Junior Manager, HR Operations

About Global HR Operations and First Point 

Global HR Operations provides reliable, consistent and high-quality HR services to employees, line managers and HR colleagues across supported markets. First Point is the primary HR service organisation within this model, combining specialist HR knowledge, strong process discipline and enabling technology to deliver an excellent customer experience. 

The team supports a broad range of employee lifecycle services, including Joiners, Movers and Leavers (JML), employee and position data management, HR documentation, benefits administration, policy guidance and resolution of HR and HR systems queries. Work is delivered through platforms including Workday, ServiceNow and Doc Genie, with a strong focus on accuracy, compliance, service performance and continuous improvement. 

Purpose of the Role 

The Junior Manager, HR Operations is a senior operational contributor who supports the Team Leader in delivering consistent day-to-day service performance. The role combines hands-on ownership of complex HR transactions and queries with workload oversight, subject-matter expertise, stakeholder engagement, advisor capability building and continuous improvement. 

The role acts as an escalation point for complex employee lifecycle, documentation, data and systems matters; helps ensure the team is appropriately prioritised and resourced; and provides practical insights that enable the Team Leader to manage performance, risk and customer experience effectively. 

Key Accountabilities 

1. Service Delivery and Operational Performance 

• Deliver HR services in line with agreed service levels, quality standards and customer experience measures, including speed to resolution, right-first-time accuracy and customer satisfaction. 

• Monitor team workload, case distribution and progress against agreed priorities; identify risks, backlogs or under-performance and recommend timely mitigation actions to the Team Leader. 

• Maintain clear and complete ServiceNow case notes, supporting documentation and audit trails. 

• Support workforce planning by maintaining visibility of planned and unplanned absence and helping ensure appropriate coverage for business-as-usual, cyclical activity and projects. 

2. Employee Lifecycle, Documentation and Data 

• Execute and oversee complex Joiner, Mover and Leaver transactions in Workday, ensuring employee and position data is complete, accurate and processed right first time. 

• Create, review, approve and issue accurate employee documentation, including contracts, letters and other lifecycle communications, in line with market requirements and governance standards. 

• Coordinate required payroll instructions and downstream actions, ensuring critical dates, approvals and dependencies are understood and completed. 

• Act as a Workday super user and provide practical support on employee data, organisation management and position management activities. 

3. Complex Query and Escalation Management 

• Take ownership of complex process, policy, documentation, data and systems issues escalated by the Contact Centre, HR teams or advisors, leading them through investigation to resolution. 

• Apply sound judgement, market knowledge and policy interpretation while engaging the appropriate stakeholders when specialist or approval input is required. 

• Capture root causes and learning from escalations and translate them into clearer guidance, stronger controls or capability interventions. 

4. Market Partnership and Subject-Matter Expertise 

• Act as an engagement partner and subject-matter expert for assigned market(s), building effective relationships with HR Business Partners, Talent teams, line managers and other HR Operations teams. 

• Maintain market-specific process knowledge, guidance and knowledge articles, ensuring information remains current, accessible and operationally usable. 

• Gather stakeholder feedback, manage expectations and identify opportunities to simplify processes and improve the end-to-end customer experience. 

• Provide market and process training to advisors and support consistent application of agreed ways of working. 

5. Capability Building and Team Support 

• Support the induction and onboarding of new team members and help identify individual and team capability needs. 

• Coach advisors and coordinators to strengthen judgement, confidence, technical knowledge and ownership of customer outcomes. 

• Role-model collaborative, solution-focused and inclusive behaviours and contribute to service continuity across the wider First Point organisation. 

6. Continuous Improvement and Change Delivery 

• Diagnose service issues, analyse recurring themes and lead practical improvement initiatives that reduce handoffs, improve accuracy and increase operational capacity. 

• Bring external good practice and structured problem-solving into the team, encouraging experimentation with improved processes, tools and behaviours. 

• Support the planning and execution of cyclical and project activity, such as annual reward processes, organisation restructures, market transitions and system or policy changes. 

7. Risk, Compliance and Controls 

• Ensure HR processes are executed in line with legal, regulatory, policy and internal control requirements, including applicable CARM controls. 

• Protect employee and business information and maintain zero tolerance for data privacy, information security and Code of Business Conduct breaches. 

• Identify and escalate operational, customer or compliance risks promptly and support sustainable corrective and preventive actions. 

Role Dimensions 

Experience and Qualifications 

• Typically 4-6 years of experience in HR Operations, HR Shared Services, an HR Contact Centre or a comparable service delivery environment. 

• Strong practical experience in employee lifecycle processes, HR documentation and/or employee data management. 

• Experience handling complex customer queries, escalations and cross-functional dependencies. 

• Hands-on experience with cloud-based HR systems; Workday and ServiceNow experience is strongly preferred. 

• Advanced working knowledge of Microsoft Office, particularly Excel and Word. 

• Fluent written and spoken English; additional market language capability is advantageous where relevant. 

• Graduate degree or equivalent professional experience in Human Resources, Business Administration or a related discipline is preferred. 

• Willingness to work flexible or market-aligned shift hours where required. 

Critical Skills and Enabling Behaviours 

Success Measures 

• Consistent achievement of service levels and workload commitments. 

• High right-first-time accuracy for employee data and documentation. 

• Timely resolution of complex queries and reduction in repeat escalations. 

• Positive customer and stakeholder feedback. 

• Improved advisor capability, knowledge coverage and team resilience. 

• Demonstrable process simplification, risk reduction and capacity improvement. 

• Full compliance with data privacy, security, policy and control requirements.