At Publicis•Poke we are passionate about Sharp Commercial Creativity – the power of creativity to solve today’s commercial challenges across an evolving consumer journey. We are an agency born in the digital age, combining Communication, Brand Experience and Commerce specialisms.

Some of our clients include Morrisons, BT/EE, L’Oréal, Essity, Nestlé, Heineken, Renault/Dacia, and many more.

Our values are designed to guide the way we behave. We have three:

Empathy: listen with intent, look out for each other, bust your biases.
Invention: Find inspiration in strange places. Never stop experimenting. Make new things and make them useful.
Action: make it collaborative, make it happen, make it mean something.

You will partner the new CEO of Publicis.Poke in building an Excellence Culture and will be a key member of the Leadership Team. You will lead the Talent function as the agency undertakes a significant transformation and embarks on a new era. This role supports over 160 motivated, highly talented individuals.

Key competencies & responsibilities

Business Partnering

• Develop and deliver the Talent strategy which syncs with the agency strategy
• Use innovative Talent solutions that invigorate people and culture
• Influence senior management to focus on people in both a personable and commercial way
• Operate as a trusted advisor and business partner to the leadership teams, deliver seamless Talent Processes to the business
• Develop strong relationships with other Talent leads across Publicis Communications to work on cross agency initiatives eg: training, onboarding, D&I etc.

Culture

• Consistently articulate and drive an understanding of the desired culture, and support agency leaders, and all staff members to do the same. Create opportunities for employees to experience the culture
• Redevelop the Employee Value Proposition through working with employees at all levels of the agency. Develop and deliver a plan to embed the EVP in everything the agency does.
• Support business resource groups such as VivaWomen!, Egalite and Embrace

Performance & Reward

• Establish career plans for employees so that they get a true sense of progression and direction
• Make the annual performance review process relevant to the agency and empowering, providing advice and guidance to managers as well as driving the performance, and promotion processes
• Provide training, coaching and act as a point of contact to the senior team on the annual performance and development review process
• Conduct talent mapping workshops to identify skills gaps, succession planning and high potentials
• Manage promotion request process including making recommendations on compensation in line with market rates and data
• Lead annual salary review process linking it closely to performance, success retention, and the external market
• Gender Pay, ensuring data is reviewed and necessary actions are taken

Employee Relations

• Promote good employee relations practices within the company and ensure compliance with Groupe Policies and UK and European employment law
• Manage complex and high-level employee relation cases, in line with our values and show a strong confidence and assurance in both formal and informal processes
• Coach managers on how to effectively deal with capability and conduct issues and create a culture that is professional without taking away the individuality of the agencies.

Operations

• Provide impactful people data to input to RFIs supporting the business in winning clients
• Own compliance within the function including benefits renewals, immigration process and IR35
• Lead on employee engagement surveys for the agencies and action results with the management teams
• Oversee administrative activities including payroll, benefits and HR systems to ensure full compliance and deal with escalations
• Oversee GDPR for HR function
• Oversee annual corporate social responsibility survey

Talent Acquisition

• Work in close partnership Talent Acquisition team at Publicis, and ensure both teams work well cross-functionally and support the wider mission of our ‘one Talent team’ approach
• Support the Talent Acquisition team with coaching and advising managers on recruitment best practice, selection and interviewing

Learning and Development

• Work with the Creative Practice L&D lead to support development and delivery of learning in the agency
• Create a culture of continuous learning by using the 70:20:10 approach
• Coach managers in relation to having training and career development discussions with their teams
• Work with department heads to assess training requirements and create bespoke training programs for their departments to deliver against agency strategic goals

Publicis Groupe Talent

• Engage closely with the wider members of the Talent team sharing knowledge, advice and guidance to be part of and continue to build a high performing function
• Take responsibility for one or more cross Groupe working group that aims to transform one of our key talent processes

• Proven track record at a similar level, partnering with a CEO
• Someone who relishes challenge, can manage change and transformation
• Has the gravitas to influence Senior Leaders
• Strong management and people development abilities
• Excellent, facilitator, mediator, and strong experience of successfully managing employee relations
• Expert knowledge of UK employment law and HR best practice
• Flexible and adaptable team player with a supportive attitude towards the team
• Superior communication and listening skills and negotiating skills
• Solution focused, with demonstrable ability to resolve situations that are broadly defined, complex, diverse, and occasionally unprecedented
• Ability to perform in a collaborative, fast-paced environment
• Experience of HR systems and reporting
• CIPD Qualified preferred

Diversity and inclusion is a core part of who we are at Publicis Poke. We’re committed to building an inclusive culture that encourages, celebrates and supports our wonderfully diverse employee group – whatever their age, gender identity, race, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability or ethnicity. Diversity and inclusion doesn’t just fuel our creativity and innovation, it brings us closer to our people and audiences. We will continue to strive to create a culture and environment where everyone feels empowered and more importantly comfortable enough to bring their full, authentic selves to work. We are committed to providing reasonable adjustments for employees with disabilities and for candidates in our application process. If you need assistance or adjustment due to a disability, please contact us.

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