HR Business Partner

The role

ECMWF is a vibrant and highly successful organisation. We have grown rapidly over the last years, with new duty stations in Bonn, Germany and Bologna, Italy in addition to our headquarters in Reading, UK. People are core to the organisation’s success. To support our people agenda, we rely on strong HR professionals who work very closely with the line organisation to support them on day-to-day and more strategic people issues, as well as a central HR operations team that ensures that core HR processes are executed efficiently and reliably and aligned with the “One ECMWF” culture which is at the heart of the organisation.

This HR Business Partner will act as first point of contact and trusted advisor to ECMWF line managers and staff. They will work closely with line managers in their client group to identify people challenges, support the recruitment of talent, develop staff, address any employee relations issues and enhance staff engagement. This role will also act as process lead for employee-relations related matters and will support case management, investigations, disciplinary and grievance processes and internal mediation. They will also act as focus point for absence management and reintegration processes. They will be an integral part of the ECMWF HR team and will work closely with the HR team in Reading, Bonn and Bologna.

Your Responsibilities

• Advise, coach and develop line managers around HR policies and processes to enable teams and individuals to be most effective in their roles.
• Act as trusted partner to support line managers in their client group in addressing people challenges, recruiting talent, workforce planning, developing staff and enhancing staff engagement.
• Advise on HR issues including development, engagement, employee relations and performance management. Develop pragmatic solutions by interpreting policies and mitigating risks.
• Champion diversity and inclusion, coach and challenge staff to increase diversity through recruitment and capitalise on diversity through inclusion.
• Act as process lead and expert for employee-relations issues, including informal conflict resolution methods and internal mediation.
• Provide case management support, conduct investigations, support grievances and disciplinary cases as well as absence management and return to work processes.
• Work closely with the rest of the HR team in Bologna, Bonn and Reading to role-model the “One ECMWF” culture and to ensure virtual team working and collaboration across duty stations.
• Contribute to projects as required.

What We’re Looking For

• Excellent relationship management skills, including the ability to quickly gain credibility with key stakeholders across the organisation and externally.
• Strong experience of case management, supporting investigations, grievance and disciplinary processes.
• Strong experience of informal conflict resolution mechanisms, ideally with mediation experience.
• Strong analytic skills, demonstrated ability to work with process and data, detail-conscious and able to apply procedure rigorously.
• Capacity to manage multiple issues ranging from short-term operational to medium term strategic to tight deadlines.
• Ability to work well as part of a team, taking the lead on some topics, contributing to others.
• Influential, solution-oriented and pragmatic approach with the ability to advise and coach managers to build capability.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Curiosity to understand the goals of the organisation and how HR can contribute to it.

Education

• Candidates should have a degree or degree-equivalent qualification (EQF Level 6) in Human Resource Management or a related field.

Experience, Knowledge And Skills

• Demonstrated experience working in an HR business partnering capacity, with experience of coaching line managers and building capacity is essential.
• Experience in employee-relations and good understanding of employment law concepts is essential.
• Demonstrated experience of case management, supporting investigations and disciplinary and grievance processes is essential.
• Experience of informal conflict resolution methods and internal mediation is highly desirable.
• Experience of working in an international organisation, established by Convention with State-level membership, combined with a good understanding of the issues facing international organisations is desirable.
• Candidates must be able to work effectively in English, fluency in French or German would be a bonus.

Other Information

Grade remuneration: The successful candidates will be recruited at Grade A2 , according to the scales of the Co-ordinated Organisations and the annual basic salary will be GBP 73,094.76 (Reading/UK) or EUR89,168.64 (Bonn/Germany) NET annual basic salary (ECMWF salaries are exempt from national income tax). In addition to basic salary, ECMWF also offers an attractive benefits package. This position is assigned to the employment category STF-PL as defined in the ECMWF Staff Regulations.

Starting date: As soon as possible

Length of contract: The contract duration is expected to be four years. There may be the possibility of further contract extensions in the future, depending on requirements and funding availability.

Location: Preference for Bonn, Germany but Reading, UK can be considered for the right candidate.

Remote work: As a multi-site organisation, ECMWF has adopted a hybrid organisation model which allows flexibility to staff to mix office working and teleworking. We allow for remote work 10 days/month away from the office, including up to 80 days/year away from the duty station country (within the area of our member states and co-operating states).

Interviews by videoconference (MS Teams) are expected to take place during late February/early March 2025. If you require any special accommodations in order to participate fully in our recruitment process, please let us know.

To contact the ECMWF Recruitment Team, please email

Who Can Apply

Applicants are invited to complete the online application form by clicking on the apply button below.

At ECMWF, we consider an inclusive environment as key for our success. We are dedicated to ensuring a workplace that embraces diversity and provides equal opportunities for all, without distinction as to race, gender, age, marital status, social status, disability, sexual orientation, religion, personality, ethnicity and culture. We value the benefits derived from a diverse workforce and are committed to having staff that reflect the diversity of the countries that are part of our community, in an environment that nurtures equality and inclusion.

Applications are invited from nationals from ECMWF Member States and Co-operating States, as well as from all EU Member States.

ECMWF Member and Co-operating States are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Morocco, the Netherlands, Norway, North Macedonia, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and the United Kingdom.

In these exceptional times, we also welcome applications from Ukrainian nationals for this vacancy.

Applications from nationals from other countries may be considered in exceptional cases.

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