Hi, my name is Fi, and I have been a Senior HR Business Partner in the Home Office since 2020.
I joined the Home Office as I wanted to work for a large government organisation that had a mix of both operational as well as policy delivery. I got into HR by chance, I left school at 16 and went to secretarial college my ambition being to be a PA. I became an office junior in the HR department of a local authority and there started my HR journey. Before joining the Home Office, I held a number of HR roles in Policing and Local Government.
I’m currently in a cross-cutting role overseeing Resourcing and Workforce Planning in the Customer Services Group. This operational business area covers a range of functions including Asylum, Visas, Passports and consists of over 24,000 people.
No day is ever the same in Business Partnering. You could be focused on delivering the activities in the People Strategy, supporting senior stakeholders in business meetings, acting as representative for your team on specific projects as well as coaching and supporting colleagues who report to you.
In a large operational delivery area like Customer Services Group, it is essential to be able to deliver at pace and have the flexibility to move from one workstream to another during the course of your day. You could be coaching a senior leader on a complex change process in the morning, conducting check-ins with your team members and then straight into a Home Office-wide working group, providing feedback on new policies and processes.
As a Senior HR Business Partner, you are often dealing with multiple stakeholders, with different opinions, demands and activities, so being organised and able to prioritise is essential. The Home Office HR function is diverse and supportive and there is always someone with the knowledge and expertise to help you. I’d recommend the organisation as a great place to work.
