Head of hr jobs

This role

The Head of HR and Operations will be a key member of the Senior Management Team, reporting directly to the Chief Executive. This role will be central to shaping the organisation’s culture and ensuring that our HR and operational functions are robust, future‑focused, and aligned with our mission.

As we continue to grow, the postholder will play a pivotal role in building an inclusive, values‑driven, and high‑performing workplace where staff feel supported, trusted, and able to thrive.

They will lead on HR strategy, employee development and retention, and the effective management of our facilities and operational systems. A coaching and enabling approach will be essential—supporting managers to use people metrics confidently, strengthening people practices across the organisation, and embedding a culture of continuous learning, accountability, and wellbeing.

Main responsibilities

Leadership and Management:

· Contribute to the development and delivery of Your Voice Count’s organisational strategy as a member of the Senior Management Team.

· Champion inclusive, ethical and sustainable ways of working aligned with Your Voice Count’s values.

· Support organisational change, growth and service development from a people and systems perspective.

· Oversee HR function, policies, and efficient working practices

· Support managers with HR responsibilities and staff development.

· Ensure effective recruitment, onboarding, and talent management.

· Foster an inclusive, diverse, and well-being-focused culture.

· Manage HR systems, technology, and budgets

· Ensure HR policies, procedures and practices are legally compliant, up-to-date and consistently applied.

· Support managers to build confident, fair and values-led people management capability.

Facilities & Office Management:

· Oversee office, facilities, and repairs to ensure a safe environment.

· Manage supplier contracts, IT, and communication systems.

· Supervise facilities and operations staff.

· Ensure cost-effective procurement and budget management.

Organisational Operations and Compliance:

· Act as organisational lead for GDPR compliance, working with external advisors where required, supporting the Data Protection Officer.

· Ensure compliance with Health & Safety requirements and support managers in maintaining safe working practices.

· Maintain oversight of organisational assets and information management systems

Essential Skills & Experience needed for the role

· Experience of building inclusive and diverse workplaces.

· Ability to develop HR strategies that support business objectives and workforce planning.

· Strong knowledge of UK employment law and HR best practices.

· Experience supporting managers with employee relations and performance issues

· Ability to engage and influence stakeholders at all levels, with a people-first approach.

· Knowledge/experience of managing and delivering across multiple workstreams such as HR and Facilities (experience in all an advantage but not a requirement)

· Experience of contributing to senior decision making

· Ability to analyse, critique and evaluate business data and insights

· MCIPD qualified or a qualification or experience in human resources management, or equivalent experience at a senior level.

· Influential with the gravitas to effectively help shape the organisation

· Significant management or supervisory level HR experience

Desirable:

· Experience working in a charity or values-led organisation.

· Experience supporting organisational growth or change.

· HR or management qualification (e.g. CIPD or equivalent).

Head of Human Resources
Kidney Care UK
Alton, Hampshire (Hybrid)
Up to £50-60,000 per year (depending on experience)
Full-time (37.5) or part-time
(Minimum 30 hrs per week, flexible options considered)
Permanent

About Kidney Care UK
 

Around 3.5 million people in the UK live with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Over 68,000 are treated for end-stage kidney failure, relying on dialysis or a transplant to keep them alive. Treatments are gruelling and relentless and impact the patients’ ability to work, maintain social interaction and live the life they choose. For over 50 years, Kidney Care UK has been at the forefront of supporting people with kidney disease. From our early days when we campaigned to introduce donor cards in the UK, we have worked hard to support and represent the interests of everyone affected by kidney disease.
Promoting better outcomes for people living with kidney disease, we actively seek applications from people who live with CKD or who have experience of the condition as a family member or healthcare professional.

About the role
Are you excited by the opportunity to be the HR lead for a leading Kidney Care Charity with a lot of exciting people projects in the pipeline? Are you happy operating in a stand-alone role, providing end to end HR support for our 100+ employees based in Alton and across the UK? Can you use your excellent interpersonal skills to partner and coach our leaders, and handle all people matters sensitively? If so, we would love to hear from you!

To succeed in this role, you will be an experienced HR professional, ideally able to show us your success in partnering senior leadership teams, leading on strategic HR projects, and transforming how people processes get delivered. You will have broad HR generalist experience that you can apply pragmatically, plus passion and excitement for taking our people plans to the next level.

Now is an exciting time to join Kidney Care UK – our plans are ambitious, and we hope that you are excited to be part of them.

What we offer

Working at Kidney Care UK is incredibly rewarding and you will see the life-changing impact that the charity has on kidney patients and their families:

• Flexi-time – we are flexible about start and finish times, and flexible about your location.
• Annual and Christmas leave – we offer 25 days annual leave for full time employees plus bank holidays. We also close for three days between Christmas and New Year, and you don’t need to take this from your annual leave allowance.
• Pension – you’ll be eligible for and auto-enrolled into a pension scheme where your employer will contribute 8% of your salary.
• Health cashback plan – ability to claim back a wide variety of routine medical treatments.
• Employee Assistance Programme – access to a wide variety of support including counselling, health resources and advice.
• Cycle2Work scheme
• Learning and development – you’ll be able to access the full benefits of our membership of Fundraising Everywhere, Charity Comms and NVCO.

About Variety

There are 1.8m children living with disabilities in the UK with 600,000 children living in poverty. Variety exists to improve their lives. We believe every child has a right to live their best life and reach their full potential, whoever they are. We fund and deliver life-changing programmes that enhance their quality of life and give children and young people across the UK a better future. Over the past 75 years we have supported over one million children by funding almost 6,000 Sunshine Coaches, almost the same number of wheelchairs, and giving thousands of grants to individual children, schools, youth clubs and other organisations for specialist equipment. In addition, each year thousands of children take part in day trips, special events and educational activities as part of our Variety Great Days Out programme, and every single day we are improving more young lives. We do it with practical, tangible help, that makes a real and immediate difference.

Role purpose

Variety, the Children’s Charity is looking for a Head of People and Culture to lead and deliver all aspects of the charity’s people strategy. Part of the Operations Team, this is an exciting role combining strategic leadership with hands-on operational HR management. The postholder will be experienced in driving forward new strategies, ensuring Variety has robust, compliant and people centered practices in place. This role will support a positive, inclusive, and high-performing culture which is aligned to Variety’s mission and values.

This is a new role at Variety during an exciting time as we develop and launch a new three-year strategy later this year and invest in our people and culture. The staff team at Variety has grown over the last year, reflecting the charity’s ambitious strategy to double charitable expenditure over the next three years. We are at an exciting point to recruit an experienced HR professional to continue our growth, developing our people while strengthening our collaborative culture, champion wellbeing, and leading Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.

The Head of People and Culture will work with the CEO and Senior Management Team and contribute to strategic decisions at Variety. There is a separate support service which is outsourced for complex or specialist HR matters if required. Variety is a small, dedicated team of 30 staff, and this role reports to the CEO with a close working relationship with the Director of Finance and Operations.

Key responsibilities
Strategy and Performance
Building organisational capacity is one of the pillars of our three-year strategy which is in development. Variety is investing in recruitment, and retention of a high-performing workforce with harmonised contracts and policies.

This role will:

• Develop and implement a People and Culture Strategy aligned with Variety’s new three-year organisational strategy
• Lead workforce planning and organisational development
• Implement and oversee a clear and consistent performance managementframework
• Mange safe and inclusive recruitment processes
• Lead the annual appraisal process and support probation reviews for new staff
• Provide regular reporting to the CEO for Trustee meetings on people metrics and any risks to the people strategy
• Manage the outsourced HR provider to Variety

HR operations and recruitment

• Oversee and directly manage recruitment, onboarding, probation, performance management and exit processes at Variety
• Develop and support the investment in recruitment and retention of high-performing team members
• Manage the onboarding process for new staff, sending offer letters, taking up references and inductions, ensuring a good start at Variety
• Manage employee relations cases (if they arise)
• Maintain and update the staff handbook, HR policies and procedures, ensuring compliance with UK employment law
• Introduce and manage an improved HR portal which will improve Variety’s HR function
• Manage the HR budget and the annual salary review process with the Director of Finance
• Support managers and staff in all aspects of people management
• Oversee payroll and benefits management (if applicable)
• Ensure staff have updated contracts and keep HR policies up to date
• Support managers in people management
• Advise the CEO and Senior Management Team on people-related risks
• Maintain accurate HR records in accordance with GDPR
• Carry out DBS checks for staff and volunteers

Culture and wellbeing

• Work with the Senior Management Team on cultural development and values-led behaviours across Variety
• Lead the People Strategy at Variety to foster a positive working environment, where people feel engaged, supported and happy at work
• Lead on Variety’s learning and development programme for all staff
• Promote a culture of feedback and continuous improvement

Person specification
Essential

• CIPD Level 7 qualified (or equivalent experience)
• Significant experience in a senior HR/People role, ideally within the charity or not-for-profit sector
• Strong working knowledge of UK employment law and HR best practice
• Experience managing employee relations cases independently
• Experience advising Senior Management Teams and Trustee boards
• Ability to operate strategically while delivering operational HR hands-on
• High level of discretion and confidentiality

Desirable

• Experience working as a standalone HR lead
• Experience working in a small or medium-sized organisations
• Knowledge of safeguarding requirements for the charity sector
• Experience implementing HR systems and improving processes

Key competencies

• Resilient and confident decision-maker
• Strong organisational and time management skills
• Values-driven and inclusive leadership style
• Comfortable working autonomously

Role scope and considerations
As this is a standalone, part-time position please consider:

• Clear prioritisation will be essential
• Operational HR tasks (e.g. contracts, letters, policy updates) sit within the role
• External HR advisers will be used for legal matters
• Administrative efficiency (templates, HR systems, automation) will be important to manage workload
• The role may include line management in the future

Benefits

• Enhanced Pension (7% contribution from Variety with 2% employee contribution)
• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays. In addition, after one year's continuous service, an extra two days’ annual holiday for every complete year of service will be added, up to a maximum of five days' extra holiday (pro rata will apply for part-time).
• Three additional days between Christmas and New Year given as discretionary leave
• Membership to a health and well-being cash plan scheme
• Life Assurance scheme offering 4 x salary
• Company Sick Pay

Please note that this role may require travel within the UK, requires a DBS check and proof of eligibility to work in the UK.

Variety, the Children's Charity is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

Inclusion is one of our key values. It is our ambition to recruit great people from diverse communities. We welcome and encourage applications from suitably qualified candidates regardless of age, disability, sex, gender reassignment/identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy/maternity and or marriage/civil partnership status, race, religion or belief. Please let us know if you have any access requirements which we might need to consider in relation to the selection process.

How to apply

Please submit your CV with a cover letter explaining why you’d make a great candidate for this role and how you meet the job description. In your cover letter please include a people system or HR platform you have implemented that improved operational efficiency and employee experience. What was your approach and what impact did it have.

Applications will close at midnight on Sunday, 15 March 2026 with first round interviews w/c 23 March 2026.

Please let us know if you have any accessibility requirements or need any adjustments for the interview.