HR Service Centre Manager EMEA

The Manager, HR Service Center is responsible for leading and developing a team of five HR Operations Advisers to deliver high-quality, compliant, and customer-focused HR services across 23+ countries in EMEA. The role drives operational excellence across the full employee lifecycle - ensuring service levels, quality standards, and customer satisfaction targets are consistently met or exceeded. Acting as a key enabler of the HRSC's maturity and capability, the Manager builds a knowledgeable, trusted, and collaborative team.

Main Responsibilities and Accountabilities:

• People Leadership: Lead, coach, and develop a team of five HR Operations Advisers — holding regular 1:1s, identifying capability gaps, creating individual development plans, and building a high-performing, engaged team.
• Service Level Performance: Own and drive HRSC performance against defined SLAs.
• Quality Assurance: Maintain and continuously improve quality standards across transaction accuracy, customer service behaviours, and audit outcomes - embedding a culture of getting the basics right every time and continuous learning.
• Process Improvement & Infrastructure: Drive and lead HRSC process improvement initiatives across the EMEA region - identifying inefficiencies, designing better ways of working, and building the operational infrastructure of the function alongside day-to-day delivery.
• HR Compliance: Ensure all HR processes, transactions, and advice delivered by the team are compliant with relevant EMEA employment legislation and company policy maintaining up-to-date knowledge across the region.
• Stakeholder Management: Collaborate with HR Operations Specialists, Global and Regional HR Service Center leaders, HR Business Partners, COEs, Talent Acquisition, HR Technology, and Total Rewards to ensure seamless end-to-end process execution and strong cross-functional relationships.
• Project Leadership: Own and deliver HRSC improvement projects end-to-end - leading workstreams, managing timelines, coordinating with relevant stakeholders, and ensuring outputs land in the function and stick.
• Knowledge & Standards: Contribute to the development of knowledge assets, SOPs, and training materials in collaboration with HR Operations Specialists - ensuring the team operates from a consistent, high-quality knowledge base.
• Escalation Management: Act as an escalation point for complex or sensitive cases within the team's remit - resolving issues, transparently, collaboratively ensuring that future escalations are mitigated and lessons are learned..
• Reporting & Insight: Monitor and report on team and function performance - providing the Associate Director with timely, accurate data on SLAs, quality, customer satisfaction, and team development progress, and using insight to inform priorities and decisions.

Position Qualifications and Experience Requirements:

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in HR Management or related field, CIPD Level 5, or equivalent. CIPD Level 7 desirable.

Experience:

• Proven experience managing a multi-country HR Service Center supporting an EMEA region
• Demonstrable people leadership experience, including performance management and team development
• Experience owning and delivering HRSC improvement projects end-to-end
• Track record of driving performance against defined SLA and quality targets
• Working knowledge of EMEA employment law and HR compliance across multiple jurisdictions
• Hands-on experience with Workday and/or ServiceNow (or comparable platforms)
• Experience with inContact or similar contact centre telephony (desirable)

Competencies:

• People Leadership & Team Development
• Operational Excellence & Performance Management
• Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
• HR Knowledge & Compliance
• Stakeholder Collaboration & Relationship Building
• Continuous Improvement & Innovation
• Accountability & Ownership