Performance & Talent Manager

We're BDO, an accountancy and business advisory firm, providing the advice and solutions entrepreneurial organisations need to navigate today's changing world. We work with ambitious, entrepreneurially-spirited and high growth businesses that fuel the economy and directly advise the owners and management teams that lead them.

Our people are central to everything we do, and the internal HR Performance team helps drive a high-performance and continuous feedback culture to support this. We lead the firmwide performance and talent cycles, using practical expertise and data insights to continually improve how we develop, recognise and retain our people. You'll be part of a collaborative team combining strategic thinking aligned to the firm's priorities with end-to-end delivery and help influence BDO's strategic people culture.

As the Performance Manager, you'll play a key role in shaping and delivering firmwide HR performance strategy and talent management initiatives. Reporting to the Performance Senior Manager, you'll partner closely with HR colleagues and business stakeholders to deliver robust performance evaluation, objective-setting, feedback and talent development cycles, and continuously evolve our approach using data and technology. This role is a 12-month fixed term contract until August 2027.

In this role, you'll:

• Project manage the end-to-end delivery of firmwide performance cycles, including interim review, year-end evaluation (ratings, moderation, sign-off) and objective setting, for populations up to and including Director.
• Partner with HR, Employee Relations and operational teams such as Workday, Data and Analytics to ensure high-quality delivery of cyclical activities.
• Design and deliver clear, concise communications and guidance, tailored for different audiences such as staff, People Managers and HR.
• Contribute to the design and delivery of performance strategy aligned to business priorities, including process improvements, data-driven insights and AI-enabled enhancements.
• Champion a culture of quality performance conversations and continuous feedback across the firm, helping to simplify and embed processes.
• Support talent identification and promotion processes for populations up to Director level, so key talent is identified, retained and developed internally.
• Ensure performance and talent processes align with inclusion & belonging and reward strategies.
• Analyse performance rating and promotion trends and outcomes, producing insights and data reporting for Executive Board sign-off.
• Ensure all processes meet internal quality, risk and control requirements.
• Bring performance strategy market insights and practical experience to enhance firmwide practices.

You'll be someone with:

• Experience delivering HR, performance and/or talent management processes, ideally within professional services.
• Excellent project management skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities, and strong attention to detail.
• Strong collaboration and stakeholder management skills, influencing and supporting change.
• Experience building trusted relationships and providing performance strategy advice to stakeholders at different grades and teams.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with a focus on clarity and impact.
• Strong analytical skills, comfortable with managing and analysing large data sets in Excel.
• Experience working within quality and risk frameworks.
• Experience using Workday, including feedback and calibration.

Mutual support and respect is one of BDO's core values, and we're proud of our distinctive, people-centred culture. From informal success conversations to formal mentoring and coaching, we'll support you at every stage in your career, whatever your personal and professional needs. Our agile working framework helps us stay connected, bringing teams together where and when it counts so they can share ideas and help one another.

At BDO, you'll always have access to the people and resources you need to do your best work. We know that collaboration is the key to creating value and satisfying experiences at work, so we've invested in state-of-the-art collaboration spaces in our offices. BDO's people represent a wealth of knowledge and expertise, and we'll encourage you to build your network, work alongside others, and share your skills and experiences. With a range of multidisciplinary events and dedicated resources, you'll never stop learning at BDO.

At BDO, we help entrepreneurial businesses to succeed, fuelling the UK economy. Our success is powered by our people, which is why we're always finding new ways to invest in you. Across the UK, thousands of unique minds continue to come together to help companies we work with to achieve their ambitions. We've got a clear purpose, and we're confident in our future, because we're adapting and evolving to build on our strengths, ensuring we continue to find the right combination of global reach, integrity and expertise. We shape the future together with openness and clarity, because we believe in empowering people to think creatively about how we can do things better.