Appointment of People & Culture Business Partner, Insurance Organisation

At a Glance

• Sector – Insurance
• Location – Melbourne, VIC
• Workforce – 1,200 employees
• Service – HR Recruitment
• Engagement – Permanent Recruitment

The Challenge

An insurance organisation with 1,200 employees had moved to a business-partnering HR model the previous year, but the incumbent Business Partner had defaulted into order-taking – operational leaders had stopped bringing genuine strategic problems to HR and treated the function as an admin service.

Our Approach

Civitas assessed candidates specifically on their track record influencing senior operational leaders through disagreement, not just their technical HR competence, since that was the actual gap the client needed closed.

The Solution

The appointed Business Partner had a documented history of leading workforce restructures end to end in two prior roles, giving operational leaders early proof the role could handle genuinely difficult conversations.

Measured Impact

• Stakeholder engagement scores for the People function improved by an estimated 30% within a year
• Business Partner led two workforce restructures independently within the first 12 months
• Reduced HR-related escalations to the HR Director by an estimated 40%
• Rebuilt operational leadership trust in the business-partnering model

Client Reflection

Our leaders finally started bringing us the real problems, not just the paperwork.

Why This Matters

A business-partnering model only works if operational leaders trust the person in the seat to handle genuine complexity, this appointment is a reminder that rebuilding that trust after a false start takes a deliberately different hiring bar, not just a re-post of the same role.

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