Head of People & Corporate Governance
£50,000–£70,000 per annum, dependent on experience
Permanent | Full-time | Multi-site UK role
Crescent Pharmaceutical Group
The Role
Crescent Pharmaceutical Group is seeking an experienced Head of People & Corporate Governance to lead our HR function and strengthen the people, performance, systems and governance framework across our multi-company pharmaceutical group.
This is a senior, hands-on role with direct exposure to Group Directors.
We are looking for someone who combines strong HR leadership and UK employment-law knowledge with performance management, HR systems and corporate governance experience.
You will be expected to take ownership: identify issues, assess risk, recommend practical solutions and implement them.
A major focus will be ensuring that policies and procedures work effectively in practice through clear accountability, measurable KPIs, effective systems, appropriate controls and management reporting.
Key Responsibilities
HR & Employment Law
Lead the Group HR function and provide practical advice to Directors, senior management and line managers.
Take ownership of:
- employment contracts and contractual changes
- recruitment, onboarding and offboarding
- probation and absence management
- disciplinary and grievance matters
- performance, capability and underperformance
- restructuring and redundancy
- organisational change
- complex employee-relations matters
- HR policies, procedures and employee documentation
Ensure HR processes are consistent, properly documented and compliant with UK employment law and ACAS principles.
Personally lead significant HR matters while recognising when specialist external legal advice is required.
Performance Management & KPIs
Own and develop the Group's performance-management framework.
Ensure employees have clear job descriptions, responsibilities, objectives and measurable KPIs.
Establish effective:
- probation reviews
- performance reviews and appraisals
- objective and KPI setting
- performance monitoring
- Performance Improvement Plans
- capability processes
- manager accountability
- performance reporting and escalation
Ensure reviews are completed on time and to an appropriate standard.
Zoho & HR Systems
Act as business owner for the Group's HR systems, including Zoho People and Zoho Recruit.
Use systems, workflows and automation to strengthen:
- recruitment and onboarding
- employee records
- probation
- objectives and KPIs
- performance reviews
- absence and leave
- training records
- employee changes
- approvals and escalations
- offboarding
- management reporting
Develop dashboards and exception reporting to identify overdue actions, missing information and areas of non-compliance.
Previous Zoho experience is desirable but not essential. Strong HRIS implementation and workflow experience using other systems is equally relevant.
Corporate Governance, Risk & Contracts
Support Group Directors in maintaining an effective corporate governance framework, including:
- organisational structures and reporting lines
- delegated authorities and approval matrices
- governance policies and registers
- management responsibilities
- corporate and functional risk registers
- actions, deadlines and escalation
- straightforward HR, governance and workplace risk assessments
Support the control of routine employment and business contracts and maintain an effective central contract register, including renewals, notice periods, key obligations and authorised signatories.
Coordinate with external legal or specialist advisers where required.
Management Information & Accountability
Provide Directors with concise, useful reporting covering areas such as:
- headcount and recruitment
- absence and turnover
- probation completion
- performance-review completion
- objectives and KPI compliance
- underperformance and employee-relations cases
- training compliance
- overdue management actions
- contract and governance actions
- corporate risks
The purpose is to identify exceptions, trends, risks and areas requiring management action rather than simply producing HR statistics.
Minimum Requirements
Please review these requirements carefully before applying.
Applicants must have:
- CIPD Level 7, MCIPD/FCIPD, or an appropriate equivalent senior HR/legal professional qualification
- Minimum 7 years' substantive HR experience
- Minimum 3 years at senior HR management, Head of HR/People, Senior HR Business Partner or equivalent level
- Strong practical knowledge of UK employment law and ACAS principles
- Significant experience personally managing complex employee-relations matters
- Experience of disciplinary, grievance, capability, restructuring and redundancy processes
- Experience drafting and reviewing employment contracts, policies and formal HR documentation
- Experience developing or operating performance-management, appraisal, objective-setting and KPI frameworks
- Strong HRIS experience, including improving workflows, reporting or controls
- Demonstrable experience implementing or improving organisational processes, controls or governance
- Experience advising and appropriately challenging senior managers or Directors
- Excellent written communication, judgement and attention to detail
A professional qualification alone is not sufficient. Candidates must be able to demonstrate substantial hands-on senior-level experience.
Desirable Experience
Experience in one or more of the following would be advantageous:
- pharmaceuticals, life sciences or another regulated industry
- manufacturing, warehousing or distribution
- employment law or contract management
- corporate governance and risk management
- Zoho People / Zoho Recruit
- HRIS implementation and workflow automation
- KPI/dashboard development
- UK GDPR and employee data governance
- multi-company or multi-site organisations
Pharmaceutical experience is desirable rather than essential.
The Person
We are looking for someone who is structured, precise, commercially minded, confident and comfortable taking ownership.
You should be capable of moving between strategic and operational matters – from advising a Director on an employment issue to challenging poor performance, reviewing a contractual risk, improving a Zoho workflow or addressing an overdue governance action.
You should naturally look for ways to make processes:
Clear. Controlled. Accountable. Measurable. Efficient.
We are particularly interested in candidates who have personally built, implemented or materially improved systems, performance frameworks and organisational controls, rather than simply administered existing processes.
What Success Looks Like
Within the first 12 months, the successful candidate should have:
- strengthened Group-wide HR governance and accountability
- reviewed employment contracts, policies and HR documentation
- established clear roles, objectives and KPIs
- implemented consistent probation and performance-review processes
- strengthened management of underperformance
- significantly improved the use of Zoho and HR automation
- established effective HR dashboards and exception reporting
- improved management accountability
- strengthened contract, corporate governance and risk controls
- provided Directors with clear visibility of people performance and organisational risk
Why Join Crescent?
This is an opportunity to take ownership of a broad and influential function within an established and growing UK pharmaceutical group. You will have the opportunity to shape how the organisation manages its people, performance, systems and governance, with significant autonomy and senior-management exposure.
We are looking for someone who can combine HR expertise, employment-law knowledge, systems thinking and governance with practical implementation and ownership.
Salary: £50,000–£70,000 per annum, dependent on experience and capability.
Job Types: Full-time, Permanent
Pay: £50,000.00-£70,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Free parking
- Life insurance
- On-site parking
Experience:
- HR experience,: 7 years (required)
- senior HR management: 3 years (required)
Licence/Certification:
- CIPD Level 7 certification (required)
Work Location: In person
