HR Manager

The role

You’ll provide a proactive, commercially focused HR service to site and senior leadership teams across a multi-site, unionised operation.

You’ll advise them, coach them and challenge them where needed on everything from complex employee relations to restructures, TUPE and talent planning.

You’ll work closely with the wider HR community to keep practice consistent, share what works and keep improving.

Key responsibilities

• HR service delivery and compliance
• Deliver a professional HR service that applies policies and procedures consistently and complies with employment legislation
• Promote fairness, consistency and inclusion in all people activity
• Agree short, medium and long-term people plans with leadership teams, and support their delivery
• Employee relations
• Manage a broad caseload of complex ER matters, including disciplinaries, grievances, absence and capability
• Coach managers to handle performance, attendance and conduct issues confidently
• Build strong, constructive relationships with Trade Union representatives at local and national level
• Organisational change
• Lead restructures, TUPE transfers and redundancy programmes, ensuring legal compliance and effective consultation
• Manage stakeholder and Trade Union relationships throughout change, balancing business needs with the impact on employees
• Identify people-related risks and reduce them, so change lands with minimal disruption
• Business partnering and capability
• Give expert advice and constructive challenge to management teams to support good decisions
• Build management capability through coaching, and help create a high-performance, inclusive culture
• Drive employee engagement and effective communication across sites
• Resourcing, talent and development
• Plan and deliver fair, consistent recruitment to attract high-calibre talent, including experienced hires and early careers
• Work with leadership teams on talent reviews, succession planning and identifying high-potential employees
• Support learning and development activity that meets business needs
• Data and continuous improvement
• Analyse and interpret HR KPIs to spot trends and inform business decisions
• Support the annual HR cycle, including performance reviews, employee surveys and action planning

About you

• CIPD qualified
• Strong generalist HR experience gained in a fast-paced, operational environment
• A proven track record of managing complex ER and organisational change, including TUPE, restructures and redundancies, in a unionised setting
• Solid, up-to-date knowledge of employment law
• Confident influencing and challenging at all levels, and able to make and explain difficult decisions
• Good commercial awareness, with the ability to align people solutions to operational priorities
• Comfortable using HR data to drive practical improvements
• Calm and credible under pressure, and able to build trust with managers and frontline employees alike
• A full UK driving licence and willingness to travel across the South East
• Experience in manufacturing, construction, logistics or another industrial, site-based environment would be a real advantage.

What’s on offer

• £55,000 – £60,000 basic salary
• Car allowance, £7500 PA.
• Annual bonus
• Hybrid working pattern
• The chance to join a large, well-respected organisation with strong investment in its people and clear routes for career development