People & HR Director in Cheshire, Warrington

Job Title

People & HR Director (Part-Time, 15-20 hours per week)

Location

UK Remote / Hybrid (based in Reading office 2-4 days per month)

Reports To

• Co-Founders
• About Leisure Labs

The Leisure Labs Group is the trusted technology partner for the world’s leading fitness and wellness brands. The Group comprises two complementary businesses:

Leisure

Labs

a digital transformation and software development agency offering digital strategy consulting, software design and development, and technology implementation for enterprise clients.

Connect by Leisure

Labs

a Software-as-a-Service platform providing a library of pre-built digital products that integrate seamlessly into the existing ecosystems of fitness and wellness operators.

Together, the Group delivers innovative, scalable and data-driven solutions that help fitness brands modernise their digital experiences, improve customer engagement and grow their businesses.

Role Overview

The HR Director will play a pivotal role in helping Leisure Labs evolve its people strategy and practices as the Group continues to grow.

Reporting directly to the founders, this is a senior but deliberately hands-on role, combining strategic HR leadership with practical implementation.

Leisure Labs already has strong foundations: an engaged team, regular feedback cycles and a consistently strong employee NPS, an established company-wide OKR framework, and established EOR arrangements for international employees.

Our aim is to build on what already works, introducing greater maturity and consistency while protecting the entrepreneurial, accessible culture that has helped make Leisure Labs a great place to work.

The HR Director will work in partnership with the founders and the wider leadership team on people strategy, organisational design and culture.

This role brings specialist expertise, external perspective and constructive challenge, while personally helping to turn agreed priorities into effective processes and practices.

Key Responsibilities

• People Strategy & Organisational Development
• Work alongside the founders and leadership team to develop and continually evolve a people strategy aligned with the Group’s objectives, culture and growth plans.
• Bring HR and organisational development expertise to discussions around organisational design, workforce planning, capability and future talent requirements.
• Help anticipate the people implications of growth and introduce appropriate structure at the right time, without unnecessary bureaucracy.
• Use people data, employee feedback and external insight to inform priorities and support better organisational decision-making.
• Performance, Development & Career Progression
• Build on the existing company-wide OKR framework to strengthen the connection between company objectives, individual contribution, performance and development.
• Design and implement a practical, high-quality individual performance review process that supports regular, meaningful conversations rather than becoming an administrative exercise.
• Introduce an appropriate approach to personal development planning, helping employees and managers identify development priorities and take ownership of progress.
• Develop clearer career pathways and progression frameworks so employees understand what growth can look like within Leisure Labs and what is expected at different levels.
• Help managers recognise and retain high performers while addressing underperformance fairly, consistently and constructively.
• Employee Experience & Engagement
• Build on already strong employee engagement and employee NPS, helping Leisure Labs remain a genuinely great place to work as the organisation grows.
• Review the employee journey and identify opportunities to improve key moments including joining, onboarding, development, progression, recognition and exit.
• Further develop the onboarding experience so new employees quickly understand the business, culture, their role and how they can succeed.
• Use employee NPS, feedback and other people data to identify opportunities for continuous improvement.
• Help preserve the accessibility, flexibility and entrepreneurial culture of a smaller organisation while introducing the structure required to scale.
• HR Processes, Governance & International Oversight
• Review existing HR policies, processes and practices and ensure they remain appropriate for the scale and complexity of the business.
• Maintain oversight of UK employment practice and provide senior guidance to the founders and leadership team on employee relations and more complex people matters.
• Oversee established international employment and EOR arrangements from a people perspective, working with existing providers rather than managing those services operationally.
• Ensure appropriate harmonisation of the employee experience, policies and benefits across UK and international teams while recognising local requirements and differences.
• Identify when specialist employment, legal or local-market advice is required and ensure the right external support is engaged.
• Reward & Benefits
• Review compensation, benefits and reward arrangements to ensure they remain competitive, equitable and commercially sustainable.
• Develop a clear and consistent approach to salary reviews, promotions and reward decisions, supported by appropriate market benchmarking.
• Review and oversee the employee benefits proposition and relevant provider relationships, identifying opportunities to improve value for employees and the business.
• Consider how reward and recognition can reinforce high performance, retention and the wider Leisure Labs culture.
• Leadership & Management Capability
• Act as a trusted adviser and constructive challenger to the founders and leadership team.
• Coach managers on people leadership, performance, development and difficult conversations.
• Help establish clear expectations of managers and strengthen management capability across the organisation.
• Provide practical tools and frameworks that enable managers to lead their teams effectively and make good people management a core management responsibility.
• Technology, Data & AI
• Help build a modern, technology-enabled people function that reflects Leisure Labs’ position as a technology-led business.
• Identify practical opportunities to use AI and automation to improve HR processes, employee self-service, onboarding, performance and development, people analytics and management support.
• Use technology and data to reduce unnecessary administration, improve decision-making and create a better employee and manager experience.
• Bring curiosity about emerging HR technology and proactively identify tools and approaches that could benefit the business, while applying appropriate judgement, governance, confidentiality and human oversight.

Skills & Experience

• Significant senior HR experience, ideally within a growing SME, technology, professional services or similarly fast-moving organisation.
• Experience working closely with founders, owners or entrepreneurial leadership teams.
• A track record of helping successful organisations scale and professionalise their people practices without losing the culture that made them successful.
• Strong experience designing and implementing individual performance management, personal development and career progression frameworks.
• Strong knowledge of UK employment practice and experience working with international or distributed teams.
• Experience reviewing compensation, benefits and reward structures.
• Strong commercial judgement and the ability to balance employee experience with the needs of the business.
• Confidence to challenge senior leaders constructively, combined with the judgement to work collaboratively on founder-led organisational decisions.
• A pragmatic approach that favours simple, effective solutions over unnecessary process and bureaucracy.
• Strong digital capability and genuine enthusiasm for using technology, data, automation and AI to improve the way HR operates.
• Comfortable operating at both strategic and practical levels, with the willingness to personally design and implement initiatives rather than simply recommend them.
• Experience working successfully in a part-time or fractional senior HR role would be advantageous, but is not essential.
• Working Pattern
• Part-Time: 15-20 hours per week (flexible on scheduling).
• Hybrid or remote working arrangements available, depending on business needs. 2-4 days per month in-person working at our Reading office will be expected to maintain interaction with our founders and senior leadership team.
• Salary dependent on experience and agreed working pattern.