People Operations Specialist

Good Food Institute Europe

About the Organisation

Good Food Institute Europe (GFI Europe) is a nonprofit think tank at the forefront of the movement to transform meat production to solve some of the world’s biggest problems, from climate change and global hunger to antibiotic resistance and animal suffering.

We work with scientists, businesses, and policymakers to make plant-based, fermentation-made, and cultivated meat (grown directly from cells) delicious, affordable, and accessible. Please check out the rest of our website, our 2024 Europe Highlights blog post, and our 2023 Year in Review to find out more about who we are and what our charity does.

As GFI Europe continues to grow, our People Operations team has the exciting mission of developing our function to ensure we’re set up to support every one of our team members to have a positive professional journey here. As such, the People Operations Specialist will play a key role in ensuring we achieve operational excellence whilst also contributing to the continuous development of our people policies, practices, and experiences.

About the role

Your role will span the entire employee lifecycle, with particular ownership of select areas. You will play a pivotal role in ensuring that People Operations runs smoothly and effectively, delivering a positive People experience to our team. 

Responsibilities

Recruitment:

• Lead our end-to-end recruitment operations (from process design through to the offer stage), working collaboratively with managers and providing guidance to colleagues.
• Acting as a thought partner to support hiring managers through the assessment design and feedback process,  as well as training them on our recruitment processes and methodologies, ensuring that they continuously have the tools and resources they require to hire. 
• Continuously ensure a positive candidate experience, including effectively managing the Applicant Tracking System and all candidate communications. 

Payroll and Compliance:

• Lead our monthly payroll process, working collaboratively with other Operations colleagues to ensure our employees in each jurisdiction are paid correctly and punctually.
• We regularly work with our payroll providers to monitor employment legislation changes in all applicable countries. 
• Ensure relevant stakeholders are aware of key changes, create and update payroll documentation for each country, and make recommendations for essential contractual, policy or process updates.

Benefits and Professional Development:

• Work closely with the Deputy Head of Ops (People) to review our benefits offering, own a range of research and analysis-based tasks including monitoring employee wellbeing and satisfaction, and suggest and implement incremental improvements based on evidence. 
• Own the process of administering benefits to employees across the organization.
• Assist with Learning and Development tasks by gathering team or department L&D needs, looking for professional development opportunities, evaluating the success of initiatives, and supporting the internal organization of L&D activities and events. 
• Policies: 
• Work closely with the Deputy Head of People (Ops) to research and co-write content to update our People policies, ensuring they reflect our organizational culture, promote a fair, inclusive, and equitable environment, and provide legislative protection to the organization, also ensuring that DEI principles are embedded and embodied across the employee lifecycle. 

Additional Support:

• Create and maintain the annual People calendar to track key internal deadlines and tasks, for example conducting policy reviews and managing end-of-year annual leave balances.
• Act as backup for other Ops team members when they are absent or have limited capacity. 
• Manage HR tools and systems that are relevant to your role, implementing new tools and systems as required. 
• Provide other support where needed

Skills, Competencies & Experience

• Passion for GFI’s philosophy and mission.
• Proven experience in taking ownership of a range of People Operations responsibilities, including managing or having high involvement with monthly payroll in at least one of our relevant payroll countries (Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Germany, and Spain). 
• Proven experience in successfully managing in-house recruitment efforts, including a vested interest in ensuring recruitment processes are fair and effective, and deliver a positive candidate experience.
• Ability to work in a small, agile organization: comfortable with coordinating projects, problem-solving, reprioritizing, and working with a high pace of change.
• Strong organization skills and high attention to detail, with a commitment to ensuring accuracy in pursuit of operational excellence. 
• High emotional intelligence with the ability to foster positive, strong, and collaborative relationships with diverse groups of people at all levels in the organization.
• Enthusiasm, a strong work ethic, and self-motivation: a sense of ownership and responsibility to drive outcomes. 
• Affinity with our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, and with maintaining our welcoming, supportive culture.
• Tech savviness: comfort using various software tools and platforms in a remote workplace, and a willingness to learn and adapt to new systems.
• Language skills: ability to work effectively in English
• European Human Resources qualification.
• Experience in Human Resources, Talent Acquisition, Learning and Development, and People Operations in more than one European country.
• Experience in implementing and managing an HRIS. 
• Ability to speak work in European languages in addition to English.

Required Qualifications

• Undergraduate Degree

Compensation & Benefits

• Attractive Benefits
• Home-Working Allowance

Conditions of employment

• You need to be eligible to work in the EU

Working locations

• Home-based within the EU
• Limited travel required

How to apply

• Send an email to [email protected] with a CV and a cover letter by 10th February 2025 at 11:59 PM

Interviews

• Shortlisted candidates will be contacted for an interview. The telephone interview will start on 17th February 2025. 
• The timed Assignment will start in February or March 2025 .
• The final interview will start in March 2025

Policies

• We want the best people and we know that building a diverse, inclusive workplace leads to stronger, happier, more productive, and more resilient teams. We strongly encourage people of every ethnicity, orientation, age, gender, origin, socio-economic background, and ability to apply. Because we value a diverse workplace, we prioritize an inclusive culture absent of discrimination and harassment during the application process and after you join the team.

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