Senior HR Business Partner - British American Tobacco

HR Business Partner

The main responsibility for this position is to support the Head of HR WEA and Country manager Belux in defining, delivering and executing an HR strategy and agenda against business needs, all in close cooperation with the HR teams in region.

The HR Business Partner ensures consistency on company level in key HR processes through close working relationships with line management, Belux Top Team, regional stakeholders (on Talent, reward and organizational design) and HR Shared Services Team in Romania.

The HR BP will drive the Reward, Talent Managent and Change Management activities within the Belux entities.

The BeLux organisation is comprised of 2 markets: Luxembourg, Belgium (in which 2 entities are operating the BAT Belgium – commercial entity (Belux) and the BAT Co-ordination Centre (part of Finance Shared Services)

The role will operate in an environment of significant change; Role of HR BP changes, focusing more on strategic Business support and handing over transactional and admin tasks to HR Shared Services.

Principal Accountabilitie

Talent Management

• Activation of BAT’s talent brand in the external marketplace; ensuring Group toolkit is appropriately deployed through market channels and media
• Support line managers with external recruitments
• Regularly reviews the entity’s capability requirements and adjust talent plans accordingly
• With line managers build, manage and deliver the succession and diversity plans
• Stewardship of Talent Review cycle and full suite of supporting processes e.g. Perform, Develop, Calibration and coach line management in these processes.          
• Ensure learning & development tools are activated at business unit level and investment guided appropriatel

Talent Engagement

• Drive the employee opinion survey process; in particular campaign planning, insight generation, integration of actions into wider people and organisational .
• Support country manager in set up and development of strong local Leadership team
• Ensure the unit has market relevant employment practices and policies in place in order to support talent attraction and create engaging and productive working place environment.
• Drive engagement, advocacy and retention BAT’s internal talent brand

Organizational Strategy and Managing Change

• Supports management in identifying productivity and efficiency opportunities
• Provides HR leadership to the local leadership team in delivering functional transformation programmes                               
• Develops strategies to ensure no disruption to business or loss of key talent

Workforce Planning

• Lead Headcount & HR financial planning processes (quarterly and company plan) in close cooperation with local Payroll manager & Finance, which includes headcount forecast, employment cost actuals, employment cost forecast
• Deliver  workforce planning together with leadership team in order to create workforce plan
• Ownership and management of local HR budget

Employee Relations

• Coordinate and manage employee relation matters with trade unions, works council and safety & prevention committee, regional reward. Provide on-going support to Head of HR with employee relations.
• Together with the country manager, lead in collective bargaining negotiations
• Coaches line managers to be able to deliver issues such as grievance, disciplinary matters
• Acts as local point of contact with in market company advisors e.g. employment law specialists

Reward Management

• Manage local reward initiatives, educate line managers and employees on reward related topics and apply regional reward frameworks
• Collaborates with regional Reward team to shape business unit reward strategy and agenda.
• Ensures local agreements and policies are brought to the attention  for approval
• Adoption of Group policies and frameworks and adaptation where necessary to local environment
• Management (with local line) of local incentive programmes e.g. TM&D
• Highlights organisational changes which may require reward changes
• Supports line managers with compensation review and related communications
• Acts as local point of contact with in market company advisors e.g. tax specialists

Lead local HR TEAM & processes

• Manage, monitor and improve HR Administration processes, in close cooperation with the Regional HR Shared Services team. Initiate HR policy review and policy changes in line with business agenda & labour law developments
• Lead a team of 1 HR Payroll Manager & relate with the  HR Shared Services contacts

Knowledge, Skills & Experience:

• University Degree or similar in Business administration/HR Management or equivalent
• Minimum of 5 years' experience in general HR position, preferably with in-depth experience in reward,  personnel administration & talent management
• Experience with Belgian Labour Law regulations
• Experience with Employee relations and work council negotiations
• Previous experience in an international setting, ideally in a matrix organisation
• Experience in HR budgeting processes
• Good interpersonal and communication skills
• Self-starter with hands-on mentality ability to focus on priorities in a dynamic surrounding
• Able to cope effectively under pressure
• Ability to establish trustful internal and external relationships
• Pro-active and enthusiastic
• Some knowledge of payroll system and/or SAP Successfactors
• Advanced computer skills (MS Office)
• Dutch / French and English

Hands on, delivery required, can do attitude (no dreamer and concept developer only)

British American Tobacco is one of the world’s leading multinational companies, with brands sold in over 200 markets, made in 44 factories in 42 countries.

We are proud that we are consistently among the top 5 companies on the London Stock Exchange.

Our portfolio includes our world-famous Global Drive Brands – Dunhill, Kent, Lucky Strike, Pall Mall and Rothmans – along with many other leading international brands, such as Vogue, Peter Stuyvesant and State Express 555.

Alongside our traditional tobacco business, we are also developing products that offer consumers potentially less risky alternatives to regular cigarettes. Our Next Generation Products are already leading the way in the Industry of vapour and tobacco heating devices. We continue to develop a solid portfolio of consumer solutions which already include well known global brands like Vype, glo and Voke.