HR Manager (Maternity Cover)

The HR Manager will oversee and lead people management across the business to ensure smooth and effective support for the organisation’s people and culture strategy. This role requires a strategic thinker who can also manage day-to-day HR operations, including recruitment, performance management, employee relations, compliance, and HR policies and practices. The ideal candidate will be a skilled HR professional with strong communication skills, able to foster a positive work environment aligned with our core values and business objectives. This is a standalone role and the successful candidate will be responsible for HR across the business.

We are looking for someone to fulfil this role on a full time, fixed term contract from early March 2025 – 2nd Jan 2026 (10 months total).

Key Skills and Experience:

• Manage the end-to-end recruitment process, including job postings, screening, interviews and onboarding.
• Act as a primary point of contact for employee queries, concerns and grievances.
• Mediate and resolve workplace conflicts and issues in a fair and timely manner.
• Foster a positive work environment that promotes employee satisfaction and productivity.
• Ability to develop, implement and maintain HR policies and procedures aligning with organisational goals and legal requirements.
• Work closely with management to ensure effective performance management systems and processes including; goal setting, improvement plans and progression pathways.
• Overall administration of pay and reward across the business including regular benchmarking and providing advice on best practice to attract and retain talent.
• Provide reporting and insights to management on key HR initiatives and performance indicators in order to identify trends, inform strategic decisions and measure the effectiveness of initiatives.
• Develop initiatives to enhance employee engagement.
• Organise employee events and activities to build a strong work culture.
• Health and safety management including risk assessment creation and review.

The ideal candidate will have:

• A strong background in HR, ideally in an SME environment.
• A CIPD qualification (level 5 or above), is preferred but not essential.
• A good knowledge of employment law, regulatory compliance and HR best practices.
• Good stakeholder management skills, both internal and external.
• An ability to build and maintain strong working relationships with employees at all levels.
• Knowledge of Sage HR or similar employee management solution.
• Ability to use analytical skills to review metrics and collate reports.
• Ability to work as a strategic partner as well as operationally.
• Ability to execute direct hiring strategies to reduce cost to the business.
• Demonstrable experience managing complex HR issues with discretion ensuring best practice is applied and confidentiality is maintained.

In return, we will provide:

• Hybrid working with offices available in York, you must work from the office 3 days per week
• A positive, collaborative working environment
• Quarterly socials
• Holidays starting at 25 days, increasing up to 30 days, 1 day for each year of service
• Vitality Health
• Life Assurance Policy
• Pension scheme (4% employer contribution)
• Modern working facilities
• Pool/ Table Tennis available in the office
• On-site parking
• Pizza Thursdays on the last Thursday of the month
• Cycle to Work Scheme

About Optix:

Optix is a successful UK SME in the ‘software as a service’ sector operating in a niche vertical market. Known for its high-quality software solutions and exceptional service this business has customers from across the UK and Republic of Ireland. It forms a key part of a wider & growing European group of software development businesses supplying similar vertical markets.

Optix is the leading provider of business management software for Opticians in the UK. Our goal is to fulfil all our customer’s technology needs and deliver great software that enables opticians to run profitable businesses and provide excellent clinical care.

This includes the management of clinical processes, sensitive patient data, and integrating with complex medical equipment: alongside delivering comprehensive marketing, stock management, business intelligence, and financial management features.

We are trusted by hundreds of Opticians across the country, from small independent practices to large multi-nationals. Our success has been built on word-of-mouth from our extremely satisfied client base: we employ no salespeople and focus solely on developing quality products that sell themselves.

Diversity Statement:

Optix Software Ltd is committed to equal opportunities in all aspects of our work. We are committed to treating all colleagues equally regardless of race, gender, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion, or belief. We are committed to equal opportunities in all aspects of our work.