Head of Talent and Reward (Internal Applications Only)

 

As our Head of Talent & Reward you will be a trusted, inspiring and engaging senior leader, facilitating cultural change and delivering tools, frameworks and support to ensure we meet our shareholder objectives of well-rewarded and highly skilled co-owners.

You will achieve this by providing visionary, strategic leadership to our talent & reward team, developing and delivering strategies that bring our vision and purpose to life, ensuring that everyone who works here feels valued, fairly rewarded, has access to career paths and we have the right talent plans in place for the future. You will act as a trusted advisor and critical friend to senior leaders, ensuring the effective implementation and embedding of talent and reward approaches that align with our Passionate People and company-wide strategic priorities, enhance co-owner experience, and drive continuous improvement through evidence-based evaluation.

You will be accountable for the talent and reward function, ensuring excellent customer service to stakeholders and maintaining, developing and optimizing talent and reward frameworks, policies and priorities that deliver tangible outcomes. You will be responsible for leading, motivating and developing a talented team, fostering a positive, high-performing culture and ensuring clarity of purpose, growth and collaboration across the team, the People & Culture directorate and the wider business.

 

♥  Talent Development & Career Pathways - Design and embed a holistic talent system that ensures the business has the right skills, capabilities and leadership for the future; oversee the creation of clear, accessible career pathways, ensuring co-owners understand how they can grow, develop and progress; in partnership with the Head of People Partnering, lead succession planning, capability mapping and workforce planning to ensure the organisation is future ready; champion a culture of continuous learning, ensuring development opportunities are inclusive, impactful and aligned with business needs.
♥  Reward, Recognition & Co-owner Value - Own the design, governance and evolution of reward frameworks, ensuring fairness, transparency and alignment with co ownership principles; ensure reward policies support the shareholder objective of well rewarded co-owners, balancing competitiveness, affordability and equity; lead the development of recognition approaches that celebrate contribution, reinforce culture and enhance co-owner experience; oversee pay review cycles, benchmarking, job evaluation and reward analytics to ensure robust, data driven decision making.

 

Strategy Leadership & Culture
♥  Strategy Leadership & Vision - Lead the development and delivery of an integrated Talent & Reward approach that brings our purpose — to Nurture & Nourish People & Planet—to life through people practices; act as a trusted senior leader, shaping cultural evolution and ensuring talent, recruitment and reward approaches support long term business growth and co-owner value; provide strategic insight and thought leadership to the Executive and senior leadership teams, acting as a critical friend who challenges constructively and champions evidence based decision making.
♥  Co-owner Experience & Cultural Stewardship - Shape and champion a positive, inclusive and purpose driven co-owner experience, ensuring people feel valued, supported and connected to our purpose; partner with senior leaders to embed behaviours, mindsets and practices that support a high performing, collaborative and co-owned culture; ensure talent, recruitment and reward priorities are communicated clearly, consistently and compellingly, strengthening trust and engagement.

 

♥  Governance, Insight & Continuous Improvement - Establish strong governance across all talent, recruitment and reward processes, ensuring compliance, consistency and clarity; use data, insight and evaluation to drive continuous improvement, ensuring strategies deliver tangible outcomes and measurable impact; monitor external trends, legislation and best practice to keep the organisation ahead of the curve and future focused.
♥  Leadership of the Talent & Reward team - Lead, inspire and develop a high performing Talent & Reward team, ensuring clarity of purpose, accountability and collaboration; foster a culture of curiosity, innovation and service excellence within the team; build strong partnerships across the People & Culture directorate and the wider business, ensuring seamless delivery and shared ownership of people priorities.
♥  Stakeholder Partnership & Customer Service - Ensure the Talent & Reward function delivers excellent customer service to all stakeholders, responding with agility, empathy and professionalism; build trusted relationships across the business, ensuring leaders are supported with the tools, frameworks and guidance they need; act as a visible, accessible and influential leader who champions co owners’ needs and business priorities in equal measure

 Essential
♥  Degree level education or equivalent experience in HR, organisational development, business, psychology or a related field.
♥  Chartered membership of the CIPD (MCIPD) or equivalent professional accreditation.
♥  Significant senior level experience leading talent management and reward and functions within a complex, multi-site and multi-disciplinary organisation.
♥  Proven track record of developing and delivering integrated talent, recruitment and reward strategies that support organisational purpose, culture and long term growth.
♥  Demonstrable experience of leading recruitment strategy and operations, including employer brand, selection frameworks and onboarding.
♥  Strong background in reward design, including pay frameworks, job evaluation, benchmarking, recognition schemes and governance.
♥  Experience driving cultural change, leadership development and capability building at scale.
♥  Evidence of building and leading high performing teams, fostering collaboration, accountability and continuous improvement.

 

Desirable
♥  Background in the food, manufacturing, agriculture or FMCG sectors.
♥  Experience working in environments with a strong values based or purpose driven culture.
♥  Experience working within a co-owned, employee owned or cooperative business model.
♥  Understanding of ESG, sustainability or purpose led business models and how people strategies contribute to them.

Our closing dates are a guide for when the application window should close, although we may close the advert sooner if we can. So, we recommend you get your application in straight away – and don’t miss the opportunity to join us!

Unfortunately, we’re not able to provide employment sponsorship to candidates at this moment in time.

Please note that Yeo Valley do not accept speculative agency applications; we will only accept applications from preferred suppliers that have been submitted to us via our recruitment portal at the point of instruction.