Head of People Partnering (6 Months FTC)

Home. There’s no place like it. And there’s no feeling like helping people create the joy of feeling truly at home. At Dunelm, that’s what we do. We’re the UK's number one choice for homewares because we make home life lovelier for our customers. And the caring and supportive culture we've created makes this a place you'll feel right at home too.

We are the UK’s Number One homewares retailer offering c85,000 products building a consumer-focused total retail business that delights customers through our multichannel operation.

We are ambitious in our plans to drive further expansion of the business to more customers, shopping more frequently, with more choice, enhanced digital and physical services, and new capabilities to innovate and operate at pace in a fast-changing landscape. In developing the business for the long-term benefit of our customers, we are investing in our supply chain, stores and technology to improve the customer proposition as we move forward.

Department Overview

With our people being at the heart of Dunelm, the People Team is critical in driving and enabling business performance and strategic ambitions through a combination of effective people partnering and providing an overall people proposition that delivers a colleague experience in line with our Dunelm values.

We’re proud to have a passionate, forward-thinking team who is there to partner our business leaders to deliver their stretching goals and plans through teams of diverse, capable and engaged colleagues.

We bring together a vibrant mix of expertise, from data-driven minds to creative thinkers, to our specialists, all working together to design, deliver, and continuously improve initiatives that empower our colleagues, create a sense of belonging and a place to grow and thrive.

With exciting projects always on the go and plenty of opportunities to shape and elevate the colleague experience and improve business outcomes, the People team is an inspiring, collaborative place to be and one we’re always challenging ourselves to have the highest impact - now and in the future.

Role Overview

​As Head of People Partnering, you’ll be a driving force in shaping a people strategy that truly transforms our organisation. Acting as the key link between our people strategy and the functions you partner with, you’ll ensure that every people initiative is aligned with business goals, while championing an outstanding colleague experience every step of the way.

Working closely with the Exec Team and senior leaders across a number of functions, you’ll be a trusted advisor and proactive coach, guiding change, building leadership capability, growing talent, and ensuring that people considerations are at the heart of every decision.

Your ability to balance strategic thinking with operational delivery will be essential in navigating complexity, anticipating workforce needs, and driving initiatives that enable performance, growth, and transformation.

In this highly collaborative role, you will lead and empower a team of People Partners and L&D Partners, creating a high-performing team that is aligned, agile, and deeply embedded in the business to deliver the people priorities. You’ll bring together people insights, external trends, and a deep understanding of Dunelm to shape interventions that improve performance, engagement, capability, capacity, talent growth & succession, and diversity & inclusion.

If you’re looking for a role where you can drive meaningful change, shape the future, and lead a passionate team in an ambitious business with colleagues at the centre of its success — this is it.

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Role Responsibilities:

Strategic Partnership

• Collaborate closely with the Exec Team and senior leaders to gain deep insight into business goals, challenges, and opportunities and integrate people plans across the areas you partner.
• Act as a trusted advisor, providing strategic People insight and guidance, anticipating future business needs and proactively identifying people-related risks and opportunities.
• Translate business priorities into actionable people initiatives that support workforce planning, capability building, and organisational effectiveness.

Partnering and Colleague Relations

• Lead, coach, and develop a high performing People & L&D Partnering team to ensure they deliver high quality support and deliver purposeful outcomes to the relevant functions.
• Develop and implement people strategies that directly support and drive organisational performance, engagement, and long-term growth.
• Create a positive colleague relations environment where concerns are addressed and conflicts are resolved in a timely manner, in line with our policies, procedures and shared values.

Strategic Talent Management and Development

• Work with the Talent team to design and implement strategic talent management programmes to attract, retain and develop talent within the business.
• Build strong succession plans in partnership with business leaders, and actively keep them alive to deliver purposeful career development opportunities and a strong ‘ready now’ pipeline that enables future growth and mitigates any talent risks.
• Drive initiatives focused on developing leadership capability and strengthening the leadership pipeline.
• Identify and address skills and capability gaps across the business through targeted learning and development initiatives.
• Champion and drive our Early Careers strategy, ensuring a seamless and engaging experience for emerging talent.
• Oversee the implementation of our Quality and Productivity processes, including objective setting, performance reviews, succession planning and performance management to build a high-performance culture.

Colleague Engagement and Culture

• Support the development and implementation of meaningful colleague recognition programs that reward and motivate high performance in line with our shared values.
• Work with the People Insights team to support the colleague listening and survey cycle, upskilling leaders to have relevant, meaningful and ‘always on’ engagement action plans for their teams.
• Lead by example by being a visible role model for Dunelm’s shared values and leadership behaviours.

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Organisational Development & Change Leadership

• Partner with the Exec and senior leadership to design and implement effective organisational structures that support business goals and long-term growth.
• Drive workforce planning initiatives, ensuring the right talent and capacity is in place to support current and future business needs.
• Lead people change management, ensuring smooth transitions and mitigated disruption during times of transformation.
• Champion DEI initiatives to create a diverse and inclusive workplace where we drive action to improve diversity across teams, and all colleagues feel ‘at home in our home’.
• Use available data to inform decisions, priorities and focuses in the DEI space.
• Work with the Belonging team to co-create polices and improve workplace practices, including implementing positive change with leaders and colleagues.

​People Operations and Metrics

• Work with People Centres of Excellence to ensure efficient processes and ways of working are live and embedded across the team so we deliver the best outcomes together.
• ​Utilise People data to prepare and present analysis to senior leaders on People activities, KPIs and outcomes.

What we will look for in you:

• Excellent stakeholder management skills including influencing and leveraging impact with a variety of stakeholders at all levels.
• Ability to understand commercial data and business plans and identify people priorities that will deliver the best outcomes.
• Significant experience in providing practical ER support to leaders, line managers and a wider People Team, utilising employment law knowledge and best practice in line with company values.
• Proven ability to grow an internal and external network of effective relationships.
• ​Externally curious, continually scanning the environment to gain knowledge, insight and best practice from across the People profession.
• Experience of writing and updating People policies inline with employment law and best practice changes in a way that is inclusive, engaging and educational for all colleagues and leaders.