Head of HR - Healthcare

Compass Group; Chertsey; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading catering and support services firm in Chertsey seeks a Head of HR to lead the HR function within the Healthcare sector. The role involves formulating strategic HR plans, driving talent management, and promoting high engagement across teams. Ideal candidates are CIPD qualified with proven experience in senior HR roles. They will provide strategic advisory and influence decisions to foster a diverse and inclusive workplace. A competitive salary plus benefits is offered.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Benefits package

Qualifications

• Proven track record in a senior HR role within a fast-paced environment.
• Exceptional communication skills to influence stakeholders.
• Strong people management skills with a focus on driving change.

Responsibilities

• Lead the vision for the Human Resources function within Healthcare.
• Drive the implementation of the people strategy.
• Support and challenge senior leadership to achieve excellence.

Skills

Leadership skills

Change management

Communication skills

Talent management

Data analysis

Education

CIPD qualification or equivalent

Job description

Head of HR

Competitive salary plus benefits package

As the Head of HR, you will lead the vision, development, and operation of the Human Resources function across the Healthcare sector. This is a broad strategic role that involves formulating and producing strategic HR plans, improving, and developing HR approaches to support decision‑making across the wider business.

How You'll Make an Impact

• Strategic Advisory: Act as a trusted partner and coach to the Healthcare Managing Director and senior leaders, challenging the status quo to drive excellence in talent and engagement.
• Talent Architect: Own the talent review and succession planning process. You'll identify high‑potential stars and build the leadership pipeline for tomorrow.
• Change Catalyst: Lead the implementation of agile employee propositions and people plans that support rapid business growth.
• Culture Champion: Use your influence to drive high levels of engagement, ensuring our engagement survey results turn into meaningful actions that foster a safe, inclusive, and high‑performing environment.
• Data-Driven Insight: Leverage People MI to spot trends, tell a story with data, and develop initiatives that move the needle on productivity and service excellence.

Key Accountabilities

• Support, drive, and challenge the senior leadership teams across the sector to drive excellence in talent, organisation design, change, reward, performance, retention, and engagement.
• Driving and implementing the people strategy across the business.
• Coaching the leadership team to help them perform at their best and gain high performance from their teams.
• Leading the HR team to implement and deliver the people plan across the sectors.
• Ownership of the talent review process and succession planning for key roles: identifying, validating, and verifying high potential, and realising opportunities for development and progression to build leaders for the future.
• Identifying learning and training requirements across the business, working with central teams.
• Facilitating talent moves to ensure a high‑performing team is in place.
• Partnering with resourcing to build an external pipeline of talent and to facilitate a seamless resourcing service.
• Emerging talent plan to ensure attraction and retention of apprentices and graduates to create a sustainable future pipeline of talent.
• Assisting with creating development plans for the management teams, analysing the outputs of performance reviews and creating a training needs analysis.
• Supporting business growth from a people perspective.
• Utilising People MI to inform and develop people plans and initiatives.
• Leading and promoting high levels of people engagement, ensuring action is taken from the results of the Your Say survey to ensure the sectors have highly engaged teams working in a safe and inclusive environment.
• Sharing knowledge of people tools, frameworks, and initiatives to ensure awareness of these across the business.
• Creation of agile employee propositions to provide multi‑skilled teams enabled through flexible employee solutions.

Who You Are

You are a resilient, "can‑do" leader who finds quicker, smarter ways to reach goals. You don't just spot problems; you create solutions.

• Experience: A proven track record in a senior HR role within a fast‑paced, complex environment.
• Credentials: CIPD qualified (or equivalent experience) with a deep understanding of HR strategy and change management.
• Influence: Exceptional communication skills with the ability to present to and influence stakeholders at all levels.
• Mindset: Adaptable, detail‑oriented, and passionate about quality. You thrive under pressure and remain focused on the "big picture."
• Strong people and leadership skills.
• Proven track record of driving and implementing change.
• Proven track record of creating and implementing HR strategy.
• Communication & presentation – all stakeholders are kept up to date on relevant issues which are communicated clearly.
• Eye for detail in order to spot trends and errors.
• Prioritisation & organisation – able to complete all tasks on time to high standard.
• Adaptable – able to change approach and willing to learn new ways of working.

Compass Group UK&I wants everyone in our business to feel able to be themselves at work and to have an equal opportunity to progress their career. We want to create a culture where we respect and embrace everyone's talents, beliefs, backgrounds, and abilities. Where our colleagues feel valued, can reach their full potential, and thrive – Diversity is Our Strength!