Employee Services Lead
Forth Ports Group, Grangemouth
Predominantly on-site presence
Competitive salary & benefits
What if your next role gave you the opportunity to build a service rather than just manage one?
Iconic Resourcing is partnering exclusively with Forth Ports Group to appoint an Employee Services Lead, a newly created role with a practical and important brief: to bring together our HR administration and systems teams to establish a consistent, effective Employee Services function across the Group. This is a unique opportunity to stand up a new function, streamline processes, and improve employee experience.
Headquartered in Edinburgh, Forth Ports operates strategically important ports across the UK and plays a vital role in international trade, infrastructure and the growing renewable energy sector. Our workforce is geographically dispersed and operationally diverse, so the service must work for colleagues and managers in different locations, roles and working environments.
This role will have ownership over established HR systems and processes but with a clear commitment to leverage technology to improve the service offering. The opportunity is to understand how work is currently delivered, identify where systems and processes can be simplified or strengthened, and create a new service model aligned with our People Strategy and business requirements.
This is a hands-on leadership role. You will need to build trust, establish clarity and translate improvement opportunities into practical changes that make the service easier to access, more consistent and more effective for employees, managers and the wider HR team.
The Opportunity
Reporting directly to the Head of HR (Group), you will take ownership of bringing our HR administration activity together and standing up the new Employee Services function.
You will lead and develop a small team, clarify roles and accountabilities, and create a shared service approach that balances Group-wide consistency with the needs of a multi-site operational business.
Your priorities will include:
- Bringing the team together, building a clear sense of purpose, developing capability and creating a supportive, accountable service culture.
- Understanding the current service, mapping how work is delivered today, listening to employees, managers and HR colleagues, and identifying the issues that create delay, duplication or avoidable effort.
- Establishing the Employee Services model, defining the scope of the function, clarifying ownership and hand-offs, and introducing practical workflows, service standards and controls.
- Improving systems and processes, leveraging our iTrent platform and existing technology, simplifying administration and identifying opportunities for automation and self-service.
- Using insight to strengthen delivery, introducing meaningful service measures and reporting to improve quality, consistency, responsiveness and the employee and manager experience.
- Embedding the new function, working closely with HR, Payroll and operational stakeholders to ensure the service supports the People Strategy and responds to business requirements across the Group.
During the first 12–18 months, success will mean creating a cohesive team, establishing a clear and credible service model, delivering visible improvements to priority processes and putting the foundations in place for the function to continue developing.
What You’ll Bring
We are looking for someone who combines strong operational leadership with the judgement and curiosity to build a service in a complex environment.
You may come from HR Operations, Employee Services or Shared Services, or have led the introduction, consolidation, or improvement of a comparable administration or service function.
What matters is your ability to demonstrate:
- Experience of bringing people or activities together into a more coherent team or service.
- The ability to lead, develop and engage a team through changing roles, expectations and ways of working.
- A track record of assessing existing processes, identifying root causes and implementing practical, sustainable improvements.
- Experience of designing or establishing service models, workflows, standards, controls and clear accountabilities.
- Confidence using HR systems, technology and data to improve service delivery, with experience of iTrent or a comparable HR platform being advantageous.
- The ability to build relationships and influence stakeholders, understand operational requirements and turn strategic intent into workable delivery.
- A pragmatic approach to change, with the credibility to challenge constructively while bringing people with you.
Experience within a multi-site or operational environment would be advantageous, as would relevant professional qualifications and an understanding of HR administration across the employee lifecycle.
This is an opportunity to shape a new function with genuine ownership and direct access to the Head of HR (Group). You will be able to see the impact of your work in the day-to-day experience of employees, managers and HR colleagues across an established, nationally significant business.
Based in Grangemouth, the role will require a predominantly on-site presence, particularly during the initial stages, with travel to other Group locations as required and a pragmatic approach to flexibility.
If you enjoy bringing people together, improving how work gets done and building services that make a practical difference, we'd love to hear from you.
For a confidential discussion, please contact Forth Ports Group exclusive partner, Shelley Smith at Iconic Resourcing, shelley.smith@iconicresourcing.com