Head of People Services

 Location: UK (London, Oxford, Bristol) or Europe 

Working Period: Full time  

Reports to: People and Culture Director

Salary: £75,000 - £90,000

Key Objectives of the Role

Yugo is the trusted name for student housing, globally. Every day we connect young people to opportunities and students to amazing spaces. Here at Yugo, we like to do things differently. It's about people, planet, and passion.

As our senior people services leader for the UK and Europe, you’re responsible for all aspects of our people processes, lifecycle and support – ultimately you and your team will create our people experience and ensure we deliver an exceptional and expert service. You’ll work closely with our head of talent and people partnering to ensure that our internal customers get great service across the people lifecycle, and lead a team of specialists across people operations, employee relations, employee engagement, payroll, benefits and reporting.

Key Responsibilities

Strategic HR Leadership and Regional Coordination

• Serve as a member of the HR leadership team, contributing to strategic decisions and cross-functional initiatives.
• Lead or participate in cross-functional projects impacting HR, such as transformation initiatives and HR technology implementations and integrations.
• Establish HR KPIs for Europe and provide regular reports and insights to senior leadership on workforce metrics, challenges, and successes.

• Drive a consistent HR service delivery model across Europe, establishing standardized processes while respecting local adaptations.

• Ensure compliance with European labour laws and regulations, supporting local teams to address regional-specific requirements.

Payroll, Reward and Benefits

• Oversee and ensure accurate and compliant payroll processing across all European locations.
• Implement efficient payroll systems and processes, ensuring compliance with local laws and regulations.
• Collaborate with finance and accounting teams for reconciliation, reporting, and budget alignment.

• Design and execute competitive reward and benefits programs aligned with market trends and company strategy.
• Conduct regular benchmarking to ensure the competitiveness of compensation structures and benefits packages.
• Ensure regulatory compliance in benefits administration across all European regions, including pension schemes, insurance, and other benefits.

People Operations & Processes

• Oversee people operations processes, including onboarding, offboarding, internal transfers, and record-keeping.
• Identify and implement HR technologies to streamline processes and enhance the employee experience.
• Ensure all HR policies and practices are up-to-date, compliant, and standardized across regions.

Compliance & Risk Management

• Ensure HR policies, processes, and practices comply with European employment laws and regulations.
• Regularly review and audit HR operations to mitigate risks and ensure legal compliance.
• Manage relationships with external legal advisors, ensuring timely and effective handling of employment law matters.

Data & Analytics

• Analyse HR metrics to inform decision-making and provide insights into people strategies and initiatives.
• Monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) for payroll accuracy, employee satisfaction, turnover, and retention.
• Prepare and present regular reports to executive leadership on the effectiveness of HR programs and areas for improvement

Employee Relations

• Implement policies and procedures to support a fair and equitable workplace, addressing employee concerns, grievances, and disciplinary actions.
• Support people partners with robust letters, templates, notes and process guidance to allow us to deliver a compliant ER service in all European markets
• Partner with external counsel on escalated issues, ensuring Yugo is well-represented and robustly defends claims

What else?

This job description serves as a guideline, this list of responsibilities is not intended to be exhaustive and other requests commensurate with the role may be made of you from time-to-time.  This role also requires a degree of flexibility in terms of days and hours worked.  There may be occasional weekend and evening work, particularly during the busy summer months.

Key Skills & Capabilities

• Excellent communicator with
• Organised and numerate
• Interpersonal Skills: Builds strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders, values diverse perspectives, and fosters collaboration.
• Adaptability: Comfortable working in a fast-paced, multi-cultural environment across a wide geographic area.
• Technology Proficiency: Advanced experience with ATS (preferably iCIMS), HRIS systems, and Microsoft Office.
• Data-Driven: Strong analytical skills, with experience in interpreting recruitment metrics and making data-informed decisions.

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Experience and Knowledge

Essential:

1. Proven experience leading multi-site payroll, reward and data analysis within a global organisation, preferably covering both EMEA and APAC regions.
2. Demonstrated success in working with business partners in a shared services model
3. Experience across multiple jurisdictions providing HR administration support across different employment law regimes and good core ER skills
4. Strong project management skills and the ability to handle multiple priorities effectively.
5. Process and data experience implementing and streamlining HR and payroll systems across geographies
6. Proficiency in English (additional languages such as German, Spanish, Italian, Polish or French are a plus).

Desirable:

1. Experience of acquisitions and integrations of workforces
2. Strong external network of suppliers, systems and HR tech providers to select and manage best in class vendors
3. Experience of reward stewardship including core understanding of multi regime pension requirements, insurances and benefits

The Yugo team is a force for good, our mission is to harness this passion to deliver an extraordinary living experience that supports the transition to and from student life.