HR Business Partner - Wigston

We are a global biscuits and confectionery business seeking an HR leader to support site leadership, drive people and development, and lead cultural transformation. The role provides credible, values-led HR leadership on site and partners with site leadership to translate business goals into pragmatic HR plans aligned with wider global and regional strategies. A core focus is building mature, trust-based relationships with trade unions to support change, productivity, and workforce stability. The role requires visible leadership on the shop floor to influence behaviours and build trust, balancing commercial rigour with empathy and integrity to enable sustainable cultural change.

Responsibilities

• Own the HR agenda for the site, ensuring alignment with the site strategy and wider regional/global HR and business strategies.
• Partner with the Site Lead to develop future-facing site change plans including organisation design, workforce planning (structures, roles, responsibilities, shift patterns), and manage impacts and risks with mitigations; lead in the implementation of people changes.
• Define and manage the site’s people cost base (headcount costs, agency spend, overtime, training budgets) and own the flexible resource strategy (agency & OT spend, hours, productivity).
• Lead the site/functional talent and succession process with the Talent CoE to identify talent and opportunity development and execute talent action plans.
• Own absence management processes and manage informal performance management with line managers guidance.
• Lead and co-create (with relevant HR CoEs) the people and culture transformational agenda for the site.
• Work with senior leaders and L&D CoE to identify needs and implement leadership and skills capability solutions; plan for future skills with the CoE.
• Provide coaching and development support to site leadership and management on people-related matters; support change management initiatives.
• Be a critical thought partner to site leaders and drive improvements in employee engagement, including leading the annual engagement survey and action planning.
• Own and drive delivery of People KPI performance and action planning for improvements.
• Own the industrial relations agenda for the site, including union relationships, collective grievances, agreements, and negotiations; build positive employee relations and engage with site trade unions with the General Manager.
• Lead senior hires for the site leadership team (interviews) and ensure adherence to BAU People Cycle.
• Develop offer proposals for all site banded roles and coordinate local recognition platforms with alignment to the Reward CoE.
• Maintain relationships with other UK&I HRBPs to ensure consistency of HR practices; contribute to local CSR, Inclusion & Diversity, and Employee Value Proposition plans in line with central agendas.
• Execute Health & Wellbeing plans, support the Mental Health Ambassador network, and coordinate with Occupational Health & Wellbeing as required.
• Provide the link to other HR functions and Centres of Excellence (Reward, Talent Acquisition, L&D, Talent, Employee Relations, etc.) as required.

Qualifications / Capabilities

• HR leadership experience in a manufacturing/industrial environment with a track record of cultural transformation and change management.
• Deep knowledge of collective consultation, negotiations, and employment law; ability to build constructive, trust-based union relationships.
• Strong stakeholder influencing skills; ability to coach leaders and balance commercial outcomes with people impact.
• Visible leadership on the shop floor with resilience, credibility, and integrity.
• Experience in coaching and capability building for frontline and middle management in people leadership, performance management, and employee engagement.
• Commercial and operational acumen in manufacturing operations, productivity, safety, and cost pressures; able to design practical, value-adding HR solutions.
• Data-driven decision making with experience using people metrics and trends to inform progress against engagement goals.
• Excellent communication, collaboration, and relationship-building skills across HR, site leadership, and CoEs.

pladis is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to hiring a diverse workforce. All openings are filled based on qualifications without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, marital status, veteran status, disability, age, religion or any other classification protected by law. We operate a strict Preferred Supplier List for recruitment. If you are a recruitment agency, you must be on our PSL terms of business to submit candidates.

pladis is one of the world’s fastest growing snacking companies with brands including McVitie’s, GODIVA, and Ülker, and regional brands such as Jacob’s, Go Ahead, Flipz, Turtles, BN, Verkade. Formed in 2016, pladis has a 16,000-strong global workforce and 27 bakeries across 11 countries, with a purpose to bring happiness with every bite. For more information, visit www.pladisglobal.com.