People Operations Manager

Role: People Operations Manager

Location: Bournemouth

Reference: HOB1181463

Closing Date: 19/03/2026

Creativity is Hobbycraft’s reason for being, so when you join our fantastic team, you will be surrounded by like-minded imaginative people. We believe that working together and embracing new and innovative ideas are the best way to make our colleagues feel part of something. 

People Operations Manager  - Hobbycraft Head Office, BH23 6HG

Salary- up to £50,000 per year dependent on experience

- Pension with a 4% contribution,

- 33 days holiday increasing every year,

- 40% discount in our stores

This is a full-time role, working 37.5 hours. Our core business hours are Monday to Friday – 10am to 3pm with a flexible approach to start and finish times

Our hybrid working model is 3 days in the office, 2 days working from home

Key Accountabilities / Responsibilities

People & Team Leadership

•    Lead, develop and coach a multi site team, driving high performance, engagement and alignment with organisational values.

•    Collaborate with the wider People team to deliver key initiatives and ensure alignment with best practice and employment law.

•    Improve organisational capability by upskilling managers and colleagues in People processes, reducing avoidable demand and errors.

•    Build and maintain strong working relationships with Payroll, IT, benefits providers and HR system vendors (e.g., iTrent).

Processes & Service Delivery

•     Design and evolve our service proposition, ensuring accurate, timely and customer focussed support is delivered in line with SLAs.

•     Own end to end HR administration processes, including contracts, onboarding, offboarding and employee data changes.

•      Drive process improvement, automation and simplification, including digitisation of employee files.

•      Support effective recruitment and selection processes, including question banks, PSL management and end to end workflow design.

Data, Reporting & Insight

•       Use data, MI and root cause analysis to identify service issues, enhance performance and support evidence based decision making.

•       Produce and present workforce data and insight packs that support People priorities, business decision making, and reporting requirements.

•       Own People Operations communications and intranet content, ensuring information is accurate, accessible and promotes self service.

Systems, Tools & Technology

•        Ensure the integrity, compliance and usability of people systems, influencing system roadmaps and upgrades to meet evolving business needs.

•        Actively listen to the business to understand how systems and tools are performing and identify areas for enhancement.

Governance, Risk & Compliance

•        Ensure all People Operations processes comply with employment legislation, GDPR, audit requirements and segregation of duties.

•        Ensure policies, handbooks and contractual documentation are regularly reviewed and aligned with legislation, best practice and organisational culture.

Required Skills & Experience

•         Proven experience of leading, developing and motivating successful teams.

•         Able to build strong relationships and influence across a wide stakeholder group to ensure delivery of business outcomes.

•         Calm under pressure, able to quickly understand and prioritise demand.

•         Curious and solutions focussed with a strong focus on customer experience.

•         A drive for continuous improvement and simplifying processes, ways of working and systems.

•        Excellent written communication skills, with proven experience in drafting documents/tools and materials.

•        Strong planning and organisational skills with good attention to detail.

Essential Technical / Professional Qualifications

•         Experience of managing and delivering complex projects.

•         A track record of delivering HR systems projects.

•         Good knowledge of how different HRIS work, ideally including iTrent and Networx.

Other Requirements

You will need to be able to travel to our distribution centre in Burton on Trent on a regular basis to support team members based there, and less frequently travel to our stores and other sites.

Benefits

• 33 days holiday including bank holidays pro rata, which grows with you during your time with us. You also get a day off to celebrate your birthday
• Access to a personal pension scheme (4% contribution matched by us)
• Option to join Hobbycraft pension scheme offering x2 life insurance
• 40% colleague discount
• Employee Assistance Programme, for overall wellbeing for you and your family including financial advice and up to 6 counselling sessions
• Long service awards to thank you for your time spent with us
• Cycle2Work scheme
• Discounted gym membership
• Fundraising events for our charity partners and an annual charity volunteer day
• Vouchers for free eye tests for VDU users
• Access to a range of high street discounts
• Access to a Health Cash Plan
• Enhanced maternity/paternity/adoption pay

We are completely committed to supporting anyone with a disability in applying for our vacancies.  If you have a disability and require support throughout our recruitment process, you can contact us at recruitment@hobbycraft.co.uk and let us know what adjustments you may need.

At Hobbycraft we celebrate the joy of crafting, and we celebrate all of our colleagues and customers.  As a retailer we have a diverse Colleague base from a broad range of all communities. Our colleagues are recruited for their skill, passion, love of craft and customer service, which is also reflected in our customer base. It is this skill and love of crafting which defines them. Hobbycraft, is an equal opportunity employer who takes equality, diversity, inclusion and belonging very seriously, we regularly review our policies and practices to ensure not only compliance, but also best practise from an employment perspective.

Hobbycraft are proud to be an equal opportunities employer, and we are committed to equal and fair treatment for all colleagues or potential colleagues irrespective of race, sexual orientation, nationality, ethnic origins, religion or belief, disability, age, gender, marital or family status.