Introduction
Saab in UK is growing rapidly, with over 500 colleagues across eight sites. We bring together Swedish heritage and British expertise to drive innovation in areas such as software engineering, underwater robotics, radars, AI, and armed forces training. Joining Saab in UK means contributing to the security and resilience of society while building a career with real scope for personal and professional growth.
What you will be part of
Explore a wealth of possibilities. Take on challenges, create smart inventions, and grow beyond. This is a place for curious minds, brave pioneers, and everyone in between. Together, we achieve the extraordinary, each bringing our unique perspectives. Your part matters.
Saab is a leading defence and security company with an enduring mission, to help nations keep their people and society safe. Empowered by its 26,000 talented people, Saab constantly pushes the boundaries of technology to create a safer and more sustainable world.
Saab designs, manufactures and maintains advanced systems in aeronautics, weapons, command and control, sensors and underwater systems. Saab is headquartered in Sweden. It has major operations all over the world and is part of the domestic defence capability of several nations. Read more about us here.
The Role
This role will be based at our Bedford site supporting our Blue Bear operation. You will be required to be on site 4 days a week.
You will report into the VP Director HR but work very closely with the Managing Director and managers/employees of Blue Bear and in conjunction with Head of Corporate HR.
Responsible for managing and administering day-to-day HR across the full spectrum of people management, therefore you will need to have a thorough knowledge and understanding of most of the major areas, and a deeper knowledge and understanding in one or more specialized areas, within Human Resources. You will need to have a minimum of 10 years of experience as an HR professional.
- Play a key role in the management team, providing HR support to the business
- In conjunction with VP Director HR, identify HR priorities and recommend, develop and deliver people management strategies that support the company’s overall aims and objectives
- Provide expert professional advice and support to managers and employees on all aspects of people management, which fully reflect the company’s desire to be an employer of choice and comply with current employment legislation and best practice
- Supporting corporate HR with higher level projects, and developing and maintaining policies and procedures
- Provide support and problem solving on the full range of HR activities, including policies and procedures, terms and conditions of employment, absence management, restructuring, performance management, etc.
- Provide appropriate reporting/KPIs to the VP Director HR
- Keep up-to-date with legal developments and advise on HR compliance
- Provide advice and guidance to managers on employee relations cases, ensuring that these are well managed and follow process, best practice and employment legislation. In conjunction with corporate HR, lead on employee relations case management, to include disciplinaries, grievances, performance, attendance, dismissals, employment tribunals, etc.
- Manage performance management reviews in conjunction with corporate HR and company-wide process
- Assisting VP Director HR with the salary review process for the Blue Bear operation and ensure distribution of the salary review letters and Workday is updated.
- In conjunction with corporate HR, support with learning and development, and provide and organise training on a regular basis to ensure managers are fully trained in different processes and HR systems
- Manage sickness absence cases and medical referrals
- Ensure HR activities comply with the needs of ISO certifications as required
- Producing all relevant data on a payroll tracker for the outsourced payroll company within timeframes
- Recruitment:
- Supporting managers with their recruitment needs and liaising with the central recruitment team
- Produce and process offer letters and contracts of employment
- Completion of the hire process in Workday/Payroll
- Supporting managers with all aspects of the on-boarding for new joiners
- Working in partnership with other areas i.e. Corporate HR, IT, Security, etc, to cover inductions, equipment, etc for each new joiner
- Coordination of the probation periods, benefits notification via payroll and necessary forms
- Resignations - coordination of the leaver’s process, ensuring relevant paperwork is issued, equipment is returned, inputting data into Workday, leading the exit interviews
- Redundancies/Settlements – working closely with the manager and Corporate HR to ensure the correct process is followed, supporting with drafting paperwork and making calculations for benefits and packages.
Skills & Experience
- Extensive and demonstrable experience of operating within an HR Business Partner capacity, working operationally to deliver a full generalist service
- Excellent knowledge of UK employment law with a pragmatic and common-sense approach
- Experience of delivering successful HR projects and programmes
- Experience of supporting major organisational change
- Up-to-date in-depth knowledge of general HR policies and procedures and good practice in HR
- Personal and professional authority and resilience with strong influencing and interpersonal skills
- Excellent interpersonal skills, strong communication, presentation and reporting writing skills, being highly proficient in spoken and written English
- Outstanding knowledge of MS office
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with ability to prioritise and multi-task
- Outstanding knowledge of Workday
- Ability to travel to Sweden and London, as and when required
Qualifications
- CIPD qualification level 7 or degree level qualification with significant experience of HR