Job Description

Details

Main Purpose of the role:

The Talent Acquisition Partner is responsible for attracting, sourcing, assessing, and hiring high-quality talent across the organisation. The role partners closely with hiring managers to understand workforce requirements, develop recruitment strategies, deliver an excellent candidate experience, and support the organisation's talent and growth objectives. The role has been created as part of a strategic initiative to reduce agency spend and build a more proactive, in-house talent acquisition function.

The ideal candidate will be an experienced HR professional who is looking to focus on talent acquisition but is also able to support the People Partners and People Director with the wider HR function and People related projects. 

Reporting to:

People Director UK

Location:

Hadleigh, Suffolk (with travel to other UK sites when required)

Main Tasks of the Job:

Recruitment & Talent Acquisition

• Manage the full recruitment lifecycle from vacancy approval through to offer acceptance and onboarding.

• Reduce the reliance on external recruitment agencies by building and executing talent attraction strategies.

• Work with hiring managers to develop recruitment plans and role requirements.

• Create engaging job descriptions, advertisements, and candidate attraction campaigns.

• Source candidates through job boards, social media, networking, referrals, and direct sourcing techniques.

• Screen applications, conduct interviews, and coordinate assessment activities.

• Maintain talent pipelines for critical and hard-to-fill roles.

• Ensure vacancies are filled within agreed timescales while maintaining quality standards.

• Act as a brand ambassador by delivering a positive candidate journey, ensuring timely communication through the recruitment process and managing offer negotiations.

• Managing relationships with external recruitment agencies where additional support is required and negotiating favourable terms of business and balancing this with the recruitment budget.

• Help identify and unlock employee potential in the UK, and across the Northern Europe countries.

Internal Mobility

• Initially support the identification and promotion of internal career opportunities within the UK, helping managers consider existing employees when filling vacancies.

• Work with the People team to improve visibility of employee skills, potential and career aspirations, and help connect suitable employees with development opportunities.

• Over time, build relationships and processes that enable appropriate mobility opportunities across Northern Europe and internationally, in line with business need and the future development of the role.

Proactive Retention & Future Talent

• Develop proactive retention strategies for critical roles and key talent, using workforce data, employee feedback, engagement insights and external market intelligence to identify risks and prioritise action.

• Establish and promote stay interviews, equipping managers to understand what encourages employees to remain, identify emerging concerns and agree timely actions before talent is lost.

• Partner with leaders and People Partners to create targeted retention and development plans for employees in business-critical roles or with strong future potential.

• Develop clear career pathways that show the skills, experience and development required for progression across specialist, operational and leadership roles.

• Connect individual career aspirations with mentoring, coaching, training, project assignments, job shadowing, secondments and internal mobility opportunities.

• Build and maintain an evidence-based talent pool, capturing performance, potential, career aspirations, development priorities, mobility preferences and succession readiness.

• Coordinate regular talent and succession reviews with leaders to identify capability gaps, assess bench strength and ensure robust pipelines for critical roles.

• Support the development of SOPREMA’s “Leaders of Tomorrow” through structured development plans, cross-functional exposure, stretch assignments and opportunities to lead strategic business challenges.

• Monitor retention, internal progression, talent-pool development and succession readiness, reporting insights and recommendations to the People Director and senior leadership team.

Stakeholder Management

• Build strong relationships with hiring managers and leaders.

• Provide advice and guidance on recruitment best practice and market trends.

• Support managers with interview techniques and selection decisions.

• Challenge and influence hiring decisions to ensure fairness and objectivity.

Projects & Continuous Improvement

• Continually assess the competitor market and bring new strategies to attract and retain top talent into SOPREMA.

• Take the lead on talent acquisition projects and their successful implementation into the business.

• Improve and maintain our recruitment record keeping, aiming to digitalise wherever possible.

• Implement and manage an Applicant Tracking System (ATS).

• Provide reports on key recruitment metrics e.g. time to hire, cost per hire, diversity metrics and quality of hire.

• Lead or support wider people related projects as part of our team’s continuous improvement efforts.

People Partnering

Provide wider support for the regional People Partners when needed including:

• Lead and support employee relations cases and matters, mitigating organisational risk and ensuring we remain consistent with our company values

• Ensuring fair, consistent and legally compliant approach.

• Supporting organisational change and evolution projects.

• Working with People Partners on development and retention plans for key talent.

• Maintaining the day-to-day partnership with leaders and carrying out HR related duties to cover People Partners at times of annual leave to ensure we maintain a consistent and quality service to our customers.

Compliance

• Promote inclusive recruitment processes and ensure our recruitment practices comply with equality and diversity legislation.

• Implement and support initiatives to attract diverse talent pools.

• Ensure all recruitment activities comply with UK employment legislation and GDPR requirements.

• Manage right-to-work checks and pre-employment screening processes.

• Ensure recruitment policies and procedures are followed consistently.

Skills and Knowledge:

Essential Experience  

• Proven experience of in-house recruitment or talent acquisition.  

• Strong understanding of recruitment and talent management best practice. 

• Proven experience managing end-to-end recruitment campaigns and sourcing candidates through multiple channels. 

• Experience using HRIS and Applicant Tracking Systems (we use PeopleHR)  

• Experience partnering with senior stakeholders and business leaders. 

• Knowledge of UK employment law and HR policies. 

• Knowledge of equality, diversity, and inclusion principles. 

• Understanding of GDPR and data protection requirements. 

• Experience in workforce planning and succession planning. 

• Previous experience leading and implementing people related projects.  

Skills & Attributes  

• Ability to operate both strategically and operationally.  

• A passion for employee acquisition, retention and talent development.  

• A self-starter mentality with a desire to take ownership and drive change.  

• Excellent communication, influencing and stakeholder management skills. 

• Strong problem-solving and coaching capability. 

• Strong interviewing and selection skills. 

• Data-driven approach with the ability to interpret HR metrics. 

• Attention to detail and strong organisational skills. 

• A flexible and adaptable approach suited to a growing organisation.  

Desirable 

• CIPD Level 5 or Level 7 qualification  

• Experience within manufacturing, construction products, engineering or industrial sectors.  

• Experience supporting organisational change programmes. 

• Experience implementing talent management frameworks. 

The above is not an exhaustive list of duties and you will be expected to perform different tasks as necessitated by your changing role within the organisation and the overall business objectives of the organisation.

Join Our Team

How to Apply:

If you are interested in applying for the role, please send your CV to hr@soprema.co.uk.