HR Shared Services Manager

The Compleat Food Group; Nottingham; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 65,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Employee volunteering (2 days)

Grocery Aid support

Wellbeing initiatives

Gym discounts

Online LMS training

Holiday discounts

Job summary

The Compleat Food Group is seeking an experienced HR Shared Services Manager to lead the HRSS function in Nottingham on a 9-month fixed-term contract. You will drive performance, transformation and strategic direction of HR Shared Services, ensuring a high-performing, customer-centric and data-driven service across the employee lifecycle.

This role requires strong governance, escalation leadership, and the ability to build capability within the team, while delivering improvements, implementing

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading HR Shared Services
• Strong governance and service-delivery discipline
• Experience in transformation and continuous improvement

Responsibilities

• Lead the HR Shared Services function day-to-day with clear priorities and SLAs.
• Drive operational excellence and scalable processes.
• Act as senior escalation point for complex HRSS queries.
• Coach and develop the HRSS team.
• Lead HR transformation projects and use analytics to guide decisions.

Skills

HR leadership

Governance

Stakeholder management

Data analytics

Change management

Tools

LMS platform

HRIS

Job description

Join Our HR Team at The Compleat Food Group!

We have a fantastic opportunity for an experienced and commercially focused leader to join our HR Shared Services department on a 9-month Fixed Term Contract.

As HR Shared Services Manager, you will be responsible for driving the performance, transformation and strategic direction of HR Shared Services. This role will ensure the delivery of a high-performing, customer-centric and data-driven service, while accelerating continuous improvement initiatives that enhance operational efficiency, strengthen governance and elevate the colleague experience across the entire employee lifecycle.

Who We Are:

We’re home to some of the UK’s most exciting and loved food brands, includingWall’s Pastry, Pork Farms, Wrights, The Real Yorkshire Pudding Co., unearthed, Vadasz, Squeaky Bean, Palace Culture, andHarvey & Brockless. Alongside our branded portfolio, we’re a leading supplier of delicious own-label pastry, sweet bakery, party food, olives and antipasti, added-value egg products, continental meats, dips and sauces and plant-based food to the UK’s major retailers, as well as across foodservice.

With over 6,000 talented colleagues across 17 sites, and an annual turnover of £1.3bn, we’re united by a shared ambition to shape the future of food for the better.

Location: Nottingham

Working Hours:

The working hours are Monday to Thursday 08:30am – 5pm, and 8.30pm – 4pm on Fridays. Who doesn’t love an early finish on a Friday!

Your Duties Will Include:

• Lead the HR Shared Services function on a day-to-day basis, ensuring operational continuity, clear priorities, strong governance and consistent delivery against agreed SLAs and service standards.
• Drive a higher level of operational excellence across HRSS, ensuring processes are efficient, well-controlled, scalable, and aligned to the needs of the business, managers, and colleagues.
• Act as the senior escalation point for complex, high-risk or time-sensitive HRSS queries, ensuring issues are resolved professionally, root causes are understood, and preventative actions are put in place.
• Lead, coach and develop the HRSS team, building capability, confidence and ownership while creating a culture of accountability, pace, continuous improvement and high-quality service delivery.
• Manage resource planning, workload allocation, case distribution and capacity forecasting to ensure HRSS activity is prioritised effectively and service delivery remains consistent during periods of change or increased demand.
• Lead and support HR transformation and operational improvement projects, including process redesign, workflow standardisation, service model improvements, governance enhancements and adoption of new tools or systems.
• Use real-time case management data, dashboards and HRSS analytics to monitor service performance, identify trends, highlight risks, forecast demand and drive informed decision-making.
• Build strong and credible relationships with senior HR stakeholders, Payroll, Reward, Recruitment, HR Business Partners and operational leaders, acting as a trusted partner who can influence, challenge and support better outcomes.
• Provide clear project leadership across HRSS initiatives, ensuring objectives, milestones, risks, dependencies, communications and stakeholder engagement are well managed.
• Identify opportunities to streamline, automate and simplify HRSS processes, removing duplication and improving speed, consistency, accuracy and colleague experience.
• Support the integration of new entities, business changes or service changes into HRSS, ensuring effective planning, communication, training and readiness across the team and stakeholders.

Your Skills and Experience:

• Proven experience leading HR Shared Services, HR Operations or People Services teams in a complex, fast-paced organisation.
• Background in HR transformation, service improvement, process redesign or shared services maturity development.
• Experience leading operational projects from planning through to delivery, with strong governance, stakeholder engagement and change management discipline.
• Strong understanding of HR lifecycle processes, service delivery models, case management principles, SLAs and operational controls.
• Confident using HR data, case management analytics and performance reporting to identify trends, manage risk and improve service outcomes.
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the ability to constructively challenge, build trust and work across HR, Payroll, Reward, Recruitment and the wider business.
• Strong people leadership capability, with experience coaching teams, building capability and creating a clear performance and service culture.
• 2 Employee Volunteering Days per year
• Employee well-being and community support groups
• Informal and Formal training opportunities with personalised online LMS platform
• Charity Initiatives and Team events
• 24/7 Access to Grocery Aid (Free Financial, Emotional and Practical Support)
• Physical Wellbeing Benefits – Free on demand exercise hub and various gym discounts.
• Free Financial wellbeing – mortgage calculators, budget tools, financial aid tools
• Holiday Discounts via Online Retail Discount

What You Should Know About How We Recruit

At The Compleat Food Group, we believe great teams are built on difference. We create an inclusive, respectful environment where everyone feels safe, supported, and are able to be themselves at work.

We’re proud to be an equal opportunities employer and are committed to Fairness, Equity, Inclusivity, and Respect. If you need a reasonable adjustment at any stage of our recruitment process, just let us know, we’ll support you — confidentially and with care.

We hire the best people for our roles, not the same people. Whoever you are, wherever you’re from, we focus on what you do and the impact you could make in our business. Our recruitment process is fair, accessible, and designed to give everyone an equal chance.

You’ll also find benefits that support people at every life stage, plus active internal networks — including Women @ Compleat, LGBTQIA+, and Neurodiversity.

Recruitment Agencies:

We have a small, active and trusted Preferred Supplier List to assist us if required. We do not acknowledge any speculative CVs or unsolicited candidate introductions. We only accept CV submissions for roles released to you directly by our Talent Acquisition team.

By submitting your CV and personal information, you consent to The Compleat Food Group processing your personal data for the purposes of assessing your application for employment. Your data will be processed in accordance with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.

We will use your personal data solely for recruitment and selection purposes, and it will be securely stored and accessible only to authorized HR and hiring personnel. If your application is unsuccessful, we will retain your details for up to 24 months unless you request earlier deletion.

You have the right to:

• Access, correct, or request deletion of your personal data
• Withdraw your consent at any time
• Lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you believe your data has been mishandled

For more information on how we handle your data, please refer to our Privacy Policy .