As we continue our mission to make people and nature happy through reinventing chocolate, we’re looking for a Senior HR Business Partner to join our HR team on a 12-month contract basis, covering maternity leave.
Salary range between £60,000 - £70,000 per annum.
We believe our people are the key ingredient to our success and we’re looking for a dynamic Senior HR Business Partner to support our Omnichannel division—spanning Retail, Wholesale, Ecommerce, Trading and Property—as we shape the future of our business. Partnering closely with the Omnichannel Director, you’ll drive the execution of a strategic people plan, ensuring we have the right talent, structure, and skills to stay ahead. Working in collaboration with the extended HR Senior Leadership Team you’ll lead on organisational design, talent management and succession planning activity, enabling a truly connected approach across all channels. You’ll also manage a small but impactful team (HRBP, HR Advisor, and HR Co-ordinator) while balancing the unique needs of our large, fast-paced retail function with the agility of the other smaller omni teams. If you’re ready to make a real impact while being part of wider HR and L&D initiatives, we’d love to hear from you.
As well as a competitive salary and company benefits, you’ll receive 50% discount on all products, and a delicious 70% discount for you and your guests when you stay at our Rabot Estate hideaway on the paradise island of Saint Lucia.
Here at Hotel Chocolat, we’ve adopted a hybrid working pattern where appropriate. For this role it means working 3 days a week on site, with the other 2 days spent working remotely, from home or wherever you like! The on-site locations for this role are our Head Office ‘Mint House’ in Royston, Hertfordshire, and our Distribution Centre ‘Alpha’ in St Neots, Cambridgeshire, Occasional national travel is required.

WHO WE ARE…

We’re one of the UK’s favourite premium chocolate brands, with a range of products spanning luxury gifts, alcohol and our pioneering drinking chocolate system, the Velvetiser™.
A cacao pod takes years to grow – it can’t be rushed if it’s going to be just right for our products. The same can be said for Hotel Chocolat, which originally started as a mint production company before we realised it was luxury chocolate that we were really passionate about.
Now, we’re market leaders in the industry. What began as an online-only business grew to 140 stores across the UK, and we’re still growing… Today, we’re multi-category, multi-channel, and multi-territory, and our customers, colleagues, cacao farmers and suppliers all benefit from the success we make together.
To learn more about us and read about our People Pledge – our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion – click here: hotelchocolat.com/uk/engaged-ethics/our-people.html

• Develop strong partnerships with your Senior Leadership Team stakeholders and peers to identify and develop future fit strategies that are aligned to the wider business goals including Organisational Design and cost dilution.
• Through leadership of the HRBP’s, develop and maintain oversight of organisational succession plans in partnership with L&D, resulting in formal reviews business wide in a synchronised and consistent, repeatable process.
• Coach and partner the senior leadership team on effective performance management techniques, including goal setting, feedback delivery, and performance improvement plans.
• HRBP review of the organisational health of your business area, ensuring all factors such as absence rates, turnover and culture & engagement are always live conversations with clear actions to local leaders and HR team to prioritise focus and reporting ongoing to improve.
• Identify strategic people development opportunities to inform L&D strategic plans, resourcing and business case proposals for benefits/cost that aligns with peers for a “one team view”
• Act as a cultural and behavioural lead in the development of organisational design, structures and resource plans for your partnering and team population.
• Work collaboratively with HR peers and wider team such as Reward, L&D, Recruitment & Data in order to support development of Hr strategies and functional priorities with clear purpose and anticipated outcomes. Represent your business areas needs in any business wide initiatives.
• Proactively draw insight and feedback from both internal and external sources to understand the trends and issues affecting areas of the business. Utilise this data to challenge senior leadership teams and drive new initiatives for improvement – playing back oversight into formal UK Board meeting updates ongoing.
• Leadership of Omnichannel HR team to facilitate a KPI review including ER oversight for the business at a function level.
• Provide guidance and support leaders with any complex ER cases
• Coach, mentor and develop your HR team.
• Support and lead senior teams through change initiatives, ensuring the cultural impacts are front and centre of mind and initiatives land clearly and effectively