12 month FTC at London Full Time

About us

Merkle is a leading data-driven customer experience management (CXM) company that specialises in the delivery of unique, personalised customer experiences across platforms and devices. For more than 30 years, Fortune 1000 companies and leading non-profit organisations have partnered with Merkle to maximise the value of their customer portfolios.

The company’s heritage in data, technology, and analytics forms the foundation for its unmatched skills in understanding consumer insights that drive hyper-personalised marketing strategies. Its combined strengths in performance media, customer experience, customer relationship management, loyalty, and enterprise marketing technology drive improved marketing results and competitive advantage.

Job Description

Role purpose

The purpose of this role is to provide expert HR and commercial knowledge to partner strategically with the business. The role is generalist in nature, working as a connector and partnering closely with the HR Centres of Excellence; talent, reward, operations, DEI, and talent acquisition, to deliver solutions to the business.

Key accountabilities

HR strategy – Supports the delivery of HR strategy and leads the communication, implementation and measurement of key people initiatives and programmes for the business area

Senior business relationships – Builds strong partnerships with the business, coaching leaders to make decisions for the good of their people and the organisation. Acts as a confidante, coach, and constructive challenger to senior stakeholders. Provides support in navigating challenging people situations and able to solve complex problems in a pragmatic manner

Talent strategy & management – Communicates and implements the talent strategy and leads talent initiatives for the business area. Effectively able to assess, evaluate and develop talent. Supports leaders to leverage the career and talent framework to develop the careers of our employees. Promotes career progression and mobility within CXM and across the wider dentsu business

Performance, Reward & Recognition – understands and drive our Performance Development philosophy. Drives a culture of high performance by promoting, and educating our people on goal setting, giving, and receiving feedback and the annual review process. Collaborates with the Reward CoE to reward and recognise our employees in line with dentsu reward principles. Supports the delivery of annual reward processes including salary reviews and bonus

Business Acumen- Has or is quickly able to develop a clear understanding of the strategy, operating model, capabilities, and competitive landscape within which we operate. Develops a robust understanding of business financial performance and commercials. Provides inputs to the budget and planning process as needed

Change Management – Able to advocate, lead and/or support business leaders through change and transformation

Employee Relations – Has a solid understanding of employment legislation and able to manage risk proactively. Supports the HR Advisors to ensure key employee issues which might pose a significant risk to the business and organisation are solved effectively

Vision and Values – Ensures that our people practices are effective in embedding and reinforcing our values and that we develop our leaders to be strong ambassadors of the vision and values

Culture & Engagement – Able to develop culture and drive engagement in line with business need. Act as an advisor to leaders to drive action which improves engagement, keeping wellbeing front of mind.

Diversity – Champions and delivers on creating a more diverse workplace by promoting initiatives, ways of working and behaviours which will drive change. Ensures leaders are accountable for role modelling inclusive leadership and are actively embedding the diversity, equity, and inclusion agenda

Data and insight – utilise data and insight to support leaders, drive informed decision making and as a measure of output and initiatives

Imbedding and enabling the HR Operating model – supports the ongoing HR transformation, ensuring that the bulk of HR investment is focused on high value activities, which provides a strategic benefit to the business. Supports leaders and their teams to effectively access the right HR support from the right places, ensures operational HR work is directed accordingly. Promotes and encourages self-service.

Qualifications

Professional skills and experience

• Solid HR generalist experience and a track record of leading across the full spectrum of HR activities including talent, performance, development, change management and reward
• An ability to drive the strategic HR agenda with business leaders, drawing on and partnering with HR Centres of Excellence
• A proven ability to build effective senior level relationships and to be a trusted advisor and confidante. Able to facilitate, persuade and build credibility with stakeholders.
• An ability and desire to listen, learn and develop a deep understanding of our business, capabilities, culture, skills, and wider industry context
• Excellent influencer who has a clear sense of key stakeholders and can adjust their approach to influence change in the business
• Business and commercial acumen
• Strong employment law knowledge and an ability to identify, assess and advise on risks at both a company and individual level
• Change / transformation experience
• Strong data orientation, analytical, interpretative – able to translate people analytics into valuable business insight
• To be flexible, resilience, adaptable and able to work in complex and ambiguous situations

Additional Information

A few of the benefits

Whether it’s the joy of working with people at the top of their game or the Merkle social calendar, people love working here – and we hope you will too

Flexible hybrid working with wonderful central London and Manchester office locations

Career development through Merkle University and other tools; with access to courses, textbooks, mentorship, and external training funding

Private Medical Insurance, Company Pension, life insurance, and other corporate benefits

A selection of other benefits includes 3 wellness days, birthday day off and 2 volunteer days.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

At Merkle, a dentsu company, we believe that creating diverse and balanced teams is not just a moral imperative, it is a business imperative. To advise our clients on how to target businesses worldwide, we need our people to reflect the society that we represent.

We aim to create an inclusive culture where all talent thrives, and we champion meaningful progress in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) for our people, clients and partners.

DEI is firmly embedded into our shared values – the 8 Ways to Never Before – and our Leadership Framework, which applies to all of our people. And our Global DEI Principles reflect our pledge to be an organisation that promotes well-being and inclusivity for everyone – regardless of ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, gender (incl. gender identity and gender expression), age, neurodiversity, or physical ability.

We are proud of what makes us different and encourage applicants from all different backgrounds to apply to join us. We are always happy to discuss all flexible and agile approaches to working and should you have any reasonable adjustment needs arising from a disability or medical condition to fully participate in the recruitment process, please discuss this with our recruitment team.