Workforce Planning & Development Manager

theforum.social - jobboard; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 48,000 - 52,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Final salary pension

Free travel for you and family

Travel discounts across UK rail

Job summary

GTR is seeking a Workforce Planning & Development Manager to design and implement a workforce plan for the Customer Service Directorate. You will recruit and train colleagues to meet strategic objectives and KPI targets, working with senior leaders and other stakeholders.

You will own the resourcing relationship, draft submissions, and present ideas to ensure the right people with the right skills are in place. Hybrid working in East Croydon offers a rewarding leadership role.

Qualifications

• Experience designing and delivering workforce plans.
• Ability to analyse data to inform staffing decisions.
• Strong collaboration with senior stakeholders to achieve objectives.

Responsibilities

• Create the Customer Service Directorate's workforce plan and deliver plans to recruit and train staff to KPI targets.
• Implement initiatives from the Annual Business Plan and liaise with stakeholders to justify staffing proposals.
• Manage the Directorate's resourcing relationships and report on SLAs between departments.

Skills

Workforce planning

Data analysis

Stakeholder management

Project management

KPI tracking

Job description

\"As we've recognised along with other organisations is that there is a lot of vacancies within the market now making it really challenging to recruit into our planning team. We still really struggled to get applicants with the relevant skills. We shared the roles we currently had available to The Forum jobs page, and we saw a massive spike in applicants.\" Alix Corden, Scheduling Manager, VitalityHealth

Published on 03 September 2026

Workforce Planning & Development Manager

East Croydon along with hybrid working

Role: Workforce Planning & Development Manager
Advertised by: GTR
Location: East Croydon along with hybrid working
Salary: £48,000 - £52,000 along with great benefits
Closing Date:17 September 2026

This is a great opportunity for those looking to challenge themselves as we design and implement a workforce plan come and join the customer service directorate's on-call frontline management structure

What You'll Do
Taking responsibility for creating the Customer Service Directorate's workforce plan, the role holder will produce and deliver plans which ensure we recruit and train colleagues efficiently and effectively to meet strategic objectives and KPI deliverables.

The role holder will implement initiatives outlined in our Annual Business Plan, and work with GTR stakeholders, senior leaders, DfTO and other parties to draft submissions and present ideas to ensure we have the right people, in the right roles, with the right skills, at the right time.

The role holder will own the customer service directorate's strategic resourcing relationship, reporting on existing service level agreements and acting as a key conduit between the customer service directorate and GTR's people function.

The role holder will use data and insights to seek opportunities to optimise our frontline workforce design, building compelling local and directorate change proposals that supports our strategy to work smarter, spend wisely; and win customers.

The role holder will project manage approved changes, in turn developing a sustainable and effective railway.

Key Responsibilities include:

• Join the customer service directorate's on-call frontline management structure
• Analyse finance, rostering, accessibility and other data to optimise our workforce design.
• Report on key initiatives across recruitment and workforce, ensuring we are meeting our Annual Business Plan commitment
• Producing excellently written submissions and presentations for a variety of stakeholders.
• Work closely with GTR's finance team to ensure we're meeting KPIs.

What We Can Offer You
At GTR, we are committed to supporting our colleagues both professionally and personally. In return for your skills and dedication, we offer a competitive benefits package including:

• Final salary pension
• Free travel on GTR and sister groups for you and your family
• 75% off travel on other train operating companies for you, and leisure for your family
• Discounted Oyster Card
• Family-friendly policies, including maternity, paternity, adoption, and shared parental leave
• Access to StarHub - our employee benefits platform offering discounts with a wide range of retailers and services
• Career development and progression opportunities across the UK's largest rail networks
• The opportunity to make a real difference to millions of customer journeys every year.

Please note that we reserve the right to close this vacancy earlier than the advertised closing date if we receive a high volume of suitable applications.