Senior HR Business Partner jobs

HR Business Partner

Smarter Cover

• Leatherhead, Surrey KT22 7BA — office-based, minimum 4 days per week
• Full-time, Permanent
• £50,000 – £60,000

Urgent hire — ideally able to start within 3 weeks

Join Our Expanding Team

We’re a well-established Life Insurance provider that has doubled in size to over 150 people in the past 12 months — and we’re still growing fast. Our aim is to have 200+ Sales Consultants by the end of 2027.

Smarter Cover is in the privileged position of owning the entire customer lifecycle — from generating high-quality leads, to offering our own Life Insurance products, through to delivering an exceptional post-sale customer experience. In the past 24 months, we’ve successfully launched four new products to market, with more exciting releases in the pipeline.

We are seeking an experienced and proactive HR Business Partner to help shape the future of our People Department, and our business as a whole. This is a genuine step-up opportunity for an HR professional who wants to build something meaningful in a fast-moving, high-growth organisation — we're looking to move quickly, so this is not a role for a tentative or speculative applicant.

Role Overview

As HR Business Partner at Smarter Cover, you'll work directly with the Commercial Operations Director, and closely with the Head Of Recruitment and Head of Learning & Development, to build out the HR function and define and support a positive workplace culture.

You'll provide HR support across the business, ensuring people issues are managed fairly, consistently and in line with company policy and employment law — helping managers handle performance, capability, wellbeing and absence in a structured way so the business stays stable and compliant as we scale. You'll also own the HR infrastructure — records, documentation, processes and policies — that underpins a well-run, audit-ready people function.

Smarter Cover operates in a regulated environment, and this role supports the business's obligations under the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR).

Key Responsibilities

Employee Relations

• Oversee employee relations, ensuring disciplinaries, grievances and conduct issues are handled fairly, consistently and in line with company policy and employment law
• Advise and coach managers on handling people issues fairly, consistently, and with clear documentation
• Design and manage performance improvement plans (PIPs) and capability documentation
• Ensure all ER cases are logged, tracked and closed within appropriate timeframes
• Conduct exit interviews and identify patterns or themes to share with leadership

Absence & Wellbeing

• Own the return-to-work process and ensure it is followed consistently across the business
• Monitor and manage absence data, identifying patterns and escalating where needed
• Support managers and employees through wellbeing-related concerns, signposting appropriate support

Manager Capability Support

• Coach managers on how to have performance, conduct and wellbeing conversations
• Ensure managers follow the correct HR process rather than avoiding issues
• Identify patterns of manager behaviour that create repeated HR issues and escalate where required

Onboarding, Probation & People Administration

• Manage contracts, offer letters, onboarding paperwork and changes to terms
• Conduct new starter check-ins and manage the probation monitoring process, tracking and chasing reviews to completion
• Ensure new starters have the correct documentation in place before or on day one

HR Records, Compliance & Policy

• Maintain accurate, complete and audit-ready HR records — including files, contracts, right-to-work documentation and correspondence
• Ensure job descriptions are in place, up to date and consistently structured for every role in the business
• Design, review and update HR policies to keep them legally compliant and fit for purpose
• Conduct regular HR compliance audits across files, contracts, right-to-work documentation and HR processes

Data, Reporting & Insight

• Produce timely monthly absence and wellbeing reports with clear commentary and recommendations
• Track and report employee stats (headcount, turnover, absence, ER case volume) on a monthly basis
• Analyse engagement and leaver data, providing recommendations with visible tracking of agreed actions

Business Partnering

• Collaborate with Finance to manage payroll processes, ensuring accuracy and compliance
• Administer employee benefits, including pensions, healthcare and incentive schemes, and benchmark salaries for competitive compensation
• Work closely with leadership to align HR strategy with business goals, supporting organisational change, restructuring and DEI initiatives

Requirements

This is a high-bar hire, not an easy one — we're looking for genuine, demonstrable experience against every essential requirement below, not transferable potential alone.

Essential

• Sales-environment experience: proven experience of a sales operation similar to ours — fast-paced, high-volume and targets-driven
• Proven experience as an HR Business Partner, HR Advisor or equivalent generalist HR role
• Experience managing a full range of ER cases: disciplinary, grievance, capability and absence
• Strong working knowledge of UK employment law and HR best practice
• CIPD Level 5 (Associate) or equivalent demonstrable experience
• Excellent communication, interpersonal and leadership skills, with the confidence to advise managers without ambiguity
• High attention to detail — our documentation, records and compliance processes must be accurate
• Ability to manage multiple ER cases and competing priorities without dropping anything
• Comfortable having difficult conversations — with empathy, consistency and without avoidance
• Analytical — able to interpret people data and turn it into clear recommendations
• Location: able to work from our Leatherhead office at least 4 days per week
• Availability: able to start ASAP

Desirable

• Experience in the insurance, financial services or another regulated/compliance-driven environment
• CIPD Level 7 (Advanced), or working towards it
• Experience or training in SM&CR obligations as they apply to HR functions
• Experience with HR software and HR data analysis

Benefits

• Perkbox — exclusive discounts on top brands, experiences and everyday essentials
• SquareHealth — always-there healthcare support for you and your family
• Death in Service — financial security for your loved ones, with 4x basic salary cover
• Internal Incentives & Awards — recognition for your hard work and achievements
• Work-Life Balance — no weekend working or shift patterns, so you can plan your life
• Celebrate Together — summer & Christmas parties, plus festive period closure
• Hybrid Working — the minimum 4 office days per week required for this role
• Progression Pathways — clear opportunities to grow in Sales or Management
• Cycle to Work — save money, stay healthy and reduce your carbon footprint

Smarter Cover is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion. We encourage applications from all qualified individuals, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, or veteran status.

Pay: £45,000.00-£60,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Casual dress
• Company pension
• Cycle to work scheme
• Free parking
• Life insurance
• On-site parking
• Referral programme
• Work from home

Work Location: In person