Regional People & Culture Business Partner

Regional People & Culture Business Partner

Because you’re the ambition we need on our mission. Thrive our way!

At Primark we’re caring, dynamic and we succeed together. We have amazing fashion at amazing prices, all the time. We set the fashion trends. We’re committed to providing our customers with service that is second to none.

What You’ll Do

As a Regional People & Culture Business Partner, you will Partner with the Head of Sales (HOS) and P&C colleagues across the region to provide subject matter expertise, consultative services and trusted advice that influences and enables the delivery of the business strategy through an amazing colleague and customer experience. As a leader, the Regional People & Culture Business Partner will lead and develop Area P&C Business Partners to embed people practices that drive the business strategy and the development of high performing teams.

Act as a trusted advisor to the Retail Head of Sales and P&C function to deliver an aligned business and people strategy for your region.  Provide strategic and consultative advice and insights on the people agenda, process, and best practice across the Region to the Retail Leadership Team and Area P&C Business Partners. Collaborate effectively with the P&C Leadership Team and COEs to build solutions and enable a consistent and quality delivery of the P&C agenda in country, with particular focus on:

Talent attraction, engagement, and retention

• Review the effectiveness of recruitment strategies for stores, challenging the Area BP team on root cause, patterns, and trends.
• Partner with the HOS and relevant COEs to agree solutions and support for market attraction and retention challenges.
• Support the Recruitment and assessment process for senior retail roles.
• Role model and recognise great leadership behaviours that attract, engage, and retain talent across the region.
• Partner with the HOS on the interpretation of engagement survey results, driving a shared understanding of the priority areas and setting the expectations for teams on effective listening, communication, and robust action plans.
• Take a lead role in embedding and monitoring company engagement and well-being initiatives across the Region.
• Develop and encourage the growth of the Primark Culture, protecting and evolving the Primark DNA.

People Performance, Capability and Potential

• Provide trusted advice, support and coaching to guide and build confidence in Retail Leaders and Area P&C BPs on performance management processes including Make Your Primark (MYP), talent reviews, indicators of potential, calibration, delivering feedback and managing difficult conversations.
• Coach, develop and provide feedback to the Area P&C BPs on their performance and impact in driving the P&C Strategy and Purpose, positively influencing the Colleague experience, and driving people performance and progression.
• In collaboration with HOS drive MYP process and completion rates across the region.
• Take a lead role in delivering an objective calibration process, challenging assessment, results, and consistency of the MYP, talent review and succession planning process for Retail Management roles up to Area Manager level.  Partner with the HOS to share results and recommendations with the Vice President, P&C.
• In partnership with the HOS regularly review structures to facilitate an equitable distribution of high performing talent (domestic and cross-border) up to Area manager level, including the development of a robust succession / talent pipeline plan and action to address underperformance.
• Support the Area P&C BPs as they partner with Area Managers to identify training needs and collaborate with COEs on solutions that enable our Store teams to reach their potential.
• Develop the Area P&C BP capability to operate as a trusted coach and advisor.
• Partner with the VP, People & CUlturre and L&D COE to agree learning support for the Business partnering and Store P&C teams to enable high performance and progression.

Colleague Relations

• Coach and develop Area P&C BPs and HOS in their role in advising / managing complex colleague relations (CR) matters and be an escalation path for issues they cannot resolve.
• Liaise with the CR COE team and external legal advice as required to resolve complex cases.
• Provide insights and coaching to the HOS to create and sustain a positive and inclusive culture and progressive CR environment.
• Support the Area P&C BPs to develop strategies and tactical plans to address any recurring performance themes.

Operational Standards, Reporting and Governance

• Responsible for the governance of people policy, process and practice and team understanding and adherence to regulatory, legal, compliance and audit requirements across the Region.
• Regularly review P&C regulatory, legal, compliance and operational and audit standards to identify risk and propose mitigation steps to the Head of Sales.
• Support Area P&C BPs in tackling issues arising from store KPI performance scores.
• Communicate with P&C LT and Retail LT insights on people matters that may require country-wide intervention.
• Regularly review the agreed KPIs of the Area P&C BPs, and Stores to identify insights and trends, and take action as appropriate with insight led decision-making.

Business impact and change agent.

• Support the Country P&C Leader to drive required activity to deliver the P&C strategy and purpose.
• Partner with the COEs and Central P&C teams to drive local implementation of global ways of working, policy, and practice in support of the people agenda, P&C strategy, and purpose.
• Lead the delivery of projects and organisational change and act as a champion for change.
• Share strategies with the Area P&C BPs, Cluster/Store BPs, and the broader P&C community, to support best practice and leverage learning opportunity.
• Drive self and others to identify opportunities for strategic thinking / value add activity that improves business performance and/or P&C operational effectiveness.
• Role model the use of data, insights, and research to influence decision making and alignment of P&C priorities to the business Future Amazing strategy.
• Continuously develop commercial and business insight and listen to the business needs.
• Use analysis, judgment, subject matter expertise, functional leadership, in-the-moment decision-making to solve problems that prevent us from delivering our Customer Promise.
• Develop and maintain external networks that allow leading edge P&C knowledge and ideas to be shared in the business.

What You’ll Get

We’re committed to your success and will provide you with an onboarding period. Here, you’ll be empowered to succeed. As we rapidly expand across the globe, we’ll give you the tools that you need to excel.

What You’ll Bring

To be successful in this role, you must have a minimum of 10+ years’ professional experience, including 2+ years in a multi-management HR role, preferably in the retail sector.

Preferably having held other business partnering or HR senior roles in the retail sector. Previous line management experience.

• A big (and strategic) thinker, able to deal with ambiguity.
• Excellent communication and consultative skills and highly effective in stakeholder engagement and influencing persuasively at all levels.
• Experienced in leading teams through change and transformation.
• Established leadership and coaching skills.
• Excellent organizational skills and the ability to manage multiple high-priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with a high degree of commercial acumen.
• Experience working in a fashion retail environment a distinct advantage.
• Working with Others
• A credible and confident communicator who influences with passion and energy, inspiring and engaging people in their vision.
• Adopts a flexible communication style to build internal and external networks and partnerships that matter for the business.
• Establishes trust and credibility across the function, collaborating and operating with confidentiality and diplomacy.
• Leads a team that enables the business and drives a culture of high performance and growth, focusing commitment to deliver to an aligned P&C, and Business purpose and goals.
• Coaches and develops Area BPs in their role as a Line Manager, building their skills and confidence to enable the development of a P&C talent pipeline.
• Create a learning culture and talent pipeline within P&C by role modelling self-development to help build professional experience and technical knowledge.

Decision Making

• Sets direction for the people and culture team and simplifies complexity to enable shared understanding.
• Develops strategies and makes decisions with pace and confidence.
• Role models an environment of trust and engages the right stakeholders in decision making.
• Coaches others to consider the impact of decisions on the business and the people.

Self-Direction and Agility

• Promotes a culture of optimism, enthusiasm, and mutual support.
• Demonstrates resilience and tenacity, adapts, and develops plans when faced with complex challenges.
• Drives Primark to deliver key priorities that recognise changing external influences.
• A natural self-starter who encourages and supports the same in others.
• Sets ambitious goals and is driven to develop self and others.
• Participate in two-way coaching with the HOS on great leadership, people management skills and continued commercial awareness.

Customer Experience

• Uses insights and industry knowledge to deliver strategies for colleague development that anticipate and respond to future changing customer expectations.
• Inspires a customer-centric culture, encouraging others to continuously develop industry knowledge and awareness of people and culture practice.
• Focuses the Area BP team on driving the customer promise.
• Understands the factors that impact colleague engagement and challenges the Area BP team on delivery of the optimum colleague experience.

Innovation

• Creates an environment in which innovation and creativity can flourish, encouraging the Area BP team to give people freedom to change and improve things.
• Challenges and supports others to implement plans for managing and responding to innovative ideas and business opportunities.
• Supports and encourages the team to deliver incremental change, encourages a mindset of making a difference every day.
• Encourages the team to identify innovative ideas that improve effectiveness and efficiency.

Location: This is a regional role which covers a multi-area / multi-state geography. The role is based out of Chicago / Dallas / Sunrise and currently covers a remit including the Midwest, Southeast, and Texas. 

Hybrid Working: This role is primarily on-site with a minimum of four days per week on-site. 1-2 days per week working from their home location and the balance either in local stores or traveling.

The pay range for this role is: $135,000 – $205,000

Travel: Will require travel extensively in US and or other countries when requested by the role. Approximately 30-40% travel depending on the time of the year. Primary travel will be within the region in-scope and to the US Headquarters in Boston. International travel is very limited.

Our fashion isn’t one-size-fits-all and neither is our culture. Primark promotes equal employment opportunity, we strive to create an inclusive workplace where people can be themselves, access opportunities and thrive together. Excited? Good. There’s real accountability and ownership here as you shape your store, team’s futures, and steer sales. It’s energizing to put your skills to work, in a growing local and global business committed to helping people express themselves- and feel a sense of belonging. Because you thrive outside your comfort zone. Apply today to start your Primark journey!

Primark is an equal opportunity employer. Primark does not discriminate against applicants or employees on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law. Primark is committed to providing access, equal opportunity, and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities in employment. To request reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, please email USACareers@primark.com with your request. This email is not for general employment inquiries or correspondence. We will only respond to those requests that are related to accessibility of the online application system due to a disability.