Head of Talent & Engagement

Job Description

You will play an integral role by setting the strategy and direction for Talent & Engagement for all of tails.com and managing a high performing team across the specialisms that come together in this team to create a best in class, inclusive and highly engaging people experience.

Changing the world of pet food for good

We’re tails.com, a dog food subscription company with a big difference. We create truly tailored food for each and every dog we serve. We start by asking people a few simple questions about their dog. Then we use that information to create their dog’s unique tails.com recipe – so their dog gets exactly the nutrition they need, in the taste they love, delivered to their door every month. It’s clever stuff.

We’ve got bold plans. Having created an entirely new category in pet food, we now have a strong strategy to scale sustainably in the UK and Europe – backed by Purina, one of the world’s largest pet food companies. You’ll join a bunch of smart people working towards the same goals – and a bunch of smart-ish dogs, all working on their own thing.

Together, we’ll change the world of pet food for good.

Organise & Engage

The purpose of this People group is to ensure we have a highly motivated and engaged pack working within a highly effective operating model to deliver our strategy. We are the custodians and champions of the unique and powerful tails.com culture and we make sure our people, at all levels, have what they need to deliver their best work every day.

Sound like a team you want to join? Here’s how you’ll make a difference:

The role

You will be responsible for setting the strategy and direction for Talent & Engagement and managing a high performing team including specialists in Talent Acquisition, Internal Communication, Engagement and Learning & Development to deliver a best in class, inclusive and engaging people experience.

The things you’ll do

• Talent Management: Analyse needs for talent management frameworks (succession planning, levelling/job architecture, key talent etc), and build, implement and ensure the day to day running of them as required to develop and retain talent whilst supporting our culture being lived.

• People agenda & strategy: Working with the Chief People Officer to set the vision & strategy for the whole people function, building and executing on the talent, engagement and D&I parts of the strategy .

• Talent Acquisition & Engagement: Ensure best in class talent acquisition and a strong employer brand is created and upheld. Use a data-driven approach (e.g. engagement surveys, talent acquisition metrics) to drive insights and the right actions.

• Talent Development: Identify, create and develop programmes and procedures (e.g. onboarding, performance management, training programmes) that bring out the best in people and maximise the employee lifetime value they bring to tails.com.

• Culture & Values: Articulate, nurture and develop our values, and ensure they’re kept up to date and alive to ensure tails.com is a place where people can feel free to bring their full selves to work and do their best work every day.

• Diversity & Inclusion: Evolve and run Diversity & Inclusion part of the people strategy.

• Internal Communications: Responsible for all aspects of employee communication, ensuring that we have two-way channels and build engagement and support our culture through the way we communicate.

• Team Management: Attract, hire, coach and develop a high performing Talent & Engagement team. Exemplify the tails.com values and management competencies.

The skills you’ll bring

• Experience of successfully managing a team

• Extensive experience in the design and delivery of a talent management strategy - with a focus on building bespoke programmes for a high performance culture and use of best practice to continue to evolve a whole organisation’s approach to talent management.

• Experience in analysing learning needs and identifying and designing the right talent development opportunities, implementing them on time and budget

• Strong ability to partner with People Partners and stakeholders across the business to drive buy in and delivery of the talent management and D&I agenda across the organisation

• Proven strong communication skills, in forums ranging from creating engagement in large groups; drafting high quality written communication to telling a story through data

• Analytical mindset, with appreciation for the importance of effective metrics

What’s next?

If this sounds like it matches your experience and what you’d love to do, we can’t wait to hear from you! If you’re unsure whether you fit our criteria exactly, please get in touch anyway. And because we believe that diverse teams perform better, we’d especially love to hear from you if you’re from an under-represented demographic.

Here’s a taster of how our recruitment process works:

Our Commitment

We’re proud to be an active equal opportunity employer. We want to give everyone a fair chance to join us in changing the world of pet food for good. We do this by conducting a structured recruitment process for all candidates, as well as actively promoting our roles to communities that are under-represented at tails.com.

During your interview process you’ll meet some of our team with varying levels of responsibility and experience. We want to give every candidate a fair interview process and if you need any reasonable adjustments made, please let us know.

What's in it for you?

• Competitive salary, reviewed annually.

• Annual bonus, based on company performance.

• Flexible core hours, giving you true work life balance.

• Hybrid role to ensure this role works for you.

• 25 days of holiday (excluding bank holidays) which increases over time to a max of 27 days.

• 9/10 day working week - meaning every other Friday off to enhance your wellbeing without a reduction in pay and leave allowance.

• Optional 5 days unpaid leave and 1 paid volunteer day each year.

• When you need a change of scenery, you can work from abroad 2 weeks every 6 months.

• Health insurance for you, paid by tails.com (starting mid 2023) & discounted gym membership.

• Extended maternity, shared parental and adoption pay. Up to 6 months at 70% pay, linked to statutory parental pay.

• Flexible paid care leave to support immediate dependants, people close to you and pets.

• An external financial coach to support a range of topics - debt management, savings and investments.

• Vet service - to support with all pet related questions.

• In house L&D team, with access to year round courses to help drive your development.

• 50% discount on all tails.com and 40% on Republic of Cats products.