Head of People in Blyth

Harlyn Solutions is an engineering-led transportation company specialising in moving complex and unique cargo. We have grown rapidly through innovative thinking, precise engineering, and an ability to respond quickly where others cannot. We solve complex transportation problems so our clients can focus on what matters most to them. Our work spans heavy transport, offshore logistics, renewables, and infrastructure projects across the UK and internationally.

Harlyn is seeking an experienced operational HR leader to take full ownership of the day-to-day people function as the business grows. As a company that strongly believes in and celebrates growth from within, this role will play a key part in supporting, developing, and retaining our people at every stage of their journey.

Reporting to the Director, this role is the operational backbone of how Harlyn manages, develops, and looks after its people — owning the employee lifecycle end-to-end, the HR policy framework, employee relations casework, reward and benefits administration, recruitment, and the systems and processes that keep a growing business compliant and well-run. This is not a strategic HR Director role, nor is it an administrator role. It is a hands-on operational leadership role with full ownership of how the people function runs and develops alongside the business.

What we expect from you:

• Employee Lifecycle Ownership: Own the end-to-end employee lifecycle — offers, contracts, onboarding, probation, role changes, management of an appraisal system, leavers, and exit processes — ensuring every transition is handled professionally, consistently, and compliantly.
• HR Systems & Data: Maintain accurate, compliant employee records and HR systems. Act as the single source of truth for people data across the business and use that data to drive better decisions on resourcing, retention, and performance.
• Payroll Interface: Work with the finance team to ensure people get paid — ensuring accurate inputs for starters, leavers, changes, benefits, and absence — and resolve any payroll queries efficiently and accurately.
• Benefits Administration: Administer the benefits suite (pension, healthcare, leave, car or allowance schemes) and manage provider relationships, renewals, and colleague queries day-to-day.
• HR Policy Framework: Own the HR policy framework end-to-end. Keep it current, legally compliant, and a true reflection of how Harlyn wants to operate — not generic boilerplate.
• Employee Handbook: Maintain the employee handbook and ensure colleagues understand it. Update it in line with regulatory change and as the business evolves.
• Compliance & Right to Work: Oversee right-to-work, vetting, and pre-employment checks. Ensure GDPR compliance across all people data handling and act as the internal authority on what good looks like.
• Manager Advice: Act as the first point of advice to managers on employment law, policy interpretation, and process — escalating to external counsel only where complexity or risk genuinely demands it.
• Casework Ownership: Handle employee relations casework end-to-end — grievances, disciplinaries, performance concerns, absence management, and flexible working — fairly, calmly, and in line with policy and law.
• Manager Coaching: Coach and support line managers to have difficult conversations early and well, before issues escalate. Build commercial and people-management muscle across the business.
• External Counsel Management: Know when to handle matters internally and when to involve external employment counsel — and manage that relationship effectively when needed.
• Pay & Bonus Cycles: Administer annual pay and bonus review cycles, working with the MD and Finance to ensure outcomes are fair, consistent, and clearly communicated.
• Pay Benchmarking: Maintain Harlyn’s position on pay benchmarking. Keep the business competitive in its target labour markets and bring data-led recommendations to leadership.
• People Reporting: Own headcount, absence, turnover, engagement, and other core people metrics. Provide regular, structured reporting to the MD and senior team to support decision-making.
• Operational Recruitment: Run the operational recruitment process — job descriptions, role approvals, agency and advertising management, candidate coordination, offers, and contracts — keeping it fast, fair, and consistent.
• Hiring Manager Partnership: Work closely with hiring managers to keep recruitment moving and to make sure the right people are hired the right way — protecting culture as well as capability.
• Onboarding Experience: Deliver a structured, professional onboarding experience so new starters land well, understand the business quickly, and contribute early.
• Engagement & Feedback: Own engagement surveys and the actions that follow them. Hold managers accountable for their part in the outcomes, and keep colleagues informed about what is changing as a result.
• Wellbeing & Recognition: Lead company-wide people initiatives — wellbeing, recognition, internal communications on people matters, and workplace events — in a way that reflects who Harlyn is, not corporate stock.
• Culture Stewardship: Be a visible, trusted presence across the business. Protect the culture as Harlyn grows by making sure people processes reinforce — rather than dilute — what makes the company a good place to work.
• Function Development: Build and run the HR function as Harlyn grows — adding structure, systems, and capacity as the business scales. Take what exists today and turn it into something fit for the business of tomorrow.
• Trusted Advisor: Partner with the MD and senior team as a trusted, pragmatic operational voice on people matters. Tell people what they need to hear, not what they want to hear.
• Risk & Good Practice: Keep the business properly advised on risk, obligations, and good practice — without creating bureaucracy or slowing things down.

Key tasks:

• Run the end-to-end employee lifecycle — from offer through onboarding, changes, and exit — to a consistent, professional standard.
• Own and maintain the HR policy framework, employee handbook, and compliance position across the business.
• Handle employee relations casework end-to-end — grievances, disciplinaries, performance, absence, flexible working — fairly and in line with law and policy.
• Manage the monthly payroll interface, alignment with finance, benefits administration, and relationships.
• Run the operational recruitment process and deliver a structured onboarding experience for every new starter.
• Administer annual pay and bonus review cycles, and maintain Harlyn’s pay benchmarking position.
• Coach line managers on people issues, equipping them to handle difficult conversations early and well.
• Own and report on core people metrics — headcount, absence, turnover, engagement — to the MD and senior team.
• Lead engagement, wellbeing, and recognition initiatives that protect and develop Harlyn’s culture, support the marketing team to deliver improved internal communications that support company culture.
• Build the HR function and infrastructure that the business needs as it grows.

What we offer in return:

• Competitive salary, pension, and benefits package (details on request).
• A genuine ownership role — you set the standard for how people are managed at Harlyn, and you have the autonomy to make it your own.
• A direct line to the Directors and senior leadership; you are part of how decisions get made.
• The opportunity to build and shape a function as the business grows, rather than inheriting legacy processes you cannot change.
• Diverse, complex, and technically interesting work across engineering, heavy transport, offshore, and international markets.
• A growing, ambitious business with good people, real work, and a culture worth protecting.
• This is a hands-on, collaborative role that is primarily office and site-based at our newly refurbished HQ in Blyth, working closely with leadership and operational teams.
• Flexibility is supported where practical, but visibility within the business and engagement with teams on the ground are considered important to success in the position.

Qualifications & Expertise:

• Significant HR experience at HR Manager, Senior HR Business Partner, or Head of HR level — ideally as the most senior HR person on the ground in a growing SME or similar environment.
• CIPD Level 5 or 7 qualified (or equivalent demonstrable experience).
• Strong working knowledge of UK employment law and confident handling complex employee relations cases end-to-end.
• Hands-on operator — equally comfortable chairing a disciplinary hearing, cleaning up HR data, or implementing a new HRIS.
• Calm, credible, and trusted — someone managers and colleagues come to early, rather than late.
• Organised and process-minded, with the ability to bring structure and follow-through to everything you own.
• Commercially aware — understands Harlyn is a business, not a corporate HR department, and that pragmatism and pace matter.
• Discreet and impeccable in handling sensitive information.
• Experience in engineering, construction, offshore, energy, or other project-based industries is an advantage.