Junior People Partner

Company Description:

Who are McDonald's?
McDonald's has run its business in the UK since 1974 and celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. The business currently operates over 1,450 restaurants across the UK and Ireland, serving almost four million customers each day. McDonald's is one of the UK's largest private sector employers, employing over 177,000 people.

McDonald's UK & Ireland has a proven track record of investing in the development of its employees and offering flexibility as part of its dedication to being a modern and progressive company. Every year, it invests over £40 million in developing people, giving every one of its employees the opportunity to take part in structured training.

McDonald's buys ingredients from over 23,000 British and Irish farmers and spends over £1.1 billion annually on its food and packaging requirements. McDonald's is committed to supporting British and Irish farmers to ensure it can continue to source many of its ingredients from the UK and Ireland.

McDonald's is a market leader in its field, striving for the highest standard of quality, speed and restaurant experience. Re-generation of our restaurant infrastructure, covering digital ordering, re-imaging and dual-point service make working at McDonald's more exciting than ever!

We are dedicated to using our scale for good: good for people, our industry and the planet. From bold recycling initiatives and sustainable sourcing efforts to our partnership with Ronald McDonald House Charities, we see every day as a chance to have a genuine impact on our customers, our people and our partners.

We're a people business just as much as we are a restaurant business. We strive to be the most inclusive brand in the world by building diverse teams who create delicious, feel-good moments that are easy for everyone to enjoy. Joining McDonald's means thinking big every day and preparing for a career that can have an impact around the world.

Company Vision and Culture
Our Global vision is to build a better McDonald's and in the UK and Ireland we are working hard to be the UK & Irelands best-loved restaurant company.

McDonald's is defined by its culture. Our culture shapes and informs everything we think and everything we do. Our culture influences the way we interact with each other, and how we interact with customers, franchisees and suppliers. Our culture motivates and inspires us to attract and retain great talent, creating a positive, energising, exceptional working environment for us all.

Our values drive our culture and shape our beliefs, our priorities and our actions. They influence the decisions we make, how we treat one another and how we show up as a brand to the world.

Serve: We put our customers and our people first
Inclusion: We open our doors to everyone
Integrity: We do the right thing
Community: We are good neighbours
Family: We get better together

Hybrid Working
This role is based in our East Finchley office working 3 days in the office and 2 days remotely.

Job Description:

The Opportunity
This is an exciting opportunity for a junior level or aspiring People Partner to join a collaborative, forward-thinking HR team. This exciting role offers the chance to support our people strategy and collaborate with a dynamic team. You'll leverage your expertise in employee relations and manager capability to drive new ways of partnering and growth. Working closely with People Business Partners and the wider team, you'll develop your skills and influence decision-making for our Corporate teams. You'll also lead projects focused on engagement and culture improvement.

This role is perfect for an ambitious and creative HR professional with advisory experience who loves working in a caring culture, where our people are truly front and centre of our business growth and evolution.

What will my accountabilities be?

1. Manage Employee Relations: Handle complex employee relations cases from start to finish, resolving issues and grievances.
2. Monitor Compliance: Track employee relations activities to ensure compliance and identify trends, making recommendations to prevent escalations.
3. Liaise with Legal Partners: Work with external legal partners on high-risk cases to reduce business risks and ensure compliance with legislation.
4. Coordinate Engagement Projects: Help to develop initiatives that improve employee satisfaction, retention, and company culture. These include surveys, feedback systems, engagement events and McDonald's culture champion group, the Culture Collective.
5. Oversee People Processes: Monitor processes such as probation reviews and performance conversations, supporting manager capability as needed.
6. Enhance Manager Capability: Build knowledge, coach, and develop tools and guidance for managers.
7. Advise Leadership Teams: Act as a trusted advisor, coaching and challenging leadership on people-related matters to achieve optimal performance.
8. Ensure Policy Consistency: Apply HR policies and procedures consistently across the organization, including during change initiatives.
9. Utilise Data Insights: Use data and best practices to inform decision-making and enhance business partnering relationships.
10. Support Strategic People Plans: Collaborate with People Business Partners to align people plans with growth strategy and improve employee experience.
11. Promote Continuous Improvement: Encourage new ways of working and collaboration across corporate functions.
12. Collaborate with Centers of Excellence: Work with various People function teams to provide consultancy and advice within the business.

What Team will I be a part?
This role sits within the Corporate business partnering Team within the People function.

Who are my customers?

• Corporate Office teams
• People Team Centres of Excellence, e.g. Reward, People Insights, Talent Acquisition, Education, L&D
• People Services Helpdesk

Qualifications:

What background do I need to have?

1. Understanding and accurately applying current UK employment law, with strong experience in resolving employee relations issues.
2. Experience in employee case management resolving complex employee issues and grievances.
3. Applying HR policies and procedures consistently across the organization, including during change initiatives.
4. Strong track record for supporting employee populations with probation reviews and performance conversations.
5. Experience with managing HR projects particularly within engagement and culture improvement.
6. Thinking both analytically and creatively, with experience researching and presenting data to support decision-making.
7. Ability to build and maintain relationships with stakeholders and balancing this with the courage to challenge.
8. Experience in coaching, and developing tools & guidance for managers.
9. Strong verbal and written communication skills, able to interact effectively at all levels of the organisation.
10. Comfortable dealing with ambiguity and operating in uncertain situations, able to remain flexible and implement strong decision making.

Additional Information:

At McDonald's we are People from all Walks of Life
People are at the heart of everything we do and they make the McDonald's experience. We embrace diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive culture that means people can be their best authentic self in our restaurants and offices, which helps us to better serve our customers.

We have a strong heritage of diversity and representation within our communities, which we are proud of. The diversity of our people, customers, Franchisees and suppliers give us strength.

We do not tolerate inequality, injustice or discrimination of any kind. These are hugely important issues and a brand with our reach and relevance means we have a very meaningful role to play.

We also recognise our responsibility as a large employer to continue being active in our communities, helping to develop skills and drive aspirations that will help people to be more aware of the world of work and more successful within it, whether with McDonald's or elsewhere.