• Job Title: Senior People Experience Manager (12-Month FTC)
• Level & Responsibility: This role is at a Senior Manager level and manages a team of three people professionals. This role might be better known as Senior HR Business Partner or Senior HR Manager in other businesses.
• Salary: £53,000 - £63,000+ per annum, depending on experience plus a 10% bonus scheme 
• Location & Hybrid Working: 2-3 days a week in our London office
  

The role

We are looking for a Senior People Experience Manager to join SMG. In this role you will be the guardian of ensuring we create a world-class Employee Experience pulling on the levers of employee relations, performance management, optimisation, organisational design, reward, and beyond. You will work closely with the People Director in driving and building the business people strategy and ensuring initiatives are embedded across the group, maintaining high levels of engagement and performance. You will lead a team of People professionals, supporting their development and ensuring the service of the People Experience team is maintained.

Why SMG?

We are dedicated to supporting our employees to be the best version of themselves both inside and outside of work. We have an extraordinary culture built by exceptional people and it’s because of this that we’ve been recognised by Best Companies within the top 5 best Marketing & Media agencies to work for, with a World Class and Outstanding accreditation across the past 2 years. 

We are also dedicated to continuously reviewing and improving our benefits package to offer the best that we can for our people. We have a whole page dedicated to our benefits here, but here's some of our favourites...

💰 Generous discretionary bonus scheme

🧘‍♂️ £1,800 yearly wellbeing fund (on top of your salary!) towards your personal wellbeing and passions

🫶 4 additional Wellbeing Days - one to be taken each quarter, dedicated to focusing on your wellbeing

📚 £500 yearly “Uni Fund” towards learning and development

🎧 Free headspace subscription

🕐 4pm Friday finishes all year round

🥳 Two fully paid conferences a year at Summer & Winter, as well as a dedicated team that put on activities and celebrations throughout the year

Why you?

In line with our company values, within your role you'll want to stay honest, stay hungry, stay foolish, and most importantly, have fun! More specifically, you'll have / be:

• A CIPD level 7 qualification or similar advanced qualification (diploma/masters) in a relevant field
• Significant experience in HR business partnering across the generalist spectrum in a similar environment (private sector, media/marketing/agency/professional services)
• Extensive employee relations experience with a track record of resolving cases in a commercially sensitive manner
• Line management experience and coaching approach to developing high-potential, high performing junior members of the team
• Excellent influencing and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to counsel and provide advice to a range of audiences successfully through both written and spoken media
• Ability to coach and nurture manager in their people leadership skills
• Experience of briefing and liaising with external (legal) counsel or suppliers
• Knowledge of the UK and (developing) US employment law landscape including compliance and regulatory requirements, and how this may impact the People Agenda.
• Ability to interpret data and form plans of actions; to spot tr

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  ends and patterns suggesting the need for intervention
• Strategic thinking and ability to direct operational execution

P.s. we try really hard to make sure that we list only essential criteria here, BUT if you think you can do an amazing job, yet don't have every single thing on this list, we'd still love to hear from you.

What you'll be doing

We pride ourselves on creating challenging and exciting opportunities, meaning that no two days are the same. However, here's an idea of what your responsibilities will look like:

Strategic Management:

• Build the People Experience strategy (alongside People Director) which empowers the business to achieve its strategic goals in alignment with the broader People Agenda, whilst supporting junior team members in the formations of plans in their business units.
• Collaborate with other members of the People Team, you will devise the People Experience elements of the overall People Plan.

Performance/Capability Building:

• Drive the behavioural side of performance management and review cycles (e.g. leader education, employee training/support, advice on having great performance conversations, feedback behaviours etc.) while colleagues in People Operations drive process completion and adherence.
• Fostering a culture of coaching within the business, acting as a role model and champion of coaching as a core business behaviour (for all SMG team members regardless of role or job level).

Reward:

• Design and own processes related to reward which incentivise and drive desire employee behaviours in line with the Reward Philosophy (which you will also own).
• Design, own and drive processes related to Reward in collaboration with the Senior People Operations Manager ensuring a user-centric approach which leverages technology and automation.

Team Leadership:

• Lead the Employee Experience & Culture team, coaching and mentoring them while always acting as a compelling role model.
• Set WorkPlans and support team members in forming the change agenda for their business units, identifying common themes or shared needs/aims which would benefit from a wider, shared approach.
• Gather feedback from stakeholders on team performance and lead the team, optimising performance and encouraging deep relationships between partners and employees within the business.

Learning and Development:

• Contribute to wider conversations about learning and development provision, identifying macro needs and trends in capabilities required to progress business aims which can be serviced through the application of learning events (either in-house or externally sourced).

Employee Engagement:

• Develop, implement, and support managing the company's employee engagement strategies to drive a positive workplace environment and promote a culture of inclusivity, collaboration, and continuous improvement.
• Lead engagement initiatives that increase employee satisfaction, retention, and productivity, and helping to retain our World Class Status.

Employee Relations:

• Lead the employee relations case work where it concerns your own portfolio of leaders (the EC and team leads).
• Give advice to junior team members and leaders within the business which balances best-practice, the law and regulations of the appropriate jurisdiction and commercial acumen.
• Analyse data - both qualitative and quantitative - to identify trends and phenomena that require remedial attention or represent an opportunity to enhance the people experience, thus informing your agenda and planning.

More information and resources to support you & your application...

• To find out more about our agencies and departments, click here.
• To find out more about our application & interview process and supporting you through this, click here.
• To find out more about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at SMG, click here.
• To take a look at our FAQ's, click here.

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