People & Culture Partner

People & Culture Partner

About the role

As a People & Culture Partner, you are the trusted HR partner for a diverse portfolio of businesses and functions within Business Unit Western Europe (BUWE). You provide strategic and operational People & Culture support to approximately 120 employees across several employee groups, including Bangma (Dronten), Stora Enso Amsterdam, the holding company, and various Group Functions.

You work closely with business leaders and managers to translate Stora Enso's People & Culture strategy into practical initiatives that support business performance, employee engagement, leadership development, and organizational effectiveness. You act as a trusted advisor throughout the employee lifecycle and play an active role in supporting cultural integration, change management, and the continuous development of our people practices.

In addition to supporting your own business areas, you contribute to BU Western Europe's wider People & Culture agenda by participating in regional projects and initiatives that strengthen our organisation and employee experience.

You report to the Head of People & Culture Western Europe for Integrated Packaging and collaborate closely with colleagues across the regional People & Culture team and Centres of Expertise.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as the trusted People & Culture partner for managers and employees across your designated business areas, supporting approximately 120 employees.
• Build strong relationships with managers, providing professional advice and coaching on all people-related topics, including performance management, talent development, employee relations, leadership, and organizational effectiveness.
• Manage absenteeism cases and support managers in applying the company's absence management processes and Dutch employment legislation.
• Support and facilitate the annual performance management cycle, including objective setting, performance reviews, development planning, and talent discussions.
• Partner with business leaders on organizational changes, workforce planning, restructuring initiatives, and change management.
• Support the integration and embedding of Stora Enso's culture, values, and leadership behaviours across the different business entities.
• Advise managers on employment legislation, HR policies, and best practices, ensuring consistent and compliant application across the organisation.
• Support recruitment, onboarding, internal mobility, learning and development, and succession planning where appropriate.
• Work with HR data and people analytics to provide insights that support informed business decisions.
• Ensure effective use of HR systems, including Workday and AFAS, maintaining high-quality employee data and supporting continuous improvement of HR processes.
• Contribute to BU Western Europe People & Culture projects and initiatives, including the Engage employee survey, Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) programmes, leadership development initiatives, wellbeing activities, and other strategic people priorities.
• Take ownership of, or actively contribute to, cross-functional People & Culture projects that support the BU Western Europe people agenda and drive continuous improvement.
• Build and maintain constructive relationships with employee representatives and other internal stakeholders where applicable.
• Identify opportunities to simplify, improve, and professionalise People & Culture processes and ways of working.

About you

You are an experienced, pragmatic, and business-oriented HR professional who enjoys working close to the business and building trusted relationships with managers. You combine strong HR expertise with excellent stakeholder management skills and are comfortable balancing strategic thinking with hands-on operational support.

You thrive in an international and dynamic environment, enjoy working across multiple locations, and have a proactive approach to continuous improvement and organisational development.

You bring:

• A Bachelor's or Master's degree, or an equivalent level of thinking and working.
• Several years of experience as an HR Business Partner, People & Culture Partner, or in a comparable broad HR advisory role.
• Experience supporting multiple business units, departments, or employee groups within an international organisation.
• Strong knowledge of Dutch employment law and HR best practices.
• Experience with absenteeism management, performance management, employee relations, organisational development, and change management.
• Experience supporting cultural integration and organisational change.
• Strong coaching, influencing, and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to build credibility at all levels of the organisation.
• Experience working within an international and preferably matrix organisation.
• Experience using HR systems such as Workday and AFAS.
• Affinity with HR data, reporting, and people analytics.
• A proactive, resilient, and solution-oriented mindset with a strong sense of ownership.
• Excellent communication skills in both Dutch and English.

Location & Travel

This role supports several business locations within the Netherlands and requires regular travel between sites. The expected working pattern is:

• Approximately 2 days per week in De Lier
• Approximately 1 day per week in Dronten (Bangma)
• Occasional travel to Amsterdam to support the employees of Stora Enso Amsterdam
• The remaining working day(s) can be spent working from home or from one of the business locations, depending on business needs.

The position is available for 4 or 5 days per week.

A company car is included as part of the employment package to support regular travel between locations.

How to apply

You can submit your application only through our recruitment system Workday.

Welcome to the The renewable materials company!

Stora Enso is a global leader in renewable materials with a strong focus on packaging. Our purpose is to replace non-renewable materials with renewable solutions. Together with our customers, we design and deliver competitive, high-quality packaging materials and solutions, made from fresh and recycled fibers, accelerating the transition to a circular bioeconomy.

Stora Enso has approximately 19,000 employees and our sales in 2025 were EUR 9.3 billion. Stora Enso's shares are listed on Nasdaq Helsinki Oy (STEAV, STERV) and Nasdaq Stockholm AB (STE A, STE R). In addition, the shares are traded on OTC Markets (OTCQX) in the USA as ADRs and ordinary shares (SEOAY, SEOFF, SEOJF).