Higher are a boutique recruitment agency specialising in the HR and Marketing professions. We are pleased to inform you of a new role that we are working on for one of our clients:
Position: UK HR Manager
Salary: £65,000
Location: Blackburn (hybrid)
What's the background?
Working for a purpose led organisation gives you that feel good factor and that extra boost knowing you're helping do something good in the world and making a difference.
However, you also want a job you can get your teeth stuck into as well. One where you're making a difference to the workplace whilst your colleagues make a difference to the worlds of the customer.
Having been through some turbulence within the HR team over recent years we're looking for someone to stabilise the ship. The HR brand needs elevating and become more visible and influential within the organization. With your business partnering style, amazing relationship building qualities, and commercial acumen then you're the person to make the function what it should be. Remember, not all superheroes wear capes!
This is an acquisitive business so there is frequent change happening involving TUPE, harmonisation, and integration.
Responsibilities:
This is an international business with operations across Europe. You'll report into the Chief Human Resource Officer, based in Sweden, and work closely with your counterparts in Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands. You will be part of the UK Senior Management Team and have line management of a small HR team.
This is a blended role where you'll be helping implement the HR strategy, taking the global strategy and ensuring it works for the UK business, whilst also rolling up your sleeves and getting stuck in to support day to day HR operations.
The UK headcount is sitting at around 400 employees. Due to the nature of the business, they operate a 24/7 contact centre but also have a mixture of field-based and hybrid and remote workers across the country too.
Your initial focus will be to listen, learn, and acclimatise. Coming in and marking your territory or putting your own stamp on things is the opposite of what the business needs right now. This is where your business partnering and HR leaderships skills come to the fore. It's about understanding the business, what the pain points for your stakeholders are, and what the culture is to begin with. Then you know what the right levers to pull are and what changes will work best.
This is a hybrid position with flexibility around the working schedule but what's important is that there is sufficient visible presence to build those relationships early on. There will be some international travel required which may consist of 3-4 trips to Sweden per year.
The support and foundations are there to help you create a high performing department and to show the business what a gold standard HR function really looks like and the current team are definitely making some real progress towards this.
This is a busy position with a real challenge ahead in terms of further improving the HR service that the business has been receiving. Engagement is naturally low, and trust and relationships need re-forging.
However, it's a wonderful business that does amazing work and makes a real difference to people's lives. You'll have the support of a highly motivated and capable international HR team who work very collaboratively. All they need is someone awesome like you to be the missing piece of the puzzle to make the UK aspect be effective once again.
Experience needed:
- Minimum of 10 years generalist HR experience
- Previous experience in a senior HR management role is essential
- Experience of acquisitions, TUPE, and integration is required
- COT3, Settlement and Tribunal preparation experience in necessary
- Experience of glocalisation is advantageous - taking the global HR strategy and refining then implementing for the UK would be advantageous
- Must have a demonstrable background of coaching of leaders
- Be able to talk through examples of driving HR related projects ensuring anchoring
- A capability of moving between strategic, tactical and operational tasks
- Finally, you'll need to be an effective communicator who is able to adapt to audiences