HR and Recruitment Manager in Manchester

THE ROLE: As HR and Recruitment Manager at Ear to the Ground, you will play a key role in supporting the agency’s HR and talent acquisition function, hiring exceptional people and fostering a positive, inclusive employee experience. Working closely with senior stakeholders, you will provide practical first‑line HR support across the employee lifecycle, balancing day‑to‑day operations with best practice and compliance. This role is hands‑on and advisory, requiring management of core HR activity while building trusted relationships with Core Leaders and employees. You will oversee recruitment and onboarding, provide guidance on routine employee relations matters, and ensure HR processes, policies, and systems are applied consistently and fairly.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Recruitment: Own and lead the agency’s end‑to‑end talent acquisition strategy across employees and work experience placements, ensuring a consistent, inclusive and high-quality experience at every stage. Partner with Core Leads to set up a recruitment kick‑off, and ensure that agency recruitment processes are followed for each role. Strengthen the employer brand, through careers page and LinkedIn. Identify, onboard and manage relationships with external recruitment agency partners, ensuring alignment with our culture, values and hiring needs. Oversee agency performance and recruitment spend, negotiating terms and driving value for money while reducing unnecessary reliance on third‑party recruiters where possible. Oversee onboarding and induction frameworks that set people up for success, partnering with hiring managers and internal teams to ensure a smooth transition into the business.
• Early Talent pathways: Develop, implement and lead the agency approach for work experience and internships placements, and administer this programme day to day, including maintaining ongoing relationships with University and community partners.
• Employee experience: Own onboarding and offboarding processes, including actioning contract creation, system access, liaison with PC Support (outsourced IT provider), induction scheduling and offboarding administration. Support the SHRM with the design and implementation of employee experiences, including the recruitment, onboarding journey, and probation journey.
• HR Advice, Policies and Procedures: Provide guidance to employees and Core Leaders on routine HR‑related queries and elevate complex issues as necessary. Maintain up‑to‑date knowledge of UK employment law and apply it in practice. Support the creation of policies and processes alongside SHRM. Partner with, and coach, junior Core Leaders in the business to develop their management capacity, and support routine employee relations issues (absence management, informal concerns) in order to support a high‑performing culture. Assist with reporting on CPD records to maintain and develop IPA accreditation.
• Training and development: Support the mandatory training programme for the agency. Coordinate and deliver training to employees and Core Leaders as required, including Core Leader workshops. Assist SHRM in developing training strategy and business cases where required. Support with reporting on CPD records to maintain and develop IPA accreditation.
• Culture and engagement: Work with the SHRM to run and report on regular Employee Engagement Surveys, and develop and implement recommendations for action. Manage the Staff Entertainment budget. Lead the Social Committee and act as the main point of contact for planning team socials, parties and quarterly summits (e.g. sourcing venues, catering etc.), and weekly kick‑offs and huddles.
• HR Operations Lead: Play a lead role in strengthening HR operations, ensuring they are compliant, efficient, reliable and ready to support the agency. Maintain accurate and up‑to‑date employee records, ensuring compliance with relevant legislation and internal policies and ensuring data privacy and security. Produce contractual paperwork and HR‑related letters (e.g. pay and promotions). Support with recommendations for systems and technology that increase efficiency in the HR team. Lead administration for HRIS and ATS, and Right to Work compliance checks, automating processes and maximizing efficiency in these systems.
• Operations Support: Support operations projects where these intersect with HR. Collaborate with departmental heads to design and implement dedicated onboarding boards on Monday.com for new freelancers.

KEY REQUIREMENTS:

• Proven experience in providing day‑to‑day recruitment support, HR advice and guidance to managers.
• Proven experience of implementing inclusive recruitment strategies, and managing in‑house recruitment processes.
• CIPD qualification (Level 5 or above) or actively working towards this.
• Experience in supporting accreditation processes is highly desirable.
• Experience in coordinating routine training programmes.
• Demonstrable experience in project management, including planning, execution, monitoring, and reporting.
• Strong organisational and time‑management skills, with the ability to prioritise tasks and manage multiple responsibilities effectively.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build strong working relationships with stakeholders at all levels.
• Strong attention to detail and a high degree of accuracy.
• Ability to handle confidential information with discretion and maintain professional integrity.
• Proficiency in project management systems (such as Monday.com) preferred, although training on this will be provided.
• Passionate about music, sports, gaming, and entertainment.
• Proactive and self‑motivated with a strong sense of ownership.
• Solution‑oriented with a flexible and adaptable approach.
• Collaborative and a strong team player.
• Excellent problem‑solving skills.
• Commitment to continuous improvement.

THE AGENCY: Ear to the Ground is a global sport, gaming, and entertainment creative agency with a unique model that sets us apart. We are driven by Fan Intelligence, our global network of 12,000 influential tastemakers and fans. Our real‑time insight into what fans truly want enables us to create compelling work that consistently pushes the boundaries of culture. We pride ourselves on being the agency that listens better than anyone to solve our clients' challenges, maximise their sport, gaming and entertainment partnerships, and ultimately build brands that lead culture. We’ve helped clients including Nike, PlayStation, JD, NBA, Coca‑Cola and 2K turn fans into consumers by delivering culturally relevant, fan‑first campaigns that inspire emotional connection and measurable business impact.

OUR CULTURE: We are dedicated to making Ear to the Ground an amazing place to work where people grow, develop and thrive. We pride ourselves on our dynamic and exciting culture, excellent support of staff and fantastic benefits package. We have made it our mission to lead the way in being an inspiring, future‑thinking, creative agency and are invested in our people because they are the ones that will make that happen.

BENEFITS: Flexible & hybrid working, Birthday off, Workplace nursery benefit, Enhanced maternity, paternity and shared parental leave, Private medical insurance and health cash plan, Enhanced sick leave, Cycle to Work scheme, Dog friendly office, EV salary sacrifice scheme, Personal development coaching.