HR Operations Manager - Project Lead in Berkshire

HR Operations Manager – Project Lead

Location: Bracknell, Berkshire

Contract: 6-month Fixed-Term Contract minimum

Salary: £50-60,000 + benefits

Working Pattern: Predominantly site-based

Are you an experienced HR Operations or transformation professional who enjoys going into a business, understanding how things really work and making them better?

We are partnering with an established manufacturing organisation that is undertaking a significant transformation of its HR function. As part of this journey, we are looking for an experienced HR Operations Manager to lead a project to take ownership of a highly practical six-month transformation assignment.

This is not a traditional HR Business Partner role. Instead, you will be given the autonomy to get under the skin of the organisation's HR operations, identify where processes, templates, policies, controls and ways of working need strengthening, and then build practical and sustainable solutions.

The goal is straightforward: to leave the business with significantly stronger HR fundamentals than you found it.

The Opportunity

Reporting directly to the HR Director, you will undertake an end-to-end review of the organisation's HR operational infrastructure.

You will examine how activity is currently delivered across the employee lifecycle, from onboarding and contractual changes through to absence, employee relations administration, payroll processes, employee records and leavers.

You will identify gaps, duplication, unnecessary complexity and areas of risk before designing clearer, more consistent and repeatable ways of working.

This is very much a build, fix and improve role. You won't simply make recommendations and move on. You will have the opportunity to implement improvements, create the documentation and workflows, establish better controls and work with the existing People team to embed new ways of working.

What You'll Be Doing

Your remit will include:

•           Conducting a comprehensive review of HR processes across the employee lifecycle.

•           Mapping current processes and designing clearer, more effective future-state workflows.

•           Reviewing HR governance, controls and checks and balances to improve accuracy, consistency and compliance.

•           Clarifying responsibilities between HR, managers and other functions, ensuring appropriate accountability sits in the right place.

•           Reviewing and improving HR policies, letters, templates, forms and supporting documentation.

•           Strengthening processes around onboarding, contractual changes, absence, employee relations administration, payroll-related activity, records and leavers.

•           Reviewing HR data, KPI and reporting processes to improve visibility, ownership and decision-making.

•           Simplifying fragmented or manual processes wherever possible.

•           Improving how HR information and documentation is stored, controlled and accessed.

•           Making better use of the organisation's existing Microsoft 365 environment, potentially including SharePoint, Teams and Microsoft Forms.

•           Establishing greater consistency in HR standards and processes across multiple manufacturing locations.

•           Coaching and supporting members of the existing People team so that improvements remain embedded after the assignment ends.

What We're Looking For

We are looking for an experienced HR professional with a strong background in HR Operations, HR transformation, process improvement or HR project delivery.

Your current job title is less important than your ability to walk into an organisation, quickly understand what is and isn't working and translate that insight into tangible improvements.

You could currently be operating as an:

•           HR Operations Manager

•           HR Project Manager

•           People Operations Manager

•           HR Transformation Manager

•           HR Change or Process Specialist

Ideally, you will have experience across several of the following areas:

•           End-to-end HR process review and redesign.

•           HR policies, documentation and templates.

•           Employee lifecycle process design.

•           HR governance, controls and compliance.

•           Transactional HR and operational service delivery.

•           HR data, management information and KPI processes.

•           Workflow and process mapping.

•           HR information and document management.

•           Microsoft 365 tools, particularly SharePoint and Teams.

•           Coaching and developing HR colleagues.

•           Manufacturing or another fast-paced operational environment.

About You

This opportunity will suit someone who is naturally inquisitive, highly organised and comfortable working with ambiguity.

You will be process-minded without being overly bureaucratic. You'll be able to look at an existing way of working, understand why it isn't delivering and design something simpler, clearer and more robust.

You will also be comfortable rolling your sleeves up. This isn't a role where you will produce a transformation roadmap and hand it over to somebody else. You'll be expected to turn recommendations into action and leave sustainable improvements behind.

You will need the confidence to challenge existing practices, identify risk and influence stakeholders, alongside the practical capability to create processes, documentation and solutions yourself.

What Will Success Look Like?

By the end of the six-month assignment, the business wants to have established considerably stronger HR fundamentals, including:

•           Clear, documented and repeatable HR processes.

•           Stronger governance, controls and accountability.

•           Refreshed policies, templates and documentation.

•           Improved employee lifecycle workflows.

•           Better organised and controlled HR information.

•           Clearer HR KPIs and reporting processes.

•           Greater consistency across manufacturing locations.

•           Improved capability within the existing People team.

•           Significantly less reliance on informal knowledge and individual ways of working.

Why Join?

This is an opportunity to take genuine ownership of a meaningful HR transformation project at a point when the business is actively investing in the future of its People function.

Working directly with the People Director, you will have the autonomy to challenge existing ways of working, solve tangible operational problems and introduce improvements that will continue to have an impact long after the six-month assignment has finished.

For someone who genuinely enjoys building, fixing and improving, there is a significant amount to get involved in and the opportunity to see visible results from your work.