THE DETAILS:

Job Title: HR and Recruitment Manager
Department: HR, Operations Hub
Reports to: Senior HR Manager
Responsible for: No direct reports
Hours: Full time, permanent
Location:Manchester, Northern Quarter. We operate a Hybrid working policy of ideally minimum 3 days in Manchester HQ per week.

THE ROLE:

As HR and Recruitment Manager at Ear to the Ground, you will play a key role in supporting the agency’s HR and talent acquisition function, helping to ensure we attract, hire, and retain exceptional people while fostering a positive, inclusive, and engaging employee experience. Working closely with senior stakeholders, you will provide practical, first-line HR support across the employee lifecycle, balancing day-to-day operational delivery with a strong understanding of best practice and compliance.

This role is both hands-on and advisory, requiring the ability to manage core HR activity while building trusted relationships with Core Leaders and employees. You will oversee recruitment and onboarding activity, provide guidance on routine employee relations matters, and help ensure HR processes, policies, and systems are applied consistently and fairly across the agency.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Recruitment:

Own and lead the agency’s end-to-end talent acquisition strategy across employees and work experience placements, ensuring a consistent, inclusive and high-quality experience at every stage.

Partner with Core Leads to set up a recruitment kick off, and ensure that agency recruitment processes are followed for each role.

Strengthen ETTG’s employer brand, through our careers page and LinkedIn.

Identify, onboard and manage relationships with external recruitment agency partners, ensuring alignment with our culture, values and hiring needs.

Oversee agency performance and recruitment spend, negotiating terms and driving value for money while reducing unnecessary reliance on third-party recruiters where possible.

Oversee onboarding and induction frameworks that set people up for success, partnering with hiring managers and internal teams to ensure a smooth transition into the business.

Early Talent pathways

Develop, implement and lead the agency approach for work experience and internships placements, and administer this programme day to day, including maintaining ongoing relationships with University and community partners

Employee experience:

Own onboarding and offboarding processes, including actioning contract creation, system, access, liaison with PC Support (outsourced IT provider), induction scheduling and offboarding administration.

Support the SHRM with the design and implementation of employee experiences, including the recruitment, onboarding journey, and probation journey.

HR Advice, Policies and Procedures

Provide guidance to employees and Core Leaders on routine HR-related queries and escalate complex issues as necessary.

Maintain up to date knowledge of UK employment law and understand how to put this into practice.

Support with the creation of policies and processes alongside SHRM.

Partner with, and coach, junior Core Leaders in the business to develop their management capacity, and support in routine employee relations issues (absence management, informal concerns) in order to support the development of a high performing culture.

Training and development

Support the mandatory training programme for the agency.

Coordinate and deliver training to employees and Core Leaders as required, including Core Leader workshops.

Assist SHRM in development training strategy and business cases where required

Support with reporting on our CPD records to maintain and develop IPA accreditation.

Culture and engagement

Work with the SHRM to run and report on regular Employee Engagement Surveys, and develop and implement recommendations for action.

Manage the Staff Entertainment budget.

Lead the Social Committee and act as the main point of contact for planning for our team socials, parties and quarterly summits (e.g. sourcing venues, catering etc.), and weekly kick offs and Huddles.

HR Operations Lead

Play a lead role in strengthening our HR operation, ensuring that they’re compliant, efficient, reliable, and ready to support the agency.

Maintain accurate and up-to-date employee records, ensuring compliance with relevant legislation and internal policies and ensuring data privacy and security.

Produce contractual paperwork and HR related letters (e.g. pay and promotions)

Support with recommendations for systems and technology that increases efficiency in the HR team.

Lead administrator for HRIS and ATS, and Right to Work compliance checks, with responsibility for automating process and maximising efficiency in all of these systems

Operations Support

Support with Operations projects where these intersect with HR.

Collaborate with departmental heads to design and implement dedicated onboarding boards onMonday.com for new freelancers.

KEY REQUIREMENTS:

Our ideal successful candidate will have:

Proven experience in providing day to day recruitment support, HR advice and guidance to managers,
Proven experience of implementing inclusive recruitment strategies, and managing inhouse recruitment processes
CIPD qualification (Level 5 or above) or actively working towards this
Experience in supporting accreditation processes is highly desirable.
Experience in coordinating routine training programs.
Demonstrable experience in project management, including planning, execution, monitoring, and reporting.
Strong organisational and time management skills, with the ability to prioritise tasks and manage multiple responsibilities effectively.
Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build strong working relationships with stakeholders at all levels.
Strong attention to detail and a high degree of accuracy.
Ability to handle confidential information with discretion and maintain professional integrity.
Proficiency in project management systems (such asMonday.com) preferred, although training on this will be provided.
Passionate about music, sports, gaming, and entertainment.
Proactive and self-motivated with a strong sense of ownership
Solution-oriented with a flexible and adaptable approach
Collaborative and a strong team player
Excellent problem-solving skills
Commitment to continuous improvement

THE AGENCY

Ear to the Ground is a global sport, gaming, and entertainment creative agency with a unique model that sets us apart. We are driven by Fan Intelligence®, our global network of 12,000 influential tastemakers and fans. Our real time insight into what fans truly want, enables us to create compelling work that consistently pushes the boundaries of culture.

We pride ourselves on being the agency that listens better than anyone to solve our clients' challenges, maximise their sport, gaming and entertainment partnerships, and ultimately build brands that lead culture. We’ve helped clients including Nike, PlayStation, JD, NBA, Coca-Cola and 2K turn fans into consumers by delivering culturally relevant, fan-first campaigns that inspire emotional connection and measurable business impact.

You can learn more about the agency with our 2025 agency show reelhere.

OUR CULTURE

We are dedicated to making Ear to the Ground an amazing place to work where people grow, develop and thrive. We pride ourselves on our dynamic and exciting culture, excellent support of staff and fantastic benefits package. We have made it our mission to lead the way in being an inspiring, future-thinking, creative agency and are invested in our people because they are the ones that will make that happen.

Some of our benefits include:

🕒 Flexible & hybrid working
🎉 Birthday off
👶 Workplace nursery benefit
👩‍👧‍👦 Enhanced maternity, paternity and shared parental leave
🏥 Private medical insurance and health cash plan
🤒 Enhanced sick leave
🚴‍♂️ Cycle to Work scheme
🐶 Dog friendly office
🚗 EV salary sacrifice scheme
📈 Personal development coaching
+more

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