HR Manager

Salary: £65,000 - £70,000 PA
Full time / Permanent
Hybrid working - 3 days office, 2 days working from home.
Manchester based.

Purpose of the Role

We are looking to recruit an experienced HR professional to partner with our Business Services leaders and managers to deliver a modern, effective people service. The role focuses on the coaching, upskilling and enablement of managers on routine people matters within the business services teams, while providing expert oversight for higher risk or complex cases to protect consistency, compliance, and drive more value add activities to improve employee experience and high performance culture across the teams.

The Team

Our HR Team is spread across our London, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Ireland, Warsaw, Amsterdam and Dubai offices. The team is made up of various smaller teams including Learning and Development, Resourcing, Early Careers, HR Operations, HR Business Partnering and the CSR and Diversity team. This role is within the HR Business Partnering team. You can expect to work cohesively with the wider HR Team and key stakeholders across the firm providing guidance, support and coaching. The business prides themselves on continual improvement and innovation and therefore you will be pivotal to drive forward fresh initiatives, annual processes and projects. You can expect a varied, fast paced and diverse role within a collegiate, dynamic and friendly team. The business has a modern approach to work and offers excellent opportunities for learning, training and career development.

What to Expect in this Role

As an HR Manager, you will act as a trusted advisor to leaders and managers, delivering pragmatic, commercially focused HR support aligned to our strategy and organisational values. This is a broad and impactful role, covering the full employee lifecycle while driving improvements in HR practices, capability, and experience across the business.

Key Areas of Responsibility HR Business Partnering

• Partner with leaders and managers to provide clear, practical HR advice that supports business objectives and reinforces organisational values.
• Work with the relevant Management team(s) to ensure we have appropriate resourcing plans in place.
• Ensure high standards of recruitment practice by coaching those new to interviewing and ensuring appropriate feedback is provided.
• Ensure new joiners have a smooth onboarding experience.
• Develop a strong understanding for the key reasons people are leaving the firm and report back to relevant managers as and when appropriate, as well as taking active measures to try and prevent or stem future leavers.
• Lead the strategic talent agenda across business areas, ensuring engagement and commitment from relevant management teams to maintain fair and consistent people processes and raise awareness of key initiatives.
• Lead the annual salary review process for all employees and Partners, working closely with relevant management teams and key line managers to ensure strategic decisions are made that appropriately motivate and reward staff, and address key retention areas.

Employee Relations Transformation and HR Support

• Work closely with the Senior ER Manager, other Business Services HR Managers and Head of HR to design and implement changes to HR services across the business.
• Upskill, coach, and enable managers to confidently and effectively manage people matters, ensuring a consistent, fair, and high quality employee experience across performance, capability, probation, wellbeing, attendance, family leave and other areas.
• Enable early action on low performance and probation, providing hands on support for complex or higher risk outcomes.
• Strengthen end to end probation processes with clear expectations, regular review checkpoints and robust documentation for extensions or role suitability decisions.
• Partner with managers on wellbeing cases sensitively, balancing compassion with operational needs and providing guidance on reasonable adjustments, referral routes (e.g., Occupational Health/EAP where applicable), and attendance improvement planning.
• Support managers and employees across maternity, adoption, shared parental and other family leave processes, ensuring compliance, smooth handovers and a positive return to work experience.
• Build manager capability for low level ER and core people processes through coaching, toolkits/templates, and practical training; for more complex cases, coach managers on approach and escalation and lead/support sensitive, high risk formal cases with timely, consistent documentation.
• Improve leaver experience and insight by identifying themes and translating findings into actionable recommendations for leaders.
• Ensure managers understand and follow HR policies and procedures; contribute to policy reviews and updates where needed, ensuring practicality for Business Services environments.
• Work effectively with HR Operations/Shared Services, Payroll, Resourcing, Learning & Development, Occupational Health, legal advisors, and other partners to deliver joined up service.

Process Improvement and Transformation

• Identify friction points in current HR support and work with the HR Admin Manager to implement improvements, such as clearer routes for advice, standardised case handling, and self serve resources, reducing dependency on HR for routine queries while improving quality and consistency.

Line Management

• Line manage an HR graduate or HR Advisor aligned to the business areas you are working closely with.

Areas of Knowledge and Expertise

• Proven HR generalist/HRBP experience, ideally supporting operational, professional services, or corporate Business Services or Business Support teams.
• Demonstrable experience of transforming an HR service model and/or manager capability (e.g., reducing hand holding, enabling self sufficiency, implementing toolkits and training).
• Strong working knowledge of UK employment law and practical ER case management (informal and formal processes).
• Track record of coaching managers through performance, capability, and probation issues with a pragmatic, fair approach.
• Experience supporting complex life cycle events, wellbeing, attendance management and reasonable adjustments in partnership with relevant specialists.
• Ability to analyse people data and translate it into clear, actionable insights for leaders.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; able to influence at all levels and handle sensitive conversations with discretion.
• Comfortable working in ambiguity; able to prioritise and make sound decisions balancing risk, pace and experience.
• Coaching led mindset, focused on enabling and empowering others rather than taking ownership away from managers.
• Strong commercial awareness, with a practical, solutions oriented approach to problem solving.
• High levels of integrity and sound judgement, with a strong commitment to confidentiality and ethical practice.
• Continuous improvement mindset, actively seeking opportunities to test, learn and refine approaches to enhance HR service delivery and impact.