HR Business Partner

Responsibilities

About WRBC Services

WRBC Services is the Centralised Support Functions organisation for the WR Berkley Corporation’s UK and European businesses. We provide essential expertise across:

• HR
• Finance & Accounting
• Tax
• Legal & Compliance
• Facilities Management

By handling these core operational functions, we free our underwriting units to focus on client service, growth, and market excellence. Our model delivers:

✨ Operational Efficiency – Strong frameworks and consistent processes✨ Flexibility – Local decision‑making within a decentralised business structure✨ Business Enablement – Supporting underwriting teams to excel while we manage critical support functions

This role sits at the heart of that mission.

The Opportunity

As an HR Business Partner, you will deliver a credible, strategic, and solutions‑focused HR partnering service to our UK‑based business units. You will work directly with senior leaders to understand their objectives, design people strategies, and embed a culture where individuals and teams can flourish.

You will influence, advise, challenge, coach, and collaborate — acting as a true partner, not just a support function.

This is a role with real breadth, covering Employee Relations, performance, talent, reward, payroll oversight, data insights, and organisational development. No two days are the same.

Key Responsibilities

Employee Relations

• Provide expert guidance across the employee lifecycle, ensuring high‑quality, timely and compliant HR support.
• Advise on complex Employee Relations matters, working closely with the Director of HR and external legal counsel as needed.
• Mitigate risk proactively and ensure fair, consistent, and people‑centric decision making.

Talent Management & Performance

• Coach leaders on talent acquisition, selection, onboarding and capability development.
• Support and strengthen our performance management culture.
• Identify trends using people data to support high performance and address areas for improvement.
• Partner with WRBC Talent Development to deliver learning programmes and progression pathways.

Reward, Recognition & Payroll

• Support the HR Director in delivering reward strategies and annual compensation cycles.
• Provide insights on salary benchmarking and benefits competitiveness.
• Manage monthly payroll processing with our external provider — ensuring accuracy, timeliness, and robust controls.
• Oversee relationships with benefits brokers and providers.

People Data, Reporting & Analytics

• Interpret people metrics to drive decision making and support business planning.
• Provide accurate, timely HR reporting across units.

Culture, Engagement & Wellbeing

• Partner with leaders to promote engagement, belonging and empowerment.
• Support our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) strategy, embedding inclusive practices throughout the business.
• Champion wellbeing across social, financial, mental and physical pillars.

Strategy, Change & Organisational Design

• Support development of People Strategies that align with business needs.
• Contribute to culture change initiatives, organisational design, and change management projects.

Compliance, Governance & Regulatory Support

• Ensure compliance with all relevant legislation, GDPR, SMCR, and governance frameworks.
• Support annual certification and regulatory processes where required.

You will bring:

• CIPD qualification (or equivalent experience).
• A background in the Insurance Market.
• Strong, current knowledge of UK Employment Law and Employee Relations.
• Broad generalist experience across HR disciplines.
• Experience partnering with leaders from multiple business units, ideally in a shared‑service or multi‑site model.
• Strong numerical skills and confidence with HR data (Excel at intermediate level).
• Experience managing or overseeing payroll.
• A collaborative, open‑minded and solutions‑driven approach.
• Ability to challenge constructively, influence credibly, and communicate with impact.
• Resilience, adaptability, and willingness to get hands‑on when needed.