HR & Recruitment Manager

Cogent have an exciting opportunity for an HR & Recruitment Manager to provide a people centred approach to Human Resource activities throughout the Cogent Skills Group, embedding our culture and values and providing expert advice and services on people related matters, ensuring our employees and managers feel supported and valued.

Remuneration Package

• Salary between £40,000 - £45,000 per annum dependent on experience
• Full time permanent role
• Pension – employer contribution 6%
• Life Assurance
• 28 days holiday plus 8 bank holidays (FTE)
• Birthday off work
• Opportunity to buy-back 5 extra days annual leave (FTE)
• Optional Private Health Care package
• Hybrid working with the requirement to be in the Warrington office 1 day per week
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Bonus Scheme
• Aspire Values Award Scheme
• Annual Values Awards
• Long Service Awards
• Annual Company Events
• Gym Discount
• Access to Training & Development Opportunities

Key Accountabilities

• To lead on recruitment activity up to manager level throughout the Cogent Skills Group ensuring KPIs are met and everyone involved has a first-class recruitment experience.
• To be the internal expert on all employee relations matters, providing advice on policies and procedures, training managers on best practice and leading (where needed) on complex matters such as TUPE, consultation and on absence cases.
• To be responsible for the annual training budget and company plans, ensuring that requests are collated, assessed against budget and that all approved training plans are completed.
• To work with the People and Culture Director on the Talent Register, providing information on progress in line with annual performance reviews and agreed plans.
• To lead on people related training modules to ensure that managers are upskilled on Cogent Skills policies and processes and that employees going through the process are treated fairly and in line with our policies.
• To be the company Safeguarding Lead, supporting the Finance and Business Functions Director on reporting activity to the Cogent Skills Group Board and leading a crossbusiness working group to ensure best practice and continuous improvement.
• To lead the annual performance review process, reviewing documents, communicating process to employees and ensuring a timely return of all documentation, following up on any concerns and supporting line managers and employees.
• To work closely with the Apprenticeship and Graduate business unit, ensuring that our apprentices and graduates are sufficiently supported on employee relation matters and supporting our Skills Account Managers by providing technical advice and information.
• Responsibility for the SharePoint site, ensuring that all policies, processes and information remains in-date and advising managers when updates are required. Overall responsibility for the people related policies and processes, reviewing them in line with employment law and best practice and effectively communicating these to employees.
• To work with the People and Culture Director on annual benchmarking and analysis.
• To work with the People and Culture Director and the HR and Payroll Manager on the Employee Value Proposition (EVP), to enable our retention rates to remain above 85% and to continue to attract the best talent as our business grows.
• Leading on the development of on-boarding and induction improvement with the HR & Payroll Manager.
• To work with the HR & Payroll Manager on the practical application of new benefits.
• To lead on employee engagement, ensuring that we have a robust approach to collating data and analysing the results with the People and Culture Director.
• To continually review and develop all people related documentation, offering improvement in line with our company values.
• To be an active part of the Cogent Skills Group Management team, championing collaboration and cross-departmental working.
• To support with work on migrating all information over to the SAGE HR system with the HR & Payroll Manager.
• To support the People and Culture Director on HR reporting once a quarter.
• Joint responsibility alongside the HR and Payroll Manager to manage our biennial Investors in People Accreditation along with other accreditations and awards.

Key Performance Indicators

• Targets identified through the people plan are maintained or improved.
• Employee engagement remains above 90% and this is evident through the annual survey.
• 100% compliance on annual performance reviews from the Cogent Skills Group.
• Recruitment activities are completed within the agreed timeframes and to budget.
• Employee relations activity is completed well, and that risk is mitigated.

Essential Knowledge Skills and Qualifications

• Level 5 or 7 CIPD qualified.
• Level 3 (Grade C GCSE) Maths and English.
• Up-to-date and comprehensive knowledge of employment and HR matters and a proactive approach to continual learning.
• Significant experience of managing complex employee relations matters including consultation, disciplinary, absence management and TUPE.
• Experience of working within an SME environment and working across all areas of HR.
• A confident and proactive approach towards recruitment, with considerable experience of leading on values-based recruitment.
• A consultative approach to working with colleagues, providing advice and support in a coaching style.
• The ability to coach and train colleagues in a training environment.
• Good working knowledge of Microsoft products with the ability to use the new HR System along with encouraging others to use the system well.

Cogent is an inclusive employer and we value the diversity our workforce brings. We welcome applications from all candidates and will consider all applications equally and fairly. Cogent is committed to Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all employees to share this commitment. Enhanced DBS (to be arranged for suitable candidates).

Advert Closing Date: 12th February 2025

If you haven’t heard back from us within 21 days of your application, it means that unfortunately your application has been unsuccessful on this occasion.