Deputy People Services Manager

Thames Water Utilities Limited; Reading; Hybrid; GBP 65,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading utility services company is seeking a Deputy People Services Manager to deliver high-quality HR services. This hybrid role involves managing operational HR activities, promoting employee engagement, and ensuring compliance with employment law. The successful candidate will have proven experience in HR operations and people management, with strong communication skills. The position offers a competitive salary of up to £65,000 and various benefits including annual leave and private medical care.

Benefits

26 days holiday per year

Private Medical Health Care

Generous Pension Scheme

Access to health and wellbeing benefits

Qualifications

• Proven experience in HR operations of a large operational unionised business.
• Strong knowledge of employment and immigration law.
• Ability to manage high volumes while prioritising delivery.

Responsibilities

• Manage direct reports within the People Services team.
• Ensure compliance with THames Water policies and employment law.
• Provide updates on team performance and risks.

Skills

Experience in HR operations

People management

Knowledge of employment law

Communication skills

Education

CIPD professional recognition

Tools

SAP HR

SuccessFactors

Job description

Job title Deputy People Services Manager Ref 43641 Division People Location Hybrid - Clearwater Court - RG1 8DB Contract type Fixed term/Secondment Full/Part-time Full-time Salary Competitive salary up to £65,000 per annum, depending on experience Job grade C Closing date 07/01/2026

FIXED TERM CONTRACT - 24 MONTHS

The Deputy People Services Manager will support the People Services Manager in delivering high-quality HR services across the organisation. The role will assume responsibility for the day-to-day management of People Services activities, including direct line management of the team, continuous improvement initiatives to improve our customer service and efficiency and maintaining service levels.

What you’ll be doing as a Deputy People Services Manager

• Line manage direct reports within the People Services team, including performance reviews, coaching, and development planning.
• Ensure team workload is effectively managed and service standards are consistently met
• Promote employee engagement and wellbeing within the team.
• Monitoring and reporting delivery against objectives and key performance indicators (KPIs) across the team.
• Oversee day-to-day People Services operational activities.
• Ensure compliance with employment and immigration law, Thames Water policies, standards and joint agreements.
• Responsible for maintaining high quality responses and customer survey results
• Responsible for ensuring internal processes and documentation is easy to understand and up to date with legislative requirements.
• Oversee the management of projects from a People Services perspective e.g. implementation of annual pension contribution changes via salary sacrifice, delivery of pay review cycles, and organisational design initiatives including TUPE transfers.
• Point of contact for escalations involving complex or high-risk matters, understanding the root cause and driving improvements.
• Provide regular updates on team performance, risks, and opportunities.
• Partner with the wider people team – employee relations and learning and development to support employees and managers across the business to promote self-service, answer queries and resolve issues.
• Work collaboratively with the People Services Manager to deliver HR projects and initiatives, including the Success Factors implementation, ensuring effective balancing of BAU resources to meet project deliverables (e.g. supporting workshops and related activities).

Hybrid – Clearwater Court, Reading

36 hours a week

What you should bring to the role

To thrive in this role, the essential criteria you’ll need is:

• Proven experience in HR operations of a large operational unionised business.
• Extensive experience in people management.
• Strong knowledge of employment and immigration law and HR best practice.
• Highly organised, resilient, and capable of managing high volumes while prioritising delivery.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to build effective relationships.

Additional skills and experiences would be great to have/bring:

• Professional recognition such as CIPD.
• SAP HR and / or SuccessFactors experience.
• Project Management and / or Change Management qualification.

What’s in it for you?

• Competitive salary up to £65,000 per annum, depending on experience.
• Annual Leave – 26 days holiday per year increasing to 30 with the length of service. (plus bank holidays)
• Private Medical Health Care.
• Performance-related pay plan directly linked to company performance measures and targets.
• Generous Pension Scheme through AON.
• Access to lots of benefits to help you take care of you and your family’s health and wellbeing, and your finances – from annual health MOTs and access to physiotherapy and counselling, to Cycle to Work schemes, shopping vouchers and life assurance.

Disclaimer: due to the high volume of applications we receive, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.