HR Service Centre Manager EMEA

Description:

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