People Manager - Dave\'s Hot Chicken in Slough

Reporting To: Operations Lead (dotted line to Fractional HR Consultant, Azzurri Group)

Location: 3 days in Azzurri Group HO or DHC restaurant with occasional travel to restaurants when required

Dave’s Hot Chicken started as a late-night parking lot pop-up—three friends, $900 and a portable fryer slinging hot chicken in East Hollywood. Fast forward and it’s a global sensation with a cult following—including icons like Drake and Usher. Known for its mind-blowing flavour and addictive heat, Dave’s is bringing the vibe to the UK—and they’re looking for bold, hype-driven people to join the team.

Overview of the Role

We are a high-growth premium quick-service restaurant brand entering an exciting phase of rapid expansion. We have 8 restaurants nationally with plans for a further 6 more in the next 6 months plus European expansion…and we’re just getting started.

We’re looking for a proactive People Manager to join our team. Working in a stand-alone capacity, this role is instrumental in supporting our growth, ensuring our people operations are efficient, compliant, and aligned with our culture. You will be the architect of our people operations, ensuring we scale with integrity, speed and culture intact. You will be a trusted advisor to the MD and Operations Lead, comfortable challenging senior stakeholders and driving a high performance culture across all locations. You’ll be operating at manager/business partner level or a Senior HR Advisor looking for that next step.

Key Responsibilities:

• Strategic Partnership
  • Act as a strategic partner to senior stakeholders, influencing business decisions through a commercial people lens.
  • Identify organisational gaps and proactively design people initiatives that support rapid scaling.
• Employee Relations
  • Lead on complex ER matters, providing coaching and support to line managers to resolve issues commercial and legally.
  • Gather trends on employee relations matters, propose and implement any solutions to prevent further issues e.g. training, communication.
  • Assist in the development, review and communication of HR policies and procedures, ensuring they remain compliant with current employment law and best practice.
  • Stay up to date with changes to employment law, ensuring our policies procedures and usual practice remain compliant.
  • Work with the wider People Team across the brands to share best practice and develop group wide changes and initiatives.
• People Operations & Administration
  • Support the store teams with onboarding and offboarding processes to ensure a smooth employee experience.
  • Maintain and update employee records in our HRIS (Nory) and ensure compliance with GDPR and employment legislation.
  • Act as the system owner for our People system, ensuring data integrity and identifying opportunities for improvement or automation.
  • Support the development and implementation of scalable HR processes in line with business growth.
• Recruitment, Talent & Development
  • Work as part of high paced operations team with the Operations Lead, Operations Trainers and New Restaurants Opening to recruit, train, motivate and retain best in class restaurant teams.
  • Lead on relevant Head Office recruitment activity from start to finish.
  • Support the delivery of a consistent and engaging candidate experience across all touchpoints.
  • Manage all our recruitment platforms to further enhance our employer brand to attract top talent.
  • Work with the Operations Lead and Group People Team to ensure all mandatory compliance training is completed in a timely manner on our LMS.
• People Analytics & Insight
  • Use relevant metrics and data to develop insight and support and influence the People strategy and initiatives, and to influence management behaviour across the business.
  • Ensure all department trackers and reporting mechanisms are up to date.
• Reward
  • Work with the MD and Operations Lead to guide and advise on all remuneration queries.
  • Support on annual salary review process such as pay review and bonus payments, as well as changes to National Minimum wage.
• Culture & Communication
  • Take ownership of internal communications, ensuring employees are informed, engaged, and aligned with our vision and values.
  • Act as a culture champion across the business, supporting the development of an inclusive, values-led environment as we scale.
  • Assist in the design and delivery of initiatives that promote engagement, wellbeing and employee retention across the business.

Person Specification:

• Proven experience in a generalist HR or People Manager role ideally with multi-site experience in hospitality or retail.
• Strong understanding of UK employment law and employee relations casework.
• Has the ability to balance a commercial approach with best practice.
• The ability to pivot from high level-strategic planning to on-the ground operations support.
• Experience managing HR administration, payroll input, and benefit processes.
• Confident managing competing priorities in a fast-paced environment.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to influence and build trust at all levels.
• Proactive and solutions-focused with excellent organisational skills.
• A start-finisher who can work autonomously and thrives in an environment with ambiguity.
• High level of attention to detail and comfortable handling a wide range of data.