HR Business Partner Npuls

Do you want to make an impact within an innovative and socially-minded organization and contribute to a program that is rapidly evolving? As an HR Business Partner at NPuls, you’ll work at the intersection of strategy and execution. You’ll advise managers, bring structure to complex issues, and ensure that HR solutions are not only conceived but also implemented.

Where you will work

SURF is the ICT cooperative of Dutch educational and research institutions. Together with them, we work on digital services and complex innovation challenges to improve the quality of education and research. SURF collaborates with educational institutions and partners to develop software and standards that contribute to flexible education, digital learning materials, and the sharing of educational data.

SURF is the lead agency for the National Growth Fund program Npuls, in which all public vocational schools, colleges, and universities collaborate on the transformation of higher education. Together, we are building an education sector that continues to contribute to a resilient society, broad prosperity, and a strong economy.

The team you will join

You’ll be part of SURF’s HR team and will work on the Npuls program from this base. This means you’ll be part of the SURF structure, but in practice, you’ll collaborate closely with the Npuls program management.

Within the HR team, you will work alongside HR Officers, other HR Business Partners, a recruiter, and colleagues focused on external hiring. The team is led by the HR Manager, to whom you will report hierarchically. In your daily work for Npuls, you coordinate functionally with the program manager(s) and staff, who serve as key sounding boards.

What you will do

As an HR Business Partner, you’ll advise and support Npuls’ program management and leaders on HR and organizational issues. You’ll help make practical decisions in a complex program environment and ensure they’re feasible in practice.

You actively seek out opportunities within SURF’s frameworks and translate them into what is feasible for the program. You navigate between flexibility and rules, clarify where there is room for maneuver, and help the program make effective use of it.

You coach managers in their roles and provide support with daily HR issues and case studies. In addition, you work on topics such as governance and workforce planning within the context of a temporary program.

One of the key issues you’ll be addressing is the workforce mix: permanent employees, temporary contracts, and external hires. You’ll provide advice on this, bring structure to the process, and, where necessary, take the lead to ensure it works in practice.

Other responsibilities include:

• Coaching and advising managers on HR issues and case studies 
• Supporting onboarding, career progression, and offboarding 
• Advising on the deployment of permanent, temporary, and external staff
• Contributing ideas on organizational structure and governance 
• Supporting workforce planning and competency management within the program structure and in alignment with SURF’s strategic workforce planning 
• Translating SURF frameworks into workable solutions for Npuls
• Coordinating the work carried out by the HR team for the program and providing insight and an overview (adequate management information)

Your skills and experience

You are an experienced HR professional who thrives in an environment where not everything is predetermined. You can quickly grasp complex issues, make them concrete, and ensure that decisions are made that are actually feasible.

You navigate easily between different interests and levels without losing sight of the goal. You feel comfortable in the tension between formal frameworks and the need for practical flexibility within a program organization.

In addition, you have:

• University-level education and thinking 
• Extensive experience as a (senior) HR Business Partner in complex organizations 
• Experience with strategic workforce planning and translating that into practical staffing decisions 
• Experience with organizational issues in program, project, or governance environments. Experience with agile working (with autonomous teams), preferably in a public sector environment, is a plus. 
• Demonstrable experience translating policy and frameworks into workable practice 
• Strong analytical skills and a sense of administrative and organizational dynamics
• Experience advising managers and guiding case studies 
• Ability to take the lead when necessary, without assuming ownership 
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in Dutch

SURF takes pleasure in doing its recruitment itself; acquisition is therefore not appreciated.