Human Resources and Talent Acquisition Business Partner in Sydney

The HR & Talent Acquisition Business Partner works closely with leaders and employees to provide practical, responsive and trusted HR support across the employee lifecycle, while taking ownership of talent acquisition across Community First Bank. This is a hands-on role with a broad remit.

You’ll partner with leaders on everyday people matters, support the delivery of our people priorities and help build leader capability to confidently manage their teams. You’ll also lead the end-to-end recruitment experience, moving beyond simply filling vacancies to building talent pipelines, improving how we select people and helping Community First attract the capability we need now and into the future.

Working closely with the Head of HR Business Partnering, you’ll know when to take ownership, when to coach and when a matter needs to be escalated. Success in this role means making HR easy to work with, delivering what you say you will and creating a great experience for our leaders, employees and candidates.

Key Responsibilities

• Build strong working relationships with leaders and employees and become a trusted first point of contact for day-to-day people matters.
• Provide practical advice and support across the employee lifecycle including performance, probation, flexible working arrangements, leave, employee changes, career movements and other workplace matters.
• Coach leaders to confidently handle people matters themselves, building capability.
• Work closely with the Head of HR Business Partnering on more complex employee relations, organisational change, workforce planning and other people matters.
• Provide timely and practical advice to leaders on straightforward employee relations and performance matters, ensuring outcomes are fair, consistent and compliant.
• Support leaders through performance conversations, probation matters and other day-to-day employee issues.
• Prepare appropriate documentation and maintain clear and accurate records.
• Identify matters requiring more senior or specialist support and work with the Head of HR Business Partnering to ensure they are managed appropriately.
• Support the implementation of Community First’s performance rhythm and help leaders and employees understand and use our performance frameworks, tools and expectations.
• Own the end-to-end recruitment process across Community First, partnering with hiring leaders from identification of the recruitment need through to offer and handover into onboarding.
• Challenge and clarify recruitment requirements with leaders, helping determine the capability genuinely required and considering internal talent and alternative resourcing options before going to market.
• Develop sourcing strategies for roles and build proactive talent pipelines for critical and difficult to fill capability.
• Manage advertising, sourcing, screening, interviews, reference and pre-employment checks and offer processes.
• Deliver a consistent and engaging candidate experience that reflects Community First and what it is like to work here.
• Develop effective relationships with recruitment partners and suppliers, using agencies thoughtfully and where they add value.
• Partner with leaders to design effective and contemporary selection processes and build leader capability in interviewing and selection.
• Build Community First’s employer presence through our careers channels, LinkedIn and other relevant talent markets and networks.
• Use recruitment data and insights to understand hiring trends, candidate sources, time to hire and other opportunities to improve talent acquisition outcomes.
• Support workforce planning activities by bringing recruitment market knowledge, talent insights and an understanding of available capability into workforce discussions.
• Translate future workforce and capability priorities into practical talent sourcing and pipeline strategies.
• Work with the Head of HR Business Partnering and broader HR team to identify critical roles, emerging capability requirements and talent gaps.
• Support succession and talent activities by helping identify internal talent and considering internal mobility and development before external recruitment.
• Partner across HR and the business to create a seamless transition from candidate to employee.
• Support the delivery and continuous improvement of the onboarding experience, ensuring new starters and leaders are clear on what needs to happen before and during the first months of employment.
• Use feedback and insights from candidates, new starters and leaders to identify opportunities to improve the attraction, recruitment and onboarding experience.
• Contribute to broader employee experience initiatives and the design of the moments that matter across the employee lifecycle.
• Support the delivery of key HR programs and initiatives including performance, talent, engagement, employee experience and organisational change.
• Maintain accurate employee and recruitment information and ensure HR processes are completed consistently.
• Identify opportunities to simplify HR and recruitment processes and improve the experience for employees, leaders and candidates.
• Contribute to a high performing HR team by sharing knowledge, supporting colleagues and taking accountability for outcomes rather than simply completing tasks.

Position Requirements

• Demonstrated HR generalist or HR Business Partner experience with the confidence to independently manage day-to-day people matters.
• Strong practical knowledge of Australian employment practices and employee relations fundamentals.
• Demonstrated end-to-end talent acquisition experience, including sourcing, selection and candidate management.
• Experience in organisations working through meaningful change.
• Ability to build trusted relationships with leaders and employees and provide clear, pragmatic advice.
• Confidence coaching leaders through people decisions and conversations.
• Sound judgement, including knowing when to resolve an issue independently and when to escalate.
• Experience managing multiple vacancies and HR priorities at the same time without compromising quality or candidate and employee experience.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to work effectively with people at all levels.
• Comfortable using HR and recruitment systems and data to manage work and identify trends.
• A proactive, solutions-focused mindset with a willingness to take ownership and improve how things are done.
• Experience in financial services or another regulated environment is beneficial but not essential.
• Relevant qualifications in Human Resources or a related discipline.