People and Culture Partner (HR Business Partner)

Summary

Thrive Care and Education runs 12 (and growing) early learning centres across New South Wales and Victoria. Around 250 Educators, Teachers, cooks and Centre Leaders work with us.

This is the People and Culture function for the group. You will own people compliance, the employee lifecycle from offer through to exit, and first-line employee relations across both states. You report directly to the Executive General Manager and work alongside and our Area Managers.

We will be straight with you. The seat has been vacant since July and there is a backlog to clear. Your first 90 days are compliance, records and onboarding, in that order. Once that holds, you pick up performance, engagement and the work that makes people want to stay. If you want to inherit a tidy function, this is not it. If you want to own something and fix it properly, keep reading.

Responsibilities

• Own the National Early Childhood Worker Register across every service and lodge every change inside the 14 day obligation.
• Own Working With Children Check verification and renewals in both states, plus the qualification and certification expiry register covering First Aid, CPR, anaphylaxis and child protection training.
• Own onboarding end-to-end in Employment Hero: contracts, documentation, induction, uniforms and completion rates.
• Own offboarding: exit process, exit interviews through Xref, final records and system deactivation.
• Handle first-line employee relations across the group. Performance conversations, conduct matters and grievances, documented well enough to stand up later. Complex and contentious matters escalate to the Executive General Manager and our external IR advisers.
• Advise Centre Leaders and Area Managers on award interpretation and classification, stating the jurisdiction every time, and own the accuracy of classification records in Employment Hero.
• Deliver the monthly turnover and anniversary reporting, the weekly engagement survey cycle and compliance expiry reporting, on cadence and without being chased.
• Administer traineeships with our registered training organisation and provider, and lodge claims inside the funding window.
• Support Area Managers on recruitment for their services with templates, screening structure, interview guides, reference checks and pipeline visibility. Our Area Managers advertise, screen and decide, and Centre Leaders interview.
• Restart the performance and development cycle and engagement action planning once the compliance work is solid.
• Write and maintain the procedures for recruitment, onboarding, compliance and reporting, so the function keeps running when you are on leave.

Qualifications and experience

• Generalist HR experience in a multi-site business. Early Childhood Education and Care, aged care, health or another regulated sector with mandatory worker checks is ideal.
• A track record of holding statutory compliance records at scale, without being chased.
• Working knowledge of the modern awards covering Early Childhood Education and Care, and the judgement to know which award and which jurisdiction applies.
• Experience across NSW and Victoria, or the demonstrated ability to get across the differences quickly. Workers compensation, public holidays, long service leave and WWCC verification all differ between the two.
• Employee relations experience where your documentation held up afterwards.
• Strong HRIS capability. Employment Hero experience is a clear advantage.
• A current Working With Children Check, or eligibility to hold one.
• Tertiary qualifications in human resources, industrial relations or business are welcome but not essential. We will take the right operator over the right certificate.
• A direct line to the Executive General Manager, and real authority to change how this function runs

To apply

Apply through this ad with your resume and a short note on one compliance or people problem you inherited and fixed. We move quickly.

Thrive Care and Education is committed to the safety, wellbeing and participation of every child in our care. This is a child-related role. The successful applicant must hold a current and verified Working With Children Check and complete a prohibition notice declaration before commencing. We welcome applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and from people of all backgrounds.