People Experience Manager

Hello. We're Herd.

We're a fast-growing consultancy specialising in Business Analysis, Delivery Management, and Product Management.

We've grown to over 80 people, with a highly experienced team working with organisations across the public and private sectors. And we're not stopping there.

People have always been at the heart of Herd. We've worked hard to build a business where brilliant people can do brilliant work, feel trusted and supported, and genuinely enjoy being part of the team. We're incredibly proud to have been recognised as one of the Sunday Times Best Places to Work for three years running - 2024, 2025, and 2026.

As we continue to grow, protecting and building on that experience really matters to us.

We're investing in how we support our people, practices, and clients, making sure the experience of working at Herd gets better as we grow, not more corporate.

We don't want layers of management, unnecessary processes, or people spending their time filling in forms for the sake of it. We want people to feel known, supported, and connected to Herd, even when they're spending most of their working week embedded with a client.

That's where you come in.

Who is this great for?

Our People Experience Managers take a lead role in making sure Herd continues to be a brilliant place to work as we grow.

You'll be the main point of contact for a group of our consultants throughout their time at Herd, from joining and onboarding through to regular check‑ins, wellbeing, development, leave and the everyday things that make a difference to someone's experience at work.

This isn't a traditional HR Manager role.

You don't need to have followed a particular HR career path, and we're much more interested in your ability to build relationships, use good judgement, get things done and genuinely care about people's experience.

You might currently work in people or employee experience, operations, talent, recruitment, customer success, professional services — or something completely different.

You'll be joining an experienced team, so we're not looking for someone to supervise people's day‑to‑day work. Instead, you'll make sure people have someone at Herd who knows them, checks in with them, understands where they want to go, and makes sure they get the support they need.

You'll work closely with our Practice Leads and Principal Consultants, who support professional development and client delivery respectively. Your focus is different: the person and their overall experience of working at Herd.

You won't need to have worked in change, technology or consulting before. Your job is to know our people, understand what they need, and bring together the right support to help them have a brilliant experience of working at Herd.

Key elements of the role

• Be a trusted point of contact for our consultants throughout their time at Herd, building strong relationships and making sure people feel supported, connected, and valued.
• Take ownership of regular, meaningful check‑ins with our people, understanding how they're doing, where they want to go, and identifying where additional support or action might be needed.
• Support people in thinking about their experience and career at Herd, helping them access the right conversations, opportunities, and professional support as they develop.
• Help make joining Herd a brilliant experience, coordinating onboarding and supporting people through their first few months with us.
• Support the everyday people experience, including wellbeing, leave, absence, and the questions and challenges that naturally come with working life.
• Make sure important moments such as probation reviews, development conversations, and other people processes happen consistently and when they should.
• Help coordinate our recruitment journey and take ownership of the candidate experience, working alongside our Practice Leads and wider team across campaigns, adverts, applications, interviews, communications, offers, and onboarding.
• Work closely with Practice Leads and our client‑delivery focused Principal Consultants to bring together the right support, feedback, and context for our people.
• Help us understand how our people are feeling, spotting themes, patterns, and opportunities to continually improve the experience of working at Herd.
• Support our approach to employee engagement and retention, helping us understand what's working well and where we could be better.
• Help shape and continuously improve how People Experience works as Herd grows, introducing structure where it adds value without creating unnecessary process or bureaucracy.
• Embrace the reality of a fast‑growing scale‑up environment and be willing to get stuck in wherever needed.

Core skills and characteristics

• Someone who genuinely enjoys working with people and cares about creating a brilliant employee experience.
• Able to build strong, trusted relationships with people at all levels and be someone others naturally feel comfortable talking to.
• Excellent emotional intelligence and judgement, knowing when to listen, when to challenge, when to act, and when something needs escalating.
• Able to build trust and credibility with experienced professionals without relying on hierarchy or traditional line‑management authority.
• Exceptionally organised and able to keep track of lots of people, conversations, commitments, and moving parts without losing the human element.
• Accountable, proactive, and comfortable taking ownership rather than waiting for someone else to make things happen.
• A strong communicator who can handle sensitive or difficult conversations with empathy, confidence, and discretion.
• Able to spot patterns and themes across individual conversations and turn those insights into practical improvements.
• Pragmatic and comfortable applying judgement rather than reaching for a policy or process every time something happens.
• Comfortable working with an experienced and senior group of consultants who don't need traditional day‑to‑day management.
• A self‑starter who can identify priorities, make decisions, and work independently while knowing when to involve others.
• Comfortable handling confidential and sensitive information appropriately.
• Curious about people and motivated to understand what makes individuals tick, what matters to them, and what helps them do their best work.
• Comfortable working at pace in a growing business where not everything will already have a process or established way of doing things.
• Able to balance consistency and fairness with treating people as individuals.
• Someone who naturally looks for ways to leave things better than they found them.

Desirable experience

• Experience working in a people-focused role within consultancy, professional services, or another organisation where people work across different clients, teams, or locations.
• Experience supporting employee experience, engagement, wellbeing, retention, or people development activities.
• Experience coordinating recruitment and delivering a positive candidate journey, from attraction and application through to offer and onboarding.
• Experience supporting people through sensitive or challenging situations and knowing when specialist HR or employment advice is required.
• Experience helping to improve or introduce people processes within a growing organisation while keeping them simple and proportionate.
• Experience using employee engagement, feedback, or people data to identify themes and inform improvements.
• Experience working within a fast‑growing business, scale‑up, or organisation going through significant change.

A CIPD qualification or relevant people‑related professional development may be useful, but isn't essential. We're much more interested in your experience, judgement, and approach to people.

Right to work

You must have the right to work in the UK. Applicants without this will not be progressed. Herd Consulting does not currently offer sponsorship.

Security clearance

Due to the nature of the clients we work with, you may be required to undergo security vetting up to and including Security Check (SC) or Developed Vetting (DV) clearance levels. If you have any reason to believe you may not successfully obtain the required clearance, this must be declared as early as possible and before accepting any offer of employment.

Location

This is a hybrid role, with an expectation that you'll work from our Sheffield office around 2-3 days per week. This is an intentionally visible role within Herd. We want our People Experience Managers to be around, accessible, and able to build relationships with our people - whether that's a planned check‑in, grabbing a coffee, or simply having the kind of informal conversation that's often easier in person. Our consultants work across the UK, so there will also be opportunities to meet people away from the office, alongside occasional travel to Herd events and other locations. Outside of that, we're completely comfortable with folk working remotely from within the UK. Due to the nature of the work we do, remote working from outside of the UK is not permitted.

Benefits

Package: £37,000-£42,000 (depending upon experience) plus the following benefits and perks:

• 25 days annual leave, plus Bank Holidays
• An additional day off to celebrate your birthday
• £1,000 annual personal development fund to spend as you wish
• Employee perks programme with exclusive discounts and savings across hundreds of retailers
• Electric Vehicle (EV) and Cycle to Work salary sacrifice schemes (available after passing probation)
• Life assurance cover at 3x salary
• 24/7 Virtual GP and Advanced Nurse Practitioner access
• Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) available 24/7, 365 days a year
• Child Mental Health Support
• Cancer Awareness and Nurse Support, provided by Perci Health, UK's leading virtual cancer clinic.
• Online physiotherapy service
• Second Medical Opinion - offers access to a UK based specialist consultant who can provide a second medical opinion on a diagnosis or treatment plan.
• Dog-friendly employer - we love seeing dogs in the office!
• Paid pet bereavement leave from Day 1
• Discounts with retailers in Leah’s Yard
• Regular Herd socials, both virtual and in‑person, including lunches, beer tasting, award nights, crazy golf, and more

We're also proud to be named one of the Sunday Times Best Places to Work for three years running, 2024, 2025, and 2026.

Closing Date

We review applications as they come in and may close the advert early if we receive a high volume of suitable applications or fill the roles ahead of schedule.

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