Human Resources Manager

Job title: HR Manager

Department: Operations

Reports to: Operations Director

Location: Remote, with regular travel across the UK (typically three to five days a month, more when a company joins)

Hours: Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 18:00 (40 hours a week)

About the role

Our group is growing, and each company that joins brings its own people, contracts and ways of working. HR currently sits with the Operations Director, supported by an external HR consultant. This role gives every employee across the group a dedicated HR lead: someone who handles day-to-day people matters well, helps managers manage, and looks after people when their company joins us. Working closely with the HR Director, the role also owns the delivery of the group people strategy and the annual people process calendar.

Core systems

• Employment Hero (HR, payroll, expenses, onboarding, time off, recruitment), as administrator
• Microsoft 365 (Outlook, Teams, SharePoint for HR files)
• Pension provider portals
• Everwell occupational health
• Benefit platforms
• Pluralsight and Go1 learning platforms (Owlis Academy)
• HR and recruitment trackers (Excel)

What you will be doing

People strategy and initiatives

• Own and execute the agreed group people strategy and roadmap, working closely with the HR Director
• Support the HR Director on strategic initiatives, including organisational design and change, workforce planning, talent development and growth, and performance enablement

People strategy, process cadence and culture

• Own the annual people process calendar across the group: PDP cycles, progressions, salary benchmarking and the salary review cycle
• Run the employee engagement survey, share results with leaders and track the agreed actions and execute agreed actions at group level
• Continue embedding the group values in people processes, and support their periodic review

Employee relations and advice

• Advise and support managers on absence, performance, conduct, grievance and flexible working
• Run or support formal processes fairly, keeping clear records
• Take legal/senior advice through the agreed route when a case needs it
• Arrange occupational health referrals and track sickness absence, return-to-work meetings and fit notes
• Handle sensitive information, including health and pay, in confidence and in line with UK GDPR

Contracts, policies and records

• Maintain employment contracts, offer letters and HR letters with the HR Director, under strict version control
• Maintain the group HR policies and local procedures
• Keep HRIS (Employment Hero) records accurate across every group company
• Handle employee subject access requests with the DPO
• Keep HR compliance records current, including mandatory training and driving licence checks for employees who drive for work

Payroll, pensions and benefits

• Gather and check monthly payroll changes, mileage and expenses from each group company and submit payroll inputs in Employment Hero
• Work with the Finance team and Employment Hero’s team on payroll queries, reports and year-end
• Administer pension auto-enrolment for each group company, including assessments, statutory notices, opt-outs and re-enrolment
• Administer group benefits and keep benefit records and employee information current

Employee lifecycle

• Run onboarding, administer probation reviews and PDPs in the HRIS
• Support hiring managers with recruitment using our hiring framework: adverts, pre-screening calls, structured interviews, scorecards and offers, and coordinate recruitment agencies within agreed terms
• Run pre-employment checks, including references and right to work, and the new starter checklist so every joiner is ready on day one
• Manage leavers, exit conversations, references and final pay inputs

Group companies joining

• Plan and deliver the effective integration of each newly acquired company into the group structure, including TUPE where it applies, with local leaders and legal advice
• Lead with continuity and clear communication: what stays the same for staff, which new processes apply to them, what needs to change, and when they'll hear about it
• Update policies and procedures for each company joining, and make sure employees know where to find them and what is different
• Bring each company onto HRIS (Employment Hero), payroll and group policies at a sensible pace, following the group migration process

Managers and reporting

• Coach managers, including on PDPs and 1:1s, and build simple guides they can use without HR in the room
• Manage stakeholders and their expectations effectively
• Report HR measures and risks to the Operations Director monthly
• Manage the HR budget with the HR Director

Outcomes and KPIs

• In the first 90 days: every group company knows who to go to for HR; monthly payroll inputs and expenses running to cut-off; open employee relations cases reviewed and moving; Employment Hero records, policies and contracts checked across the group, with gaps listed.
• By 6 months: core policies aligned across the group, keeping local practice where it works; managers handling routine people matters with coaching; a repeatable people plan for companies joining the group.
• By 12 months: less reliance on the external HR consultant; consistent onboarding, probation and review cycles across the group; at least one company brought in on the people plan with no avoidable issues.

Competencies

• Clear evidence of leading generalist HR for a business of similar size (100 employees), across casework, policy, systems, payroll inputs and pension administration
• Runs fair, documented employee relations processes, supports the manager to run them, knows when to take legal advice, and balances risk with what the business needs
• Explains the why in terms local leaders understand, keeps local leaders in front, stays proportionate, shows polite persistence and escalates early with a recommendation
• Leads people integration with continuity and communication, prioritises by risk (open cases, contracts, data), respects TUPE limits on changing terms and agrees a clear plan with local leaders
• Explains the restriction on changing terms for a transfer-related reason plainly, offers options and involves legal advice before any change
• Sets clear priorities using legal deadlines, risk and people impact, handles grievances carefully and independently, and communicates trade-offs
• Builds manager capability by coaching rather than doing, with tools and templates managers use without HR in the room
• Tells people early and plainly, with options, and teaches rather than does it for them

Essential skills and experience

• Has run generalist HR as the lead or standalone HR professional for a business or group of around 50 to 250 people
• Has handled employee relations cases end to end, including absence, performance, disciplinary and grievance, within UK employment law
• Writes and maintains employment contracts, policies and HR letters
• Runs day-to-day HR, payroll inputs and pension auto-enrolment administration in an HR information system, such as Employment Hero
• Has supported people through a change of ownership, restructure or TUPE transfer
• Coaches line managers to handle people matters well themselves

Desirable skills and experience

• CIPD Level 5 or above, or working towards it
• Experience across several companies or sites in one group
• Experience in an IT services or technology business
• Has run structured recruitment, including interview design and scorecards
• Handles employee data under UK GDPR, including subject access requests
• Has used Employment Hero specifically
• Comfortable using Claude AI

Development

We expect the role to grow with the group, potentially into a Head of People role with a small team. CIPD study is supported where it fits the work.

Our recruitment process

Our process usually has four stages:

• A short pre-screening call with our HR / Recruitment team.
• A competency interview with the Operations Director and our HR Director.
• A case study presented to the Operations Director and our HR Director.
• A short final call with an Owlis Group executive, after which we aim to make an offer.

Any offer is conditional on two satisfactory professional references from employers named on your CV (with a work email address for each), proof of your right to work in the UK and, where required, a DBS check. We are unable to offer visa sponsorship.

Please note that this is a job advertisement rather than a full job description. The complete job description will be shared with you alongside your contract of employment.

Equal opportunities

The Owlis Group is an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from everyone and make recruitment decisions on the basis of skills, experience and potential, regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. If you need any adjustments to take part fully in the recruitment process, please let us know and we will be glad to help.