Retail HR Manager (South)

Cancer Research UK; England; Hybrid; GBP 45,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

Join Cancer Research UK as a Retail HR Manager and contribute to a mission of defeating cancer. In this role, you will manage HR operations across the South division, engaging with stakeholders to implement strategic people initiatives and support performance. By leading on projects tied to the Trading Growth Strategy, you will ensure compliance and enrich employee experience within a dynamic organization.

Benefits

Generous benefits package

Opportunities for career development

Supportive working environment

Qualifications

• Experience in a multi-site environment like Retail or Hospitality.
• Proven ability to advise and support managers on HR processes.
• Ability to work autonomously while ensuring collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Lead HR customer relationships across Trading and Superstore divisions.
• Develop and implement strategic people plans to drive performance.
• Collaborate with Divisional Managers on local people initiatives.

Skills

Strategic HR Management

Relationship Management

Generalist HR Experience

Problem-solving

Education

HR-related degree or equivalent experience

Job description

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Retail HR Manager (South), england (35 hour weekly max), home based

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Client:

Cancer Research UK

Location:

england (35 hour weekly max), home based, United Kingdom

Job Category:

Other

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EU work permit required:

Yes

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Job Reference:

c3a6b1f45821

Job Views:

3

Posted:

02.06.2025

Expiry Date:

17.07.2025

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Job Description:

At Cancer Research UK, we exist to beat cancer

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At Cancer Research UK, we exist to beat cancer

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We are professionals with purpose, beating cancer every day. But we need to go much further and much faster. That’s why we’re looking for someone talented, someone who wants to develop their skills, someone like you.

The HR department plays an essential role in engaging and inspiring Cancer Research UK’s large and dynamic workforce by delivering operational transformation, governance, and an employee experience that enables us to be an inclusive, sustainable, and agile organisation. As part of our Trading 10-year Growth Strategy, we are proud to have 600+ stores, 40 superstores, and 4 distribution hubs & online marketplaces across the UK which generated £127m income in 2022/23 towards the charity’s life-saving research. As our trading operations expand, so does our HR Partnering (Trading) team which was created at the start of this year to develop our HR model to allow for a more strategic partnering-driven approach across our vast retail offering.

As an HR Manager, your purpose will be to use your HR knowledge and relationship management skills to partner with our Trading teams across the South division (c.177 stores) and Superstores (c. 40 stores UK-wide, first launched in 2018). In this role, no day will be the same – one day you will be leading on people-related issues, the next creating and implementing people plans, driving employee experience, building performance, and ensuring compliance across Cancer Research UK’s HR policies and procedures for your customer area. Furthermore, you will lead on HR-driven projects (such as inclusion and well-being, staffing models and the Trading Growth Strategy) so there is plenty for you to get involved in.

If you are a strategic HR Manager or Business Partner who has implemented people plans in a large organisation with HR generalist experience advising managers on all aspects of HR processes and policies, we would love for you to join our mission.

What will I be doing?

Leading HR customer relationships across Cancer Research UK’s Trading (South) and Superstore divisions to deliver the HR elements of projects and initiatives that support the Trading Growth Strategy, as well as local people and cultural changes.

Partnering with Divisional Managers to develop and execute local people initiatives to drive performance and deliver area objectives and targets.

Collaborating with the HR Business Partner to support the delivery of the key people projects that make up the Trading Growth Strategy (e.g. Superstore openings, Distribution Centre openings, sustainable staffing model etc).

Proactively partnering with customers to determine the people priorities in their areas and implementing strategic people plans to address these in line with the wider HR operating plan and priorities.

Providing a proactive, efficient, and high-quality generalist HR service to your customer group to address people-related issues, drive employee experience, build performance, and ensure compliance across HR policies and procedures.

Advising, supporting, and coaching managers within your customer group on all people processes, procedures, and guidelines to ensure compliance and mitigate risks.

Collaborating with specialists across HR and the wider organisation to ensure a high-quality HR service is provided to your customer group. This includes:

Collaborating with the People Services team to review, iterate, or improve our guidance, processes, or training to line managers.

Collaborating with the ER team and providing feedback to the ER Manager, while championing the ER service and ensuring managers are using the service to manage cases efficiently and effectively.

Engaging with the Divisional Learning & Development Lead to develop and roll out manager training modules that support better management of Employee Relations.

Working together with all areas of HR to ensure that the service we provide is seamless and to a good standard.

Sharing people metrics and commentary for your customer areas, highlighting any trends, pulling out relevant insights, and using this data to drive decision-making and create appropriate plans.

Running talent sessions with Area Trading teams in line with the central approach.

Acting as a lead for your areas to provide proactive support and guidance to address concerns or drive progress.

Assisting the HR Business Partner to deliver change management and restructuring initiatives (including TUPE and redundancy).

Developing and maintaining strong working relationships with line managers (this includes attending and contributing to conferences, and Business Review Meetings & HR operations meetings with Divisional Business Managers and Area Managers).

What are you looking for?

Strategic HR Manager or HR Business Partner who has experience creating and implementing people plans in a large organisation.

Ideally has done this in a multi-site environment such as Retail or Hospitality (however, this is desirable meaning we welcome applicants from alternative industries).

Proven HR generalist experience advising middle to high-level managers on all aspects of HR processes and policies.

Has built strong, collaborative relationships with a proven ability to work with, influence, and challenge a variety of stakeholders

Most of the role will be working remotely so you’ll need to be able to build and manage relationships within this environment.

Has worked autonomously while ensuring collaboration with peers.

Able to use judgment and distil key priorities and areas of focus when working with ambiguity.

Excellent problem-solving abilities with a proven track record of demonstrating pragmatism, proactivity, tenacity, and initiative.

Most of the role will be working remotely so you’ll need to be used to communicating and building successful relationships within this environment.

Able to travel across the UK (Retail network across the South and Superstores UK-wide).

Our organisation values are designed to guide all that we do.

Bold: Act with ambition, courage and determination

Credible: Act with rigour and professionalism

Human : Act to have a positive impact on people

Together: Act inclusively and collaboratively

We’re looking for people who can believe in and embody these organisation values and can use them to drive forward progress against our mission to beat cancer.

If you’re interested in applying and excited about working with us but are unsure if you have the right skills and experience we’d still love to hear from you.

What will I gain?

We create a working environment that supports your wellbeing and provide a generous benefits package, a wide range of career and personal development opportunities and high-quality tools. Our policies and processes enable you to improve your work-life balance, take positive steps in your career and achieve your personal wellbeing goals.

You can explore our benefits by visiting our careers web page.

Additional information

Internally, this role is known as a HR Manager. If you want to know more about this role, here is a full job description. Please note this is a generalist profile used for internal & external purposes meaning we don’t expect candidates to meet all the criteria included (we will be shortlisting based on the essential criteria advertised).