Workforce & People Manager

About the Role

Our client is a growing and successful construction business looking to appoint a highly organised, driven and commercially minded Workforce & People Manager to take ownership of its workforce requirements.

This is a hands-on operational role with a clear purpose: ensuring the business has the right people, with the right skills, in the right place, at the right time.

The successful candidate will take responsibility for workforce planning, recruitment, mobilisation, onboarding, training and competency, attendance, productivity and retention.

Working closely with Directors, operational managers and site-based employees, the role will ensure workforce requirements are identified early and that decisive action is taken to address recruitment, performance, skills and retention challenges.

This is not a traditional HR role. Our client is looking for someone practical, proactive and highly action-orientated; someone who is comfortable picking up the phone, finding people, chasing information, challenging poor performance and making sure things get done.

The successful candidate will take ownership of the workforce journey from initial recruitment through to onboarding, development, performance and retention.

Key Responsibilities

Workforce Planning

Maintain a live, forward-looking workforce plan aligned to current workload and upcoming contracts.

Work closely with Directors and operational managers to understand future labour requirements.

Identify workforce gaps and recruitment requirements early, rather than reacting when vacancies become urgent.

Plan for upcoming projects, contracts, peaks in workload and changes in operational requirements.

Ensure the business has the right balance of skills, experience and capacity to deliver its workload.

Provide regular updates to Directors on current and future workforce requirements.

Recruitment

Take ownership of proactively finding and recruiting the people the business needs.

Build and maintain a strong pipeline of potential candidates.

Use a combination of recruitment agencies, direct approaches, social media and other relevant channels to identify suitable candidates.

Develop strong relationships with recruitment agencies and ensure they deliver suitable candidates.

Write and manage recruitment advertising across relevant platforms and social media.

Screen candidates and coordinate interviews with hiring managers.

Keep the recruitment process moving quickly and efficiently.

Ensure strong candidates are not lost through unnecessary delays.

Maintain clear records of vacancies, candidates and recruitment progress.

Onboarding & Mobilisation

Own the onboarding process from offer through to the individual's first day and beyond.

Ensure all required documentation, checks, qualifications and certifications are completed promptly.

Coordinate with managers to ensure new starters are properly prepared for their role.

Ensure new employees have the equipment, information, training and site arrangements required to start effectively.

Ensure new starters receive appropriate inductions and understand company expectations.

Continually review the onboarding process and remove unnecessary delays or administration.

Attendance, Productivity & Performance

Monitor attendance, hours, productivity and utilisation using Chime, vehicle tracking and operational data.

Identify patterns of lost time, poor attendance, low productivity or under-utilisation.

Work closely with managers to understand the reasons behind poor performance or lost time.

Address issues quickly and firmly, ensuring agreed actions are followed through.

Support managers in dealing with performance concerns and maintaining consistent standards.

Ensure poor performance is addressed promptly and does not continue without appropriate action.

Identify high-performing employees and understand what helps them remain productive and engaged.

Provide Directors with clear and useful workforce performance information.

Training, Qualifications & Competency

Maintain accurate and up-to-date records of training, qualifications, certifications and competencies.

Monitor upcoming expiry dates and ensure renewals are arranged in good time.

Identify skills gaps across the workforce.

Work with managers to establish training and development requirements.

Coordinate relevant training and certification.

Ensure employees are appropriately trained and competent for the work they undertake.

Develop a forward-looking skills plan aligned with the company's future workload.

Apprenticeships & Future Workforce

Build strong relationships with local colleges, training providers and apprenticeship organisations.

Develop a pipeline of apprentices and future-skilled employees.

Identify opportunities to bring new talent into the business.

Work with managers to identify suitable apprenticeship and training opportunities.

Help develop career pathways that encourage good people to stay and progress within the business.

Support the company's long-term approach to developing its own workforce rather than relying solely on external recruitment.

Retention & Employee Engagement

Identify practical reasons why good employees may leave or become disengaged.

Work closely with managers and employees to understand workforce issues.

Take action to resolve avoidable problems affecting retention.

Maintain regular communication with employees and ensure concerns are dealt with promptly.

Identify and share good practice across teams.

Help create an environment where good people want to stay, develop and progress.

Process Improvement

Continually review and improve recruitment, onboarding, mobilisation and workforce processes.

Identify unnecessary delays, duplication or administration and introduce more effective ways of working.

Introduce simple, effective systems that provide Directors and managers with clear workforce information.

Ensure workforce data is accurate, current and useful.

Help develop processes and systems that can grow with the business.

About You

Our client is looking for someone who is exceptionally organised, relentless and action-orientated.

You will be someone who naturally follows things through rather than waiting for someone else to chase them.

The successful candidate will ideally:

Have experience in recruitment, workforce management, HR, operations or a similar people-focused role.

Have experience within construction, engineering, utilities or facilities management.

Be confident recruiting through both agencies and direct channels.

Be comfortable picking up the phone and actively finding candidates.

Be highly organised and able to manage multiple vacancies, people and deadlines simultaneously.

Have strong attention to detail and excellent follow-through.

Be confident challenging managers and employees when standards are not being met.

Be comfortable working with data and using it to identify problems and trends.

Have excellent communication and relationship-building skills.

Be commercially aware and understand the importance of having the right workforce available to deliver contracts.

Be proactive and comfortable working with a high degree of autonomy.

Be practical and solutions-focused.

Be persistent and comfortable having difficult conversations when required.

Take ownership and accountability for achieving results.

The Opportunity

This is an excellent opportunity to join a growing construction business in a role with genuine responsibility and visibility.

The successful candidate will have the opportunity to build on and improve the company's approach to recruitment, workforce planning, training, performance and retention, working closely with the Directors and operational management team.

For someone who is commercially minded, highly organised and enjoys making things happen, this role offers the opportunity to have a real impact on the continued growth and success of the business