The Talent Acquisition Manager is responsible for developing and delivering the organisation's talent acquisition strategy to attract, recruit and retain high-quality talent across the business.
The role leads the end-to-end recruitment function, ensuring vacancies are filled efficiently, compliantly and cost-effectively whilst delivering an exceptional candidate and hiring manager experience. The postholder will drive direct sourcing, talent pooling, employer branding, workforce planning and recruitment process improvement, reducing dependency on agencies and supporting organisational growth.
The Talent Acquisition Manager will use recruitment data and market intelligence to inform decision-making, improve recruitment performance and build a sustainable talent pipeline to meet current and future workforce requirements.
KEY DUTIES
- Develop and implement the recruitment strategy required to support organisational growth, improve workforce stability, reduce vacancy levels and minimise reliance on agency and overtime through proactive talent attraction and workforce planning.
- Create proactive recruitment plans to support current vacancies and future growth.
- Develop talent pipelines for key and hard-to-fill roles.
- Monitor labour market trends and recommend innovative attraction strategies.
- Lead workforce planning discussions with operational and corporate leaders.
Recruitment Delivery
- Oversee the end-to-end recruitment lifecycle across all business areas.
- Ensure recruitment targets, KPIs and service levels are achieved.
- Support the recruitment of senior, specialist and difficult-to-fill positions.
- Drive improvements in quality of hire, time to hire and candidate conversion rates.
- Ensure a consistent and professional candidate experience throughout the recruitment journey.
Employer Branding & Attraction
- Develop and enhance the organisation's employer brand.
- Maximise the use of social media, digital recruitment channels, job boards and employee referral schemes.
- Promote the organisation as an employer of choice.
- Develop attraction campaigns to support recruitment activity across different services and geographical locations.
Leadership & Team Management
- Lead, coach and develop the Talent Acquisition team.
- Set performance objectives and monitor recruitment team performance.
- Conduct regular supervision, one-to-one meetings and development reviews.
- Build a high-performing, customer-focused recruitment function.
- Promote a culture of accountability, continuous improvement and collaboration.
Stakeholder Management
- Partner with hiring managers to understand workforce needs and recruitment challenges.
- Provide expert advice on recruitment best practice, selection methods and market conditions.
- Support managers to improve interviewing and candidate assessment capability.
- Build strong partnerships with key internal and external stakeholders.
Systems & Process Improvement
- Lead the optimisation and ongoing development of the Applicant Tracking System (ATS).
- Streamline recruitment and onboarding processes.
- Ensure effective reporting and recruitment analytics are available to stakeholders.
- Identify opportunities to improve efficiency, candidate experience and recruitment outcomes.
Compliance & Governance
- Ensure all recruitment activity complies with employment legislation, safer recruitment requirements, GDPR and company policies.
- Maintain robust recruitment documentation, audit trails and selection records.
- Ensure equality, diversity and inclusion principles are embedded throughout recruitment practices.
- Monitor compliance standards and support internal and external audits.
- Manage recruitment agency relationships and preferred supplier arrangements.
- Monitor agency usage and implement strategies to reduce agency dependency.
- Manage recruitment advertising expenditure and recruitment budgets.
- Ensure cost-effective recruitment solutions are utilised wherever possible.
Key Performance Indicators
- Time to Hire
- Time to Fill
- Vacancy Fill Rate
- Agency Spend Reduction
- Candidate Satisfaction Scores
- Offer Acceptance Rate
- Compliance Audit Scores
- Employee Retention within First 12 Months
- Recruitment Cost per Hire
- The post holder will undertake such other duties as may reasonably be required commensurate with this grade, at the initial agreed place of work or at other locations in the Company catchment areas.with the ability to assess competencies and cultural alignment objectively.
- Experience in Employer Branding and talent attraction strategies, particularly within health and social care or related sectors.
- Proficiency with applicant tracking systems (ATS), job boards, and professional networking platforms.
- Solid understanding of UK employment legislation and best practices in safe recruitment for vulnerable populations.
- Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and relationship-building skills with ability to partner across multidisciplinary teams.
- Proven capability to manage multiple recruitment projects, prioritize effectively, and meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment.
- Previous experience in social care, healthcare, or not-for-profit environments is advantageous.
- Bachelor’s degree in Human Resources, Business, or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.
Person Specification
Candidates will be shortlisted and interviewed against the following criteria.
Qualifications
- CIPD Level 5 qualification, equivalent experience, or currently working towards qualification.
- Recruitment, HR, or Business-related qualification.
Experience & Knowledge
- Significant experience managing an in-house recruitment or talent acquisition function.
- Experience leading and developing recruitment teams.
- Experience of high-volume and specialist recruitment campaigns.
- Experience implementing recruitment strategies and workforce planning initiatives.
- Experience using Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and recruitment analytics.
- Experience managing recruitment budgets and agency suppliers.
- Experience within the health, social care, or regulated care sector.
Skills & Attributes
- Strong understanding of employment law and safer recruitment practices.
- Expertise in workforce planning and talent pipeline development.
- Experience in employer branding and direct sourcing strategies.
- Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret recruitment data and produce meaningful reports.
- Excellent stakeholder management skills with the ability to build strong relationships across all levels of the organisation.
- Outstanding communication, coaching, and influencing skills.
- Effective project management and change management capabilities.
- Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, regulated environment.
- Commitment to delivering an exceptional candidate and hiring manager experience.
- High levels of integrity, professionalism, and confidentiality.
- Strong ownership, accountability, and results focus.
- A proactive approach to innovation and continuous improvement.
- Resilience, adaptability, and commercial awareness.
Our Values
At Progress, our values guide everything we do. We are looking for someone who demonstrates and embodies:
Care
Demonstrates compassion, empathy, and a commitment to delivering outstanding support and service.
Trust
Builds positive and dependable relationships through openness, reliability, accountability, and consistency. Creates an environment where colleagues, young people, adults, and families feel safe, respected, and supported.
Respect
Values diversity, promotes inclusion, and treats everyone with dignity and fairness.
Progress
Embraces learning, development, innovation, and continuous improvement to achieve better outcomes.
This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced recruitment professional who is passionate about attracting exceptional talent and supporting organisational growth and workforce excellence.
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