Head of People Operations

Spotlight Sports Group is a global media and technology company specialising in content and data within sports betting, horse racing and fantasy sports. With over 400 employees, the group operates multiple award-winning brands, including Racing Post, the world’s largest horse racing affiliate, Pickswise, myracing and Free Super Tips. We partner with leading operators across the betting industry to produce and build multilingual, best-in-class digital products and content to engage and educate customers. ICS-digital, an international marketing agency including ICS-translate, also operates under the group. 

Job purpose:

As a key member of the People team, you will be responsible for shaping and delivering operational excellence across the full employee lifecycle while leading and developing a small, high-performing HR Operations team. You will play a central role in shaping and delivering people practices that enable organisational performance, support transformational change and maintain strong compliance with employment legislation. You will thrive in a fast-paced environment, act with pace and accountability, and be confident making decisions that balance business performance with a strong people focus.

Key accountabilities/responsibilities:

• Lead, develop and support a small People Operations team, creating a high-performing, collaborative and supportive environment.
• Provide clear direction, coaching and development to build capability and ensure consistent and high-quality delivery of HR services.
• Actively support and guide the team in the day-to-day delivery of HR operations, stepping in where required to ensure pace, quality, consistency and pragmatic support across the employee lifecycle. Use data and insight to identify the touchpoints that will improve the employee experience.
• Maintain strong oversight of operational HR processes, ensuring they are efficient and compliant, seeking out AI tools and solutions to automate and improve manual processes.
• Ensure employee data is accurately maintained within HR systems, upholding strong data governance and GDPR compliance, while proactively exploring and maximising system capabilities to improve reporting, insight and operational efficiency across the People function.
• Provide expert guidance and management of complex employee relations matters and processes. Ensure cases are managed consistently, fairly and in line with employment legislation and best practice.
• Partner with stakeholders to navigate sensitive and high-impact people issues with confidence and sound judgement.
• Design, implement and continuously improve people policies and frameworks that support both business needs and employee experience.
• Ensure organisational compliance with employment law, proactively managing  legislative change and embedding best practice across the organisation.
• Maintain robust governance across the People function, including GDPR compliance and responsible management of employee data.
• Lead and support organisational design initiatives including restructures, role scoping/design and workforce planning.
• Assess the impact of organisational changes on roles and teams, working with leaders to explore and scope options whilst ensuring fair and compliant processes.
• Provide pragmatic and commercially focused people advice to stakeholders at all levels, and embed this ethos within the team. 
• Co-ordinate activities associated with a business sale process, including due diligence requirements within the data room. 
• Oversee the design, delivery and continuous improvement of the benefits and wellbeing offering, ensuring it remains competitive, relevant and aligned with employee and business needs.