HR Manager, Business Services – Leeds or Manchester - Manchester, England, United Kingdom

We are looking to recruit an experienced HR professional to partner with our Business Services leaders and managers to deliver a modern, effective people service. The role focuses on the coaching, upskilling and enablement of managers on routine people matters within the business services teams, while providing expert oversight for higher-risk or complex cases to protect consistency, compliance, and drive more value-add activities to improve employee experience and high-performance culture across the teams.

Our HR Team is spread across our London, Manchester, Leeds, Edinburgh, Ireland, Warsaw, Amsterdam and Dubai offices. The team is made up of various smaller teams including Learning and Development, Resourcing, Early Careers, HR Operations, HR Business Partnering and the CSR and Diversity team. This role is within the HR Business Partnering team. You can expect to work cohesively with the wider HR Team and key stakeholders across the firm providing guidance, support and coaching. AG pride themselves on continual improvement and innovation and therefore you will be pivotal to drive forward fresh initiatives, annual processes and projects. You can expect a varied, fast paced and diverse role within a collegiate, dynamic and friendly team. AG have a modern approach to work and offer excellent opportunities for learning, training and career development.

As an HR Manager, you will act as a trusted advisor to leaders and managers, delivering pragmatic, commercially focused HR support aligned to our AG2030 strategy and organisational values. This is a broad and impactful role, covering the full employee lifecycle while driving improvements in HR practices, capability, and experience across the business.

Key areas of responsibility include:

• HR Business Partnering: Partner with leaders and managers to provide clear, practical HR advice that supports business objectives and reinforces organisational values.
• Working with the relevant Management team(s) to ensure we have appropriate resourcing plans in place. Ensuring high standards of recruitment practice by coaching those new to interviewing and ensuring appropriate feedback is provided.
• Ensure new joiners have a smooth on-boarding experience.
• Strong understanding for the key reasons people are leaving the firm. Reporting back to the relevant managers as and when appropriate, as well as taking active measures to try and prevent/stem future leavers.
• Responsible for leading the strategic talent agenda across the business areas. Ensuring engagement and commitment from relevant management teams to ensure that all people processes are fair and consistent with the firm's values, raising awareness of key initiatives.
• Lead the annual salary review process for all employees and Partners. Working closely with the relevant management team and key Line Managers to ensure strategic decisions are made to ensure Partners and staff are appropriately motivated and rewarded, as well as considering the key retention areas.

Employee Relations Transformation and HR Support: A key focus of this role is to drive the transformation of employee relations (ER) practices and HR support across Business Services. This includes working closely with the Senior ER Manager, other Business services HR Managers and Head of HR, to design and implement the changes to HR services across the business. It will focus on upskilling, coaching, and enabling managers to confidently and effectively manage people matters, while ensuring a consistent, fair, and high-quality employee experience across:

• Performance, capability and probation: Enable early action on low performance and probation (clear expectations, feedback, improvement plans, checkpoints) and provide hands-on support for complex or higher-risk outcomes.
• Probation management: Strengthen end-to-end probation processes by establishing clear expectations with managers, embedding regular review checkpoints, and supporting appropriate outcomes (including extensions or role suitability decisions) with robust documentation and fair, consistent decision-making.
• Wellbeing and attendance: Partner with managers to handle wellbeing cases sensitively, balancing compassion with operational needs. Provide guidance on reasonable adjustments, referral routes (e.g., Occupational Health/EAP where applicable), and attendance improvement planning.
• Family leave (maternity/parental): Support managers and employees across maternity, adoption, shared parental and other family leave processes; ensure compliance, smooth handovers, and a positive return-to-work experience.
• ER caseload: Build manager capability for low-level ER and core people processes through coaching, toolkits/templates, and practical training. Where cases are more complex, coaching managers on approach and escalation, and lead/support sensitive, high risk formal cases (conduct, grievance, disciplinary) with timely, consistent documentation.
• Exit management and insights: Improve leaver experience and insight by identifying themes and translating findings into actionable recommendations for leaders.
• Policy and governance: Ensure managers understand and follow HR policies and procedures; contribute to policy reviews and updates where needed, ensuring practicality for Business Services environments.
• Wider HR collaboration: Work effectively with HR Operations/Shared Services, Payroll, Resourcing, Learning & Development, Occupational Health, legal advisors, and other partners to deliver joined-up service.

Process improvement and transformation: Identify friction points in current HR support and work with the HR Admin Manager to implement improvements (e.g., clearer routes for advice, standardised case handling, self-serve resources), reducing dependency on HR for routine queries while improving quality and consistency.

Line management: The Manager will also have line management responsibility for HR graduate or HR Advisor aligned to the business areas you are working closely with.

AREAS OF KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERTISE

• Proven HR generalist/HRBP experience, ideally supporting operational, professional services, or corporate “Business Services” or “Business Support” teams.
• Demonstrable experience of transforming an HR service model and/or manager capability (e.g., reducing hand-holding, enabling self-sufficiency, implementing toolkits and training).
• Strong working knowledge of UK employment law and practical ER case management (informal and formal processes).
• Track record of coaching managers through performance, capability, and probation issues with a pragmatic, fair approach.
• Experience supporting complex life cycle events, wellbeing, attendance management, and reasonable adjustments in partnership with relevant specialists.
• Ability to analyse people data and translate it into clear, actionable insights for leaders.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; able to influence at all levels and handle sensitive conversations with discretion.
• Comfortable working in ambiguity; able to prioritise and make sound decisions balancing risk, pace, and experience.
• Coaching-led mindset, focused on enabling and empowering others rather than taking ownership away from managers.
• Strong commercial awareness, with a practical, solutions-oriented approach to problem-solving.
• High levels of integrity and sound judgement, with a strong commitment to confidentiality and ethical practice.
• Continuous improvement mindset, actively seeking opportunities to test, learn, and refine approaches to enhance HR service delivery and impact.

Our story of international growth is built on a performance mindset, innovation and true collaboration. We believe results follow relationships, so we work closely with each other, and develop deep client connections to deliver. Our award-winning culture balances high standards and hard work with genuine care – looking out for each other, supporting professional development, in a down to earth and inclusive environment. We do the right things in the right ways, combining commercial excellence and innovative thinking with teamwork. Together, we deliver excellence, achieve stand out solutions, and enable career-defining opportunities.