[Hiring] Head of People & Talent @Save My Exams

Save My Exams is a rapidly growing EdTech business on the lookout for an ambitious Head of People & Talent.

Reaching up to 2m monthly active users and on our way to 100,000 paying members, all while being bootstrapped, we’re looking for an experienced Head of People & Talent to join our team!

We like to think we are the most exciting tech company in Europe you’ve never heard of, and this role is a unique opportunity to join a profitable EdTech business at a key inflection point.

So, if you’re interested in rapid, product-led, customer-obsessed growth, and the chance to disrupt a $7tn+ market by improving the lives of millions of students every year, then read on.

Check out our Trustpilot!

The Role

The Head of People & Talent will ensure we have the right people, values and processes to build and maintain a team of A-players who are effective in delivering on the long-term strategic goals of Save My Exams.

They will do this by:

• leading all people functions within the company and continue to scale the company to >100 people
• providing strategic guidance to the Leadership Team to enable the business to scale smoothly to £20m in revenues with the right people in place
• owning the full talent lifecycle from attracting to retaining top talent
• serving as a role model of the company’s culture and ensure we maintain a high-performing workforce
• building a longer term people strategy and how that links in with business strategy
• promoting and celebrate diversity, equity and inclusion

Your Responsibilities:

Over the next 12 months, you’ll expect to work on the following:

Talent acquisition, onboarding and offboarding

• Consistently build upon our employee value proposition in order to attract and retain great talent
• Managing the full cycle recruitment process from forecasting and headcount planning with department leads, through to producing contracts of employment

• Oversee new employee onboarding and partner with hiring managers to build onboarding plans and initial goal-setting
• Managing any external agencies we use which could include recruiters or legal advice on specific contracts, or hiring for this role as specific
• Ensuring there is a robust interviewing and probation process
• Owning the off-boarding process, performing Exit interviews and ensuring improvements are made

Talent management

• Responsible for the accountability chart along with the COO
• Owning the performance management process to ensure we have a team of high performers
• Ensuring Learning and development are central to professional development
• Own our Manager Toolkit & Manager Training Programme
• Improving and increasing Employee engagement including using surveys (Culture Amp) to create strategies that result in a high level of engagement and retention
• Hiring and workforce strategy (eg Contractor vs Employee, UK vs abroad)
• Provide leadership on people-related issues and policies across the SME
• Developing company well-being and potential health and other related policies
• Planning our Company and team get-togethers

HR Admin & Compliance

• Working with the CFO to create a great Compensation and benefits package
• Running the bi-annual Salary benchmarking and reviews
• Building and running a fit for purpose Disputes/grievance process
• Provide useful data to help guide decision-making, allow the company to scale effectively and efficiently, and create a better working environment and engaged culture
• Keep abreast of best practices, as well as the latest regulations, and continually improve our policies and processes
• Compliance and risk management (e.g. GDPR, IR35)
• Ownership of our HRIS
• Working with Finance to ensure our payroll process is efficient and has the appropriate controls in place

General

• Plan for scale and success, ensure there is a plan to build the People team
• Maintaining Excellence in Remote Working: Ensure a seamless and productive remote working environment for all employees. Implement best practices, tools, and strategies to optimise remote collaboration and efficiency
• Enhancing E, D&I Credentials, take the lead in advancing our Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (E, D&I) initiatives. Collaborate with relevant stakeholders to enhance our credentials in these areas and promote a diverse and inclusive workplace

Requirements

• Significant experience in a senior people role, having seen what good looks like for a company on its way to £20m in revenues and beyond

• A track record of making business decisions and understanding a business’ strategy and how it’s people play a critical role to getting there
• 5+ years experience in a generalist people role with responsibilities across all people functions
• Experience in a business that uses target setting and sets a high bar for people performance
• Previous success in implementing new ideas that have driven outcomes
• Relevant HR qualifications such as CIPD

Nice-to-haves

• An interest in the education sector and the ability to excite potential candidates about our industry

Benefits

Working for a fast-growing, bootstrapped education company is a rare opportunity, one we consider a lifestyle choice rather than a job choice. 

Our positions are challenging but also come with amazing advantages and opportunities.

Here’s what we offer:

• Competitive annual salary
• Annual profit share bonus 
• Share options grant
• 28 days paid vacation (plus UK bank holidays)
• Paid sabbatical – 28 days paid leave for every 3 years you work with SME (in addition to your annual holiday allowance)
• £500 annual Learning & Development budget
• Pension contribution
• Equipment budget for equipment you might need to do your job brilliantly
• Remote working: work from home or wherever you want, including our London co-working space in Old Street. As a Leadership Team member we would expect you to come into the office a couple of times per month. 
• Outcome (not output) culture: we don’t expect (or want) you to spend every waking hour at work. We’re outcome (not output) oriented and want you to be able to operate at your peak for the long term.
• A friendly, positive, and inclusive team culture – we are driven to work hard but we also have fun, with biannual Company Get Togethers, weekly Zoom fitness classes, and whole company coffee coolers
• Most importantly – a real opportunity to positively influence millions of students with the products you create

The Process

If all of this sounds like what you’d love to be doing, we can’t wait to hear from you! So that you know what to expect from us, our hiring process usually involves the following stages:

• Application form
• Initial screening call
• Longer interview with more of the team
• Potential for a final stage interview

We aim to review applications regularly, and you will hear from us within 3 weeks of submitting your application.