Group People Manager

Blue Gem Holdings is a fast-paced, hands-on business in the high-growth flexible office market, with a strong culture and a high-performance ethos. The group is growing, and HR needs to grow with it: new systems, AI tools and streamlined processes are being introduced to support that growth.

The Group People Manager will be the group's sole HR lead, reporting to the Chief of Staff. You will set HR strategy and build the systems and processes behind it, while also running the full employee lifecycle day to day: recruitment, onboarding, employee relations, absence, performance, policy and offboarding. You will be the trusted HR adviser to the leadership team and keep the business fully compliant with UK employment law.

At the heart of the role is judgement. People will bring you sensitive, confidential and sometimes difficult situations, and they need to trust that you will handle them fairly, discreetly and correctly. With no wider HR team to lean on, this is a role for an experienced practitioner who is as comfortable shaping strategy as running a disciplinary hearing.

Key Responsibilities

• HR strategy, set with the Chief of Staff and implemented pragmatically in line with Blue Gem's goals
• Acting as the trusted HR adviser to the Chief of Staff and leadership team, including reporting at Board level
• Introducing a new HR system and AI tools, starting with mapping every process across recruitment, onboarding, paperwork, inductions, training, appraisals, career journeys and offboarding
• End-to-end recruitment: workforce planning with managers, writing job descriptions and adverts, managing agencies and job boards, shortlisting, interviewing and issuing offers
• Pre-employment checks, including right to work, references and any background checks, completed and recorded before start dates
• Onboarding and inductions, so every new starter has their contract, equipment, system access and first-week plan in place on day one
• Employee relations: advising managers on conduct, capability, grievances, absence and flexible working, and managing complex cases through to resolution, using external employment law advice where needed
• Running formal processes, including letters, invite packs, hearings and outcomes, in line with the ACAS Code of Practice
• Absence management, including tracking sickness, return-to-work meetings, occupational health referrals and family leave
• Probation, performance management and appraisals, making sure managers complete them on time and on record
• Leading organisational change, planning and communicating it, and managing any resistance or conflict that comes with it
• Writing and maintaining HR policies, the employee handbook, contracts and HR letters, updated as legislation changes
• HR records and the HR system, kept accurate, complete and GDPR compliant, with clear filing so information can be found quickly
• Monthly payroll inputs: starters, leavers, changes and absence, checked and passed to payroll by the deadline
• HR reporting, including headcount, turnover, absence and recruitment figures
• Managing HR suppliers, including recruitment agencies, payroll, benefits and training providers, reviewing contract terms and costs
• Training and development, engagement and wellbeing activity across the business
• Offboarding, including resignations, exit interviews, final pay information and leaver records