Position:                              Interim Senior Director HR

Duration:                             13 month fixed term contract, starting in April 2022 for maternity cover

Location:                              UK.  Flexibility to work from both home and office, but advantageous to be within commuting distance to offices in Maidenhead and Chalfont St Peter

Reporting to:                      Chief People Officer

 

RWS

RWS Holdings plc is the world’s leading provider of technology-enabled language, content management and intellectual property services. We help our customers to connect with and bring new ideas to people globally by communicating business critical content at scale and enabling the protection and realization of their innovations.

Our vision is to help organizations interact effectively with people anywhere in the world by solving their language, content and market access challenges through our collective global intelligence, deep expertise and smart technology.

Customers include 90 of the globe’s top 100 brands, the top 10 pharmaceutical companies and 18 of the top 20 patent filers worldwide. Our client base spans Europe, Asia Pacific, and North and South America across the technology, pharmaceutical, medical, legal, chemical, automotive, government and telecommunications sectors, which we serve from offices across five continents.

Founded in 1958, RWS is headquartered in the UK and publicly listed on AIM, the London Stock Exchange regulated market (RWS.L).

For further information, please visit: www.rws.com

 

The Role

This role is offered on a 13 month fixed term basis to cover maternity leave.  The role can be home or office based, but if home based, it will be advantageous to be within commuting distance of our offices in Maidenhead and Chalfont St Peter.

The Interim Senior HR Director, will provide strategic HR leadership for a large, global and diverse group of 3,000+ employees, working directly with multiple Executive leaders, based in the UK and Germany.  The role supports business groups including translators in over 30 countries, and corporate functions such as Finance, IT, HR and Group Support Services.  The Interim Senior HR Director will have 4 direct reports based in the UK, Hong Kong, Spain and Canada, and lead a wider international HR team of ~30 people.  This role will work closely with the HR Senior Leadership team on HR Transformation addressing current and future complex business issues.  The role is a trusted advisor to the business and plays an influential role in RWS.

 

Responsibilities

• Partner with Executive leaders in the business to support them with their people challenges.
• Working with Senior Leaders on organisational challenges including transformation, culture, change management, leadership development, organisational design, cost-saving measures, restructuring, talent review and succession planning, performance management.
• Working across cultures and helping lead across boundaries handling complex employee relations cases.
• Rolling out global HR initiatives including presenting to leaders and employees with engaging virtual delivery via MS Teams.
• Assisting with Crisis management as required (for example Covid-19 related, natural disasters & political unrest).
• Diversity and Inclusion and working with Employee Resource Groups
• Working with Works Councils in Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Nordics  plus works councils in Spain and Norway on restructuring, office closures, global payroll provider, new systems.
• Working with senior leaders on communication and impact of difficult messages, including  office closures, redundancy processes, global restructuring and changes to bonus and schemes.
• Working to roll out HR initiatives including HR Transformation, Agile Working, roll out of new Values and Strategy, Performance Management, Career Framework, Salary Ranges.
• Employee engagement and CSR, with a hands on role for the local Maidenhead office as part of the site leadership team.
• Assisting with projects including acquisitions and employee transfers.
• Assisting with facilitation of training courses including leadership development courses and Unconscious Bias training.

 

Qualifications, Skills & Experience

• Experience of HR leadership in a fast-paced, complex, global company, working directly with Executive leaders.
• High emotional intelligence and excellent at building relationships.
• Ability to maintain calm, balanced approach in difficult situations, displaying resilience and diplomacy when handling conflict.
• Excellent interpersonal skills and written and oral communication skills.
• Demonstrable problem-solving skills with the ability to facilitate problem solving discussions.
• Be comfortable acting as trusted adviser and presenting to senior stakeholders.
• Able to prioritise and manage tasks in a high-pressure environment and meet deadlines.
• Able to effectively manage and mentor remote team members around the world, helping motivate the team and maintain excellent two-way communication.

 

Life at RWS - We work hard together to deliver for our customers; our expertise, professionalism and determination to never let others down drives  us to be passionate and serious about what we do, deliver customer value, yet always adding a human touch 

As a company focused on connecting people through language, diversity and inclusion are fundamental to our company culture. RWS is an Equal Opportunities Employer and we are committed in ensuring that all employees work in an environment free from all forms of harassment and discrimination and one that actively promotes teamwork, diversity and trust. All employees have a right to be treated with respect and dignity. RWS operate in a manner for the inclusion of all - any form of discrimination is expressly prohibited. Employees are selected and promoted on merit alone and no other factors whether race, gender, age, religion, marital status, gender identity or disability are taken into consideration. 

We are proud to work in a company where all can succeed and grow their career and while RWS operates in accordance with all local employment laws, if local law enables any form of discrimination this is against RWS company policy and we will adhere to the highest standard.