Director of People Operations

Ideas | People | Trust

We’re BDO. An accountancy and business advisory firm, providing the advice and solutions entrepreneurial organisations need to navigate today’s changing world.

We work with the companies that are Britain’s economic engine – ambitious, entrepreneurially-spirited and high‑growth businesses that fuel the economy - and directly advise the owners and management teams that lead them.

We’ll broaden your horizons

Our greatest asset is our people, so our HR team focus on ensuring we are all reaching our potential. They use their specialist expertise to help us attract great talent, enable our employees to succeed and inspire a unified culture of development across our firm. By playing a role in the recruitment and management of our people, they help change lives and influence the future of BDO. Join a driven and passionate team where you can be yourself, while also helping your colleagues to achieve their ambitions.

We’ll help you succeed

Leading organisations trust us because of the quality of our advice. That quality grows from a thorough understanding of their business, and that understanding comes from working closely with them and building long-lasting relationships.

You’ll be someone who is both comfortable working proactively and managing your own tasks, as well as confident collaborating with others and communicating regularly with senior managers, directors, and BDO’s partners to help businesses effectively. You’ll be encouraged to identify and draw attention to opportunities for enhancing our delivery and providing additional services to organisations we work with.

This role will report to the Head of People and will sit on our HR Leadership team (HRLT). The Director of People Operations will lead our HR Services, Workday, and Quality teams. With a focus on operational excellence and quality, this role will also collaborate closely with all HR teams, and the business where required to review current practices, understand the client (whether internal or external to the People team) journey, and enhance/evolve the experience and underlying operations, for both our (internal) clients and HR team members. This will also require working with other support functions (PMD’s), such as Finance, IT, and Marketing, to ensure a seamless client experience across the board. Considering and if appropriate agreeing relevant business cases for advancements in technology and data to improve our approach will be crucial.

This role will provide strategic leadership; a future-focused and proactive can-do approach. We are looking for an energising, engaging, and inspirational leader who will drive change, challenge the status quo, support and empower our HR teams to enable growth and sets them up for success.

In this role you’ll:

Support the Head of People and PCP (People Culture and Purpose Executive) in delivering upon our People Proposition.

This requires developing, evolving and making tangible improvements across HR operations ensuring everything we do to support our firm, and our people is easily accessible, timely and clear.

Managing risk and ensuring Operational Excellence and a fantastic client experience is key to this role.

Collaborate and engage with the business to understand how and where people processes can evolve/change to become even more effective and efficient and prioritise delivery of those.

Ensuring the firm strategies and priorities are translated into HR key areas of focus. Supporting the firm to deliver its’ strategic ambitions.

Build and lead a high-performing team that are engaged, feel listened to and motivated to bring their best selves to work.

Prioritise areas for spend within the People budget, ensuring monies are allocated in line with firmwide and people priorities.

Provide expert advice/thought leadership with external insights and developments to add value across the business.

This role will work closely with other PMD’s to not only look at HR, but the overall client service delivered by the PMD’s. Where enhancements are identified implementing those in HR and working with colleagues in other PMD’s to deliver change for the benefit of our colleagues and clients.

HR Services

The role will be instrumental in shaping and delivering efficient, effective and customer-orientated HR operations and services.

Strategically evolve our HR Services function, identifying process improvements and integrating technology solutions to improve our offering.

Supporting the team to meet the agreed SLA’s and that all risk and compliance is managed effectively.

Be accountable for data integrity and reporting in the HR systems.

Quality

Ensuring policy and process are followed accurately on time every time.

Oversee HR internal and external audit requirements, ensuring compliance with industry and regulatory standards.

Champion the application of quality principles in HR, governance, quality & risk, project management.

Support HR Subject Matter Experts where improvements in processes and controls are required and ensure any remedial action can be proactively managed with clear deliverables and timelines agreed.

Workday

Develop and implement scalable, flexible solutions that are extensible to future business needs.

Architect solutions including configuration, security, testing and implementation of new features and functionalities, managing cross-functional impact.

Work directly with HR and stakeholders to understand requirements, identify gaps and risks, suggest alternatives, advise on best practices and lead projects and change, through to delivery.

Continuously research new capability areas within Workday, work with functional SMEs to review against current opportunities and how they can be remediated.

Technology and innovation

To collaborate with IT and other SMEs to ensure that we are utilising systems and technology to enable our people and processes to operate as efficiently and meeting all compliance needs.

Be bold: what and how can we do things differently that sets our people and our firm up for success.

Communication

To be able to lead, engage and share key messages and changes across the HR function.

This role will be required to communicate and develop key relationships across the firm and with senior stakeholders, ensuring we are listening and continually evolving how we best support our people.

Able and confident in challenging the status quo and influencing positive and impactful change.

You’ll be someone with:

Extensive leadership experience in implementing operational efficiency strategies, strategic people initiatives, and organisational change. A minimum of 5-10 years in senior leadership roles.

Proven ability to develop and embed operational effectiveness and a focus on quality to meet strategic objectives.

Experience in leading operational teams in a regulated environment, with a clear understanding of Workday, technology processes, data, risk and quality.

Exceptional leadership and team management skills, with the ability to motivate and inspire others. Experience in leading a team of 10-15 or more people is essential.

Ability to influence and collaborate effectively with stakeholders at all levels.

Experience managing a large budget, identifying the best areas for spend, and ensuring efficiency and cost savings.

Clear and concise project management skills.

A relevant Masters, ILM, or CIPD qualification in a related field (e.g. leadership, organisational development, psychology) is preferred.

You’ll be able to be yourself; we’ll recognise and value you for who you are and celebrate and reward your contributions to the business. We’re committed to agile working, and we offer every colleague the opportunity to work in ways that suit you, your teams, and the task at hand.

At BDO, we’ll help you achieve your personal goals and career ambitions, and we have programmes, resources, and frameworks that provide clarity and structure around career development.

We’re in it together

Mutual support and respect is one of BDO’s core values and we’re proud of our distinctive, people-centred culture. From informal success conversations to formal mentoring and coaching, we’ll support you at every stage in your career, whatever your personal and professional needs.

Our agile working framework helps us stay connected, bringing teams together where and when it counts so they can share ideas and help one another. At BDO, you’ll always have access to the people and resources you need to do your best work.

We know that collaboration is the key to creating value for the companies we work with and satisfying experiences for our colleagues, so we’ve invested in state-of-the-art collaboration spaces in our offices. BDO’s people represent a wealth of knowledge and expertise, and we’ll encourage you to build your network, work alongside others, and share your skills and experiences. With a range of multidisciplinary events and dedicated resources, you’ll never stop learning at BDO.

We’re looking forward to the future

At BDO, we help entrepreneurial businesses to succeed, fuelling the UK economy. Our success is powered by our people, which is why we’re always finding new ways to invest in you. Across the UK thousands of unique minds continue to come together to help companies we work with to achieve their ambitions

We’ve got a clear purpose, and we’re confident in our future, because we’re adapting and evolving to build on our strengths, ensuring we continue to find the right combination of global reach, integrity and expertise. We shape the future together with openness and clarity, because we believe in empowering people to think creatively about how we can do things better