People Operations Manager

Role Overview:

At Sanderson Design Group, our purpose is to bring the beautiful into people’s homes and lives. Behind our iconic brands and creative heritage sits a People function focused on enabling a modern, high-performing organisation.

We are looking for a People Operations Manager with a passion for HR technology, data and operational excellence to help evolve how our People function operates. This role will play a key part in optimising our HR systems, improving people processes and turning workforce data into insight that supports better business decisions.

Acting as the internal Product Owner for our HR system (Dayforce), you will work closely with the People team and senior stakeholders to ensure our people technology, reporting and operational processes support an outstanding employee experience across the organisation. This role is ideal for someone who enjoys improving how things work — using systems, data and process design to make a real impact on organisational effectiveness.

This role can be based in either of our Loughborough or Chiswick offices, on site typically 3 days a week. We would be open to considering part-time/4 days a week.

About Us:

Sanderson Design Group plc is a luxury interior design house, home to six iconic brands with more than 165 years of heritage including Sanderson, Morris & Co., Harlequin and Zoffany. Our portfolio spans fabric, wallpaper and paint, supported by our manufacturing businesses Anstey Wallpaper Company and Standfast & Barracks. We are proud custodians of one of Europe’s largest design archives, containing over 75,000 historic artworks and documents. Guided by our purpose to bring the beautiful into people’s homes and lives, we continue to grow our international presence through a dynamic licensing and brand partnership programme.

Key Responsibilities:

HR Technology & Systems

• Act as the internal Product Owner for the organisation’s HRIS (Dayforce), managing system configuration, enhancement prioritisation and ongoing optimisation.
• Work with internal stakeholders to translate business requirements into system improvements, automation opportunities and workflow design.
• Manage system updates, releases and enhancements, ensuring appropriate testing and change management.
• Support training and adoption across the organisation to maximise system utilisation.
• Maintain strong governance of HR systems including data integrity, GDPR compliance and secure handling of employee information.
• Work with system vendors and external partners where required.

People Operations & Process Improvement

• Design and continuously improve scalable People processes across the employee lifecycle including onboarding, development, performance and offboarding.
• Identify opportunities to improve operational efficiency through automation, simplification and standardisation.
• Ensure clear documentation and consistency of people processes.
• Support the delivery of operational excellence across the People function.

People Data & Analytics

• Develop and maintain dashboards and reporting that provide meaningful workforce insights.
• Monitor key workforce metrics including:
• employee attrition
• engagement trends
• diversity and inclusion metrics
• absence and wellbeing
• performance indicators
• Ensure HR data accuracy and integrity to enable reliable reporting.
• Work with People Partners to interpret people data and identify trends or opportunities.

Change & Continuous Improvement

• Support organisational change initiatives impacting people systems, processes or policies.
• Contribute to the implementation of new tools, policies or ways of working.
• Assist with stakeholder engagement and comms during change initiatives.
• Champion continuous improvement within the People team.

Employee Relations & Governance

• Provide operational support on employee relations cases.
• Ensure consistent case tracking and reporting where appropriate.
• Support the development and implementation of people policies aligned with UK employment legislation.
• Promote fair, consistent and legally compliant people practices.

Skills & Experience:

We are looking for someone with strong analytical capability, systems thinking and a passion for improving organisational effectiveness through HR technology and data.

Essential

• Experience in a People Operations, HR Systems or HR Analytics.
• Experience working with an HRIS platform, ideally supporting implementation or optimisation.
• Strong analytical skills and confidence working with people data and reporting.
• Experience improving processes across the employee lifecycle.
• Good understanding of UK employment law and HR governance.
• Strong organisational and project management skills.
• Ability to work collaboratively with stakeholders across the organisation.
• High level of integrity and discretion when handling sensitive information.

Desirable

• Experience working with Dayforce or a comparable enterprise HRIS platform.
• Experience building people analytics dashboards or reports.
• Experience supporting organisational change initiatives.

Qualifications:

• Business related Degree or equivalent preferred; a CIPD qualification is an advantage, though not essential.
• Familiarity with HRIS Human Resources Information System; Dayforce experience an advantage but not essential.
• UK/EU Drivers License

Values & Behaviours:

We look for colleagues who embody the Sanderson Design Group values:

• Intrepid: Proactively seek solutions, make thoughtful decisions quickly and step forward with confidence.
• Imaginative: Be resourceful, be curious, share knowledge and work inclusively with others to drive creativity and innovation.
• Respectful: Adopt a mindset of curiosity and acknowledge the needs of others to foster equity.