HR Business Partner

Job Description

Ready to make a real impact? Join us as an HR Business Partner and play a key role in shaping our people strategy, driving performance, and creating an exceptional employee experience.

Food Standards Scotland (FSS) was established by the Food (Scotland) Act 2015 as a non‑ministerial office and forms part of the Scottish Administration, alongside, but separate from, the Scottish Government. Our primary concern is consumer protection, ensuring that food is safe to eat, that consumers know what they are eating, and that nutrition is improved.

You will proactively advise and support senior leaders, managers and staff across Food Standards Scotland (FSS) throughout all stages of the employee lifecycle. You will influence and coach stakeholders towards effective people and business solutions while undertaking a range of project work to support organisational priorities.

Our HR team sits within the Corporate Services Division, which supports FSS in delivering its strategy, statutory obligations and corporate priorities. The team consists of five people: the HR Manager, who leads the team; two HR Business Partners; an HR Co‑ordinator; and a Learning and Development Business Partner.

• Support management teams in applying Scottish Government (SG) HR policies and procedures, ensuring compliance with current legislation and best practice.
• Handle a range of casework, including attendance management, disciplinary, grievance and performance matters.
• Provide advice and support throughout the recruitment process and ensure local governance processes are followed.
• Undertake a range of project work and activities to support the delivery of the FSS People Strategy and Workforce Plan.
• Ensure systems and processes are effective and identify opportunities to continuously improve service delivery.
• Utilise a range of data to analyse and produce accurate reports and HR metrics, identifying trends and risks to support business decision‑making.
• Matrix manage the HR Co‑ordinator, building capability and ensuring the delivery of high‑quality services and customer support across areas such as casework, recruitment and project work.
• Represent HR by attending a range of working groups and programme boards, collaborating with a variety of internal and external stakeholders.

Associate level membership of the CIPD or equivalent. Proof of qualifications will be checked at the assessment stage.

Success profiles are specific to each job and they include the mix of behaviours, experience and technical criteria (if applicable) that candidates will be assessed on.

• People policies and Employment Law
  - Knowledgeable about key HR policies, processes, and legislation, and how to research, interpret and apply these when providing advice to customers and managing casework and processes. Able to assess issues and risks and elevate when required.
  
  - Lead Criteria
• Digital and Data Skills
  - Able to use HR systems and source and interpret data to understand and resolve customer enquiries and issues, and to evaluate and improve services. Ensures system data is effectively recorded and maintained.

You can find out more about the skills required, here: HR Success Profiles Matrixes and CIPD Profession Map

Building and managing relationships and partnerships, building capability and using data and evidence to make decisions and influence.

• Communicating and Influencing
  - Level 3
• Working Together
  - Level 3
• Making Effective Decisions
  - Level 3
• Managing a Quality Service
  - Level 3

In the event of a high volume of applications, candidates will have their applications initially assessed against the Technical criteria
- People policies and Employment Law above. Candidates who pass this initial sift will have their applications fully assessed against all criteria. At interview/assessment if there is a tied score, performance in the Technical criteria
- People policies and Employment Law.

Skilled Worker sponsorship is not available for this role. As a result, we are unable to appoint candidates who require Skilled Worker sponsorship…