Head of Human Resources
Wychavon Leisure a not-for-profit social enterprise dedicated to managing local sports and leisure in collaboration with our key partners.
Our core mission is to improve the health and wellbeing of our customers and the local community. Our customers know us as Rivers as Rivers Fitness is our brand.
Purpose of the Role
The role will support the continued delivery of a progressive people agenda into a range of teams to drive engagement performance & productivity of our people. The role is key to delivering and helping to support long-term business planning and developing as well as providing People solutions to ensure a great employee experience.
You will help to collaboratively craft the People Strategy with the executive team to take our people partnering to the next level. This role is a fantastic opportunity for a progressive and collaborative HR professional with proven experience of working with Senior Leaders to improve engagement and performance.
You will form a strong relationship with the senior team members and deliver a plan that delivers strategic business focussed solutions.
Role Dimensions
You’ll be collaborating widely across both the Executive and People teams. You’ll quickly discover it’s a pro-active team that thrives on working at pace, with agility and delivering meaningful change for Wychavon Leisure. Most of all we support each other and roll our sleeves up when it matters. This role will be reporting to the Managing Director, and will have no direct reports. Your main stakeholders will include our Trustees, Executive and Senior Managers, and team members in the functional areas you support. As a commercial business-orientated HR practitioner, you will foster unshakeable relationships through strong understanding of the team’s operations and challenges and delivering no-nonsense, high-impact, agile solutions.
There will be a requirement to be flexible on working hours/days in the office as the People Team presence is key for good working relationships and collaboration with the teams that we support. It is envisaged you would work 4 days per week (28 hours) with some flexibility on location as we support hybrid working as well.
Principal Accountabilities
Partner all Executive Team members across Wychavon Leisure, building strong relationships and knowledge of your stakeholder group to be a true partner. Sitting alongside the leadership to pro-actively deliver a people strategy and also problem solve challenges that face the leadership team as a subject matter expert in the People area.
Feed into the ongoing development of the plan and operations strategy by working closely with the team stakeholders to identify the critical people priorities and feeding through.
Confidently influencing key stakeholders to gain buy-in and support for new ways of working, alternative solutions and key projects.
Ensuring lower levels of support are given below the leadership Team. Business partnering at a senior level.
Building trust-based relationships with the Trustees and Executive Team, fostering close partnerships.
To take a mid to longer-term view of Wychavon Leisure you will be, anticipating future workforce demands before leaders even know they need something and proactively translating into solutions.
To become a expert with a high level of technical understanding of the functional teams building credibility and enabling knowledge base proactive recommendations.
Apply people analytics through data-driven conversations and initiatives to deliver against a people strategy. Operational HR management
Support and develop mangers to provide an oversight of any employer issues ensuring managers are equipped to deal with them effectively and compliantly ensuring reliable and trusted employment law advice is given.
Utilise relevant data to support people and business plan implementation, spot trends and assist with decision making.
Proactively gauge employee engagement in functional areas and work with the Executive Team to provide solutions as required using specialist resources where needed. Organisational design and change management
To work with the Managing Director and Executive Team to review the organisation design of the team to ensure they remain solutions-focused, relevant, efficient agile and productive both short and longer term.
Support on the redesign of roles, teams or functions in line with identified needs to maximise the effectiveness of structural changes.
To apply best practice change management discipline to the delivery and implementation of changes minimising disruption and supporting any people impacted with dignity and respect. Workforce planning and talent management
Work with the ET to understand their ambitions and plans. Use this insight to be inquisitive as to mid and long-term people requirements.
In conjunction with the ET understand and help develop workforce plans that map out role and capability need over time and required resource levels including creative thinking around Apprenticeships/second careers/interns.
Work with the ET to build talent attraction strategies that consider short and long term needs, thinking creatively about how future needs can start to be addressed immediately (grads, apprentices, internal talent fast tracking). Effective management of employee relations.
Maintain strong employee relations across the division through the pragmatic engagement of Centre and Duty managers to fulfil their legal obligations effectively.
Use effective communications as a vehicle to maintain strong relations with employees, particularly where change is concerned.
Actively engage with leaders and managers to support development of a working environment that is conducive to safe practices and colleague welfare.
Support development and delivery of an effective diversity and inclusion agenda that promotes a positive workplace that is broad and inclusive.
Communication
Strong and professional communication across multiple stakeholder groups and channels with the ability to present and deliver compelling messages. Work with the ET to support the development and execution of appropriate communications campaigns to engage with audiences on the employee experience offer to ensure full engagement and understanding.
Development
Ensure the development and growth of our employees by way of effective learning and development individual performance development and succession plans.
Knowledge, Skills and Experience
Wide ranging knowledge of human resources at senior leader level ideally with a passion for health and wellbeing.
Previous experience in particular with culture and engagement, change management, organisation design, talent and succession planning.
Demonstrable experience of contributing to people strategy development, translation into pragmatic delivery plans and implementation through to conclusion.
Ability to deliver high impact services in a fast paced and fluid working environment, bringing clarity and structure where appropriate.
Strong communicator, able to influence senior leaders with a “how to”/” yes, if” rather than a “no” mentality.
Experience of working with high performing teams in a fast-paced environment, comfortable with working independently, without close support or oversight.
Ability to manage, prioritise and plan your own workload within a dynamic and time constrained environment.
A focus on data-driven decision making.
MS Office - proficient to at least intermediate level in Excel, Word, PowerPoint.
Previous experience working with an HRIS and related employee platforms desirable.
CIPD Level 5 or 7 qualified, or equivalent experience Personal Attributes: Problem solving – able to operate effectively with ambiguity, adopting an inquisitive style that understands the ‘why’ to determine the ‘how’ and applies extensive knowledge to develop creative solutions and workarounds for the team.
Results - Someone who is driven; who comes with an outstanding work ethic and expects the best from themselves and people around them.
Credible - Considered credible and has gravitas, acting as a role model for the Wychavon Leisure and collaborating partners
Challenges – Challenges others to strive for more, both in innovation and meeting stakeholder needs.
Ownership - Demonstrates behaviours that support a high performance culture within and across teams.
Collaboration – Engages in partnerships, networks and alliances to support long term success and engages in partnerships for decision making to support the best interests of the business.
Driven – a track record of getting things done.
Role Model – Is a role model and champions best practice in diversity and inclusion.
