At the ABI, HR partners closely with the business and we are passionate about delivering initiatives that drive organisational effectiveness and make a difference to colleague experience. As a team, we pull together and chip in the moment help is needed. We love to brainstorm ideas and we drive innovation in our work. Ensuring our working practices are inclusive is top of our agenda.

We’re looking for an Interim Head of HR to join us on a fixed term basis to cover a period of sabbatical leave. If you’re an ambitious, inclusive HR leader who is passionate about driving forward value-add initiatives, we’d love to hear from you.

Please note this is a 6-month fixed term contract starting in April 2022.  

Please note this is a full-time role but we are open to applications from those who wish to work on a flexible and/or job share basis. In some instances, we may be able to consider part time working. We welcome applicants who are new to insurance – as well as those who are experts!

Your role:

You’ll manage and retain a highly motivated, high performing HR Team and be responsible for the development and implementation of HR strategy in collaboration with the Director General and members of the Executive Team (ET). Providing coaching, support and guidance to senior team on the full range of generalist HR matters and ensuring a professional and credible HR service is delivered to ABI colleagues.

The key responsibilities of the role will be to:

•  Lead the HR and people function for the organisation, ensuring that we continue to attract and retain high quality colleagues.

• Lead work on organisation people culture, ensuring that the organisation is seen as an employer of choice and colleague engagement levels remain high.

• Provide high-quality business partnering to the Director General and members of the ABI Executive Team, supporting them in leading the full range of people activity at the ABI.

• Act as a sounding board to support the ET in making judgment calls, personally delivering activity / projects to resolve issues that arise and involving other members of the HR team as appropriate.

• Lead and oversee the ABI’s direct sourcing model, working with the Senior HR Adviser to continually optimise our attraction strategies, ensuring our selection processes are rigorous, and that we engage high quality talent.

• Lead the development and implementation of the ABI’s internal Inclusion Strategy (diversity, equity and inclusion), overseeing the delivery of various initiatives to achieve our ambition of being a workplace that attracts, nurtures, and retains a diverse range of talent, and is somewhere people feel able to be open with their colleagues about all aspects of their life without fear of judgment or prejudice. This strategy is next due to be refreshed in Autumn 2022.

• Lead the delivery of the ABI’s internal promotions process and the annual performance appraisal process, ensuring this is fit for purpose and seeks to drive behaviours in line with the ABI’s values.

• Project manage the annual pay review process, including taking part in external pay benchmarking activity.

• Oversee the ABI employee benefits and wellbeing offering, including liaison with the ABI brokers and supporting strategic decision making around our offering.

• Lead activity with the ABI Appointments & Remuneration Committee (including the ABI Chair and President) and wider Board (as appropriate) relating to performance and remuneration outcomes for the ET and Director General.

• Oversee the ABI training and development activity, working with the HR Business Partner to ensure the training budget is managed effectively, and that ABI colleagues have access to appropriate professional development.

• Lead ABI’s employee engagement survey activity and subsequent action planning activity to continue to optimise and positively influence ABI culture and employee experience.

• Have overall accountability for the ABI employee policies, regularly reviewing them and our ways of working to ensure they are fit for purpose.

• Lead and oversee high-quality operational HR service delivery throughout the employee lifecycle including onboarding, payroll and benefits processing, HRIS (Hibob) GDPR compliance, leaver processes etc.

We’re looking for:

We’re not looking for any particular industry background, but you will need:

• A track record of delivery in an HR role, across a breadth of areas of responsibility.

• Strong oral and written communication skills, especially the ability to clearly articulate arguments supported by convincing evidence, and the presentation skills required to speak for the ABI at senior level meetings

• Excellent inter-personal skills, and the ability to build and maintain close relationships with key partners, influencers and decision-takers, as well as with colleagues and fellow team members to build support for ideas, to plan and implement future changes and to get things done

• High levels of emotional intelligence, and the ability to see issues through different lenses and craft appropriate solutions to challenging issues.

• Ability and willingness to lead and, when appropriate, challenge the Executive Team’s thinking when formulating strategies and proposals

• Ability to lead, manage, develop and retain a highly motivated and performing team to plan, prioritise and deliver work across a broad range of issues and projects

• Ability to digest large quantities of detailed material, and present it to colleagues in an effective way

• Excellent influencing skills, including the ability to win the confidence of senior people, and to argue persuasively

• Ability to think strategically, to identify and act on opportunities, challenges and risks in situations that may have not fully crystallised and the ability to review the effectiveness of approaches previously taken and adjust them as necessary.

• Persistency, tenacity and resilience to drive the achievement of outcomes over the medium to long-term with a clear set of objectives to achieve in the short to medium term

• Ability to work collaboratively and to contribute to wider work of the ABI

• Willingness to be flexible with changing work demands and the ability to react quickly to urgent issues and incidents.

• A proactive, can-do approach, even when faced with challenges and set-backs

As a person, you’ll be approachable but diplomatic and assertive in a respectful manner when you need to be. We’re a small but ambitious team so it’s imperative you are team focused, collaborative and forward thinking in your approach to HR.

Interested?

The deadline for applications is 14 January 2022.

You can find out how we use your personal information by reading our candidate Privacy Notice: https://www.abi.org.uk/about-the-abi/careers/abi-candidate-privacy-notice/.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Committed employer and as such, we:

·         Are partnered with Vercida who provide an accessible website accredited by The Shaw Trust. Our jobs can be viewed on Vercida here.

·         Are committed to making reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process as required for disabled candidates. To discuss in more detail, please contact careers@abi.org.uk. We will also check this with you should you be invited to interview

·         Offer an interview to disabled candidates who meet the minimum requirements for a role. If you believe this may apply to you, you will be able to indicate this on your application form. Please note that there may be occasions where it is not practicable or appropriate for us to interview all disabled people who meet the minimum criteria for the job. In certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, we may need to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people.

About us:

The Association of British Insurers is the voice of the UK’s world-leading insurance and long-term savings industry. A productive and inclusive sector, our industry supports towns and cities across Britain in building back a balanced and innovative economy, employing over 310,000 individuals in high-skilled, lifelong careers, two-thirds of which are outside of London. 

Our members manage investments of over £1.7 trillion, collect and pay over £16 billion in taxes to the Government and support communities across the UK by enabling trade, risk-taking, investment and innovation.

We are also a global success story, the largest in Europe and the fourth largest in the world.  

The ABI represents over 200 member companies, including most household names and specialist providers, giving peace of mind to customers across the UK. 

If you would like to know more about the ABI and the work we do please visit www.abi.org.uk. You can find us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram too.