HR Manager (12 Months Fixed Term Contract) - Wigan

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Job Introduction

ArrowXL is hiring! As the UK's leading provider of Two-Person Home Delivery, we continuously strive to make the world of delivery a better place. Our aim is to build a welcoming and friendly business that supports the local community. We store and deliver large, heavy and bulky items in pristine condition - the kind of items that typically need two attentive people to handle. Quite often these items need installing for our customers, which we also do!

The ArrowXL culture thrives on six core values:

Innovative I Safe I Respectful I Excellent I Responsible I One Team

Please be aware that all roles at ArrowXL are subject to a mandatory criminal record DBS check.

We are seeking a proactive and experienced HR Manager to join our team on a 12-month fixed-term basis. You will play a pivotal role in supporting our people agenda, managing HR operations, and driving key HR initiatives. This role will include leading and managing a HR Advisor, maintaining effective stakeholder relationships with our Operations and Central Support managers, and supporting the wider business to achieve its goals through strategic and operational HR leadership.

Main Responsibilities

Role Specific:

• Team Management: Lead, mentor, and develop a HR Advisor, ensuring effective delegation and professional growth.
• Employee Relations (ER): Oversee and manage complex ER cases, including disciplinaries, grievances, absence management, and performance improvement plans, ensuring fairness, consistency, and compliance with employment law.
• HR Operations: Oversee day-to-day HR activities, liaising with other members of the HR team to drive compliance including contracts, onboarding, policy adherence, and compliance.
• Advisory Support: Provide expert advice to managers and employees on HR best practices and policies to support effective people management.
• Talent Management: Supporting recruitment activities, onboarding processes, and the continuous development of talent within the business mainly for mid to senior hires in the business areas allocated.
• Change Management: Lead and support HR-related projects, such as restructures, policy rollouts, TUPE transfers and process improvements.
• Employee Engagement: Drive initiatives to foster a positive workplace culture, enhancing employee engagement and wellbeing.
• Compliance: Ensure all HR practices comply with UK employment law, Company policies, and relevant agreements with union partners.
• Data & Reporting: Analyse HR metrics to inform decisions, track key HR initiatives, and provide accurate reporting to senior leadership.

People Management:

• Communicates clearly so that all direct reports and any team members are aware of their objectives and the standards required, ensuring that these are aligned to both functional and broader business objectives.
• Defines and manages day to day activities, being clear about priorities to ensure that deadlines are met.
• Accountable for ensuring the quality of the work at 'Professional' level and the performance of their team members where applicable.
• Role model positive behaviour, which is in keeping with our values, recognising good / excellent performance whilst being clear and transparent about areas of underperformance concerning direct line reports and their teams where applicable.
• Provide clear advice and direction on how to change and bring about improvements where these need to be made.
• Pro-actively resolve conflict amongst team members quickly and fairly.
• Pro-actively manage any poor conduct and / or behaviour in keeping with AXL policy and procedure.
• Pro-actively manage attendance amongst team members in keeping with AXL policy and procedure.
• Engage and build open and honest professional and positive relationships with team members, fellow colleagues, peers and cross functional stakeholders.

General:

• Is independent in exercising professional knowledge without close supervision.
• Solves problems according to experience, analyses possible solutions and provides suggestions for improvement under defined parameters.
• Effectively manages time so that deadlines are met both individually and as a team.
• Act upon any feedback from your line manager concerning individual and / or team performance.
• Be responsible for and undertake continual learning and development both informally and formally, ensuring a clear understanding of the business and cross functional priorities.

The Ideal Candidate

Experience:

• Proven experience as an HR Manager or Senior HR Officer, including experience managing direct reports and working with trade unions.
• Previous experience in a logistics, supply chain, or retail environment is advantageous but not essential.

Knowledge:

• Strong understanding of UK employment law, HR best practices, and experience of operating in a unionised environment

Skills and Behaviours:

• Excellent communication, problem-solving, and organisational skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities and build strong relationships, influencing change as you go.
• Strong IT and MS office/365 - including MS excel, PowerPoint and Word - used to using IT solutions and applications to drive automation and data driven decisions.
• Leadership: Ability to mentor and develop HR team members, operational leaders and fostering a culture of continuous improvement.
• Qualifications: CIPD Level 7 or equivalent experience.
• Attributes: Collaborative, results-driven, resilient, and able to influence and negotiate effectively at all levels.
• Able to act in a professional manner to the benefit of the company and always maintain confidentiality

Benefits and Rewards

In addition to a competitive salary, you'll receive many excellent additional benefits including:

• Hybrid Working Options - opportunity to work from both the office and from the comfort of your own home
• Annual Leave - 34 days entitlement (including statutory bank holidays) which increases with service
• Holiday Buy Scheme - Buy up to 5 additional days
• Enhanced Pension Plan options - Company enhanced contributions of up to a 6% match
• Private Medical Insurance - via AXA
• Life Insurance - Company funded 2x basic salary life cover from day one
• Medicash - An easy-to-use health insurance package that provides cashback towards your everyday healthcare bills
• Employee Assistance Programme - Free 24/7 confidential wellbeing support
• Progression and Development Opportunities - Department specific technical training and Internal Management Development Academies
• Staff Discount at www.very.co.uk (25% discount on designer branded clothing, footwear and home accessories with 15% off furniture, leisure and electrical items)
• Discounted Gym Membership - Up to 25% discount across 3700 nationally located gyms, health clubs, leisure Centres, bootcamps and fitness studios
• Cycle to work scheme - In partnership with Evans cycles the ArrowXL C2W scheme offers great benefits and discounts
• Long service awards - We go out of our way to recognise and reward our colleague commitment with our long service awards programme
• Employee of the month - Winners receive £25 voucher, certificate and Hall of fame recognition
• CEO Award of the month - Winners receive £100 voucher, certificate and Hall of fame recognition
• Departmental Incentives - Year-round departmental competitions, seasonal incentives and fantastic gifts
• Retail Discounts - Huge discount savings in supermarkets (Asda, Tesco, Morrison's and Sainsburys), Fashion discounts with (Adidas, Asos, H&M, Boohoo, JD and Matalan) and Technology discounts with (Apple, Argos, Currys/PC World and John Lewis), plus many more savings

Our culture thrives on Six core values that form who we are, these are:

Innovative I Safe I Respectful I Excellent I Responsible I One Team

ArrowXL