Talent Acquisition Partner

Description:

Role Overview:

Are you an experienced Talent Acquisition professional who enjoys combining hands-on recruitment delivery with strategic partnership?

As a Talent Acquisition Partner at Wynnstay, you'll take ownership of the end-to-end recruitment and pre-boarding journey for an assigned portfolio of business areas - from understanding the vacancy and developing the attraction strategy through to selection, offer and ensuring each successful candidate is ready for their first day.

You'll build trusted relationships with hiring managers, providing informed advice and constructive challenge on recruitment priorities, market conditions, assessment methods and hiring decisions. Through proactive sourcing and talent-pipeline development, you'll help Wynnstay attract high-quality candidates, anticipate future workforce requirements and continue reducing its reliance on recruitment agencies.

Working alongside the People & Culture team, you'll help create a responsive, consistent and commercially focused in-house recruitment service. You'll also coordinate the successful candidate's pre-boarding journey through to Day 1 readiness, before completing a clear handover to the hiring manager for local induction, training and integration.

This is an excellent opportunity for an accountable and improvement-focused Talent Acquisition professional who wants to influence recruitment across a varied, nationwide organisation while delivering an inclusive and engaging candidate experience.

Responsibilities:

Own and deliver end-to-end recruitment for assigned business areas, from vacancy intake, role scoping and attraction strategy through to selection, offer and pre-boarding.
Act as the primary Talent Acquisition contact for your assigned portfolio, developing a strong understanding of its operations, workforce requirements and recruitment priorities.
Advise and constructively challenge hiring managers on role requirements, recruitment strategy, market conditions, assessment methods, selection decisions and realistic recruitment timescales.
Proactively source candidates through job boards, LinkedIn, direct approaches, talent pooling, networking, referrals and other appropriate channels.
Build and maintain talent pipelines for recurring, business-critical and hard-to-fill roles, anticipating future demand rather than relying solely on reactive advertising.
Lead job advertising and attraction activity, working with People & Culture and Communications colleagues on employer-branding content and targeted recruitment campaigns.
Deliver an inclusive, professional and timely candidate experience, maintaining clear communication and feedback throughout the recruitment process.
Retain ownership of the successful candidate relationship following offer acceptance and coordinate the pre-boarding journey through to Day 1 readiness.
Prepare or coordinate offer documentation, contracts and required People First onboarding workflows using approved templates and controls.
Coordinate pre-employment checks, including right-to-work, references, background checks and any role-specific screening requirements.
Ensure complete and accurate new-starter information is provided to Payroll, IT, Facilities and other relevant teams within agreed timescales.
Maintain regular contact with successful candidates before they start, responding to queries and reducing the risk of withdrawal or disengagement.
Track readiness activities, follow up outstanding actions with hiring managers and support teams, and escalate risks that could affect a colleague's start date or experience.
Confirm that the successful candidate and hiring manager are ready for Day 1 and complete a clear handover into manager-owned induction, training and team integration.
Design, implement and continuously improve recruitment and pre-boarding processes, ensuring they remain consistent, compliant, efficient and scalable.
Manage recruitment activity within agreed budgets, recommending cost-effective sourcing approaches and monitoring expenditure to reduce agency reliance and unplanned costs.
Track and report meaningful recruitment and pre-boarding measures, including vacancy volumes, time-to-shortlist, time-to-hire, cost-per-hire, direct-hire rates, offer acceptance, Day 1 readiness and candidate experience.
Use recruitment data, stakeholder feedback and early-tenure trends to identify risks, improve processes and inform workforce-planning discussions.
Maintain accurate vacancy, candidate, offer and onboarding records in People First and associated systems, ensuring agreed approvals and controls are e