Heather Gould

As a MCIPD qualified Head of HR & Payroll 15+ years of experience across sectors, I have proven track record of steering progressive people functions that create a culture and environment that supports business success.

With a sharp commercial edge, I use a deep understanding of business priorities and a passion for people and their potential to create hybrid HR models that maximise people value. Experienced across the full employee lifecycle as a generalist, I have the interpersonal skills required to navigate through the challenges of employee relations, TUPE and redundancy as needed.

Unafraid to challenge tradition, I am considered a supportive, inspirational leader to teams, and trusted consultant to seniors with the emotional intelligence and integrity to create future-fit human resource models that meet business and people needs.

R&W CIVIL ENGINEERING provide a full range of civil engineering services with specialist expertise in the highways sector, and a reputation for reliability and exceptional service delivery. They are both an Employer of Choice and Contractor of Choice to key clients.
HR Manager & Payroll Manager
R&W CIVIL ENGINEERING, MAY 2017 – 30th June 2023, Redundancy
Ensure effectiveness and value of people in R&W Civil Engineering by prioritising staff. Devise policies, procedures, and standards for guidance of 350 colleagues, previously 650+ employees in operations and support functions. Manage complex employee relation cases, including negotiations with trade unions over disciplinary, grievance, and dismissal actions, complaints, and appeal processes. Provide expertise to managers in line with employment law and best practices for decision making. Ascertain needs of colleagues within seven sister companies with keen focus on improvement across entire employee lifecycle via employee surveys, forums, and communications. Manage HR and Payroll team, comprising four members to elevate overall productivity.
• My role has been pivotal to the effectiveness and value of people in R&W Civil Engineering by placing staff at the heart of the business, and for creating the policies, procedures and standards that guides c.250 colleagues in operations.
• Managing and supporting complex employee relations cases, Inc. Negotiations with trade unions over disciplinary, grievance and dismissal actions, complaints, and appeal processes.
• Provide advice and guidance to stakeholders and managers in line with employment law and best practice.
• Manage employee surveys, forums, and communications to understand the differing needs of colleagues within 7 sister
companies, with a focus on improvement across the entire employee lifecycle.
• Drive successful projects and initiatives that reflected on changes to Diversity & Inclusion, Human Factors,

Culture and Leadership-guided change/transformation.
• Successfully steered a 5-strong dedicated HR & Payroll team – created a clear succession structure, personal development programme and culture that allowed each colleague to realise their potential.
• I have launched a new Rewards & Recognition structure that improved the brands value in the recruitment and talent retention space, and was key to R&W achieving recognition as an Employer of Choice
• I manage strategic partnerships with Fareham College which has been critical for the launch of a bespoke Civil Engineering Apprenticeship at CETC – steered the recruitment of 22 apprentices in 9 cohorts since 2017, most recently winning southeast regional SME Employer of the year for Apprenticeships 2022.
• Management of negotiations, partnerships, and relationships with external training organisations to grow accredited learning and development provision within R&W in partnership with the Training Manager.
• Achieved a seamless implementation of a Self-Service HR System that improved employee knowledge, engagement, and adherence to expecting working standards.
• Created and managed an ongoing 360 employee review allowing regular discussions not only about their key challenges but to support employees with their career paths.
• Created and manage the R&W Academy, inc. a new Competency Matrix that allowed employees to self-progress their career, which was key to the win of the Investors in People Silver Award.
• Manage Payroll process and Real Time Information, steer the team to ensure they meet the weekly and monthly deadlines delivering an accurate service to the employees.
PAYROLL SPECIALIST
R&W CIVIL ENGINEERING, MAR 2016 – MAY 2017
• Started with R&W on a contract basis to improve system and processes within the HR & Payroll department. Shortly after, I bridged the gap from Payroll Specialist to Head of HR & Payroll following a period advising senior managers and directors on recruitment, better HR/People practices and progressive HR structures
HJS ACCOUNTANTS was a team of proactive and reliable accountants who provide comprehensive accountancy, taxation and business advisory services to firms and individuals across the UK. Operating from three primary offices, HJS provided a bespoke service that is tailored to client trade and industry.
HR & PAYROLL MANAGER
HJS ACCOUNTANTS, AUG 2014 – FEB 2016
• Coordinated the processing of payroll for 10,000+ employees from 450 clients each month.
• Successfully executed the entire client base from Sage 50 to Star, which included communications with clients and the
mitigation of objections and concerns ahead of migration.
• Pivotal to the introduction of Auto Enrolment in the company and for client service offerings.
• Coached and inspired the HR & Payroll department to meet business and client demands, with personal focus on managing the Shared Inbox, work allocations, quality assurance and team effectiveness.
• Guided a 7-strong team from recruitment to performance and promotion, with a focus on embedding a progressive, inclusive culture that created an environment for every talent to realise their potential.
NHS SHARED BUSINESS SERVICES (SBS) is a joint venture between the Department of Health and French IT services company, Sopra Steria. Combined, they provide back-office services including accounting, procurement, payroll, and managed IT to NHS organisations.
SENIOR PAYROLL CLERK & HR ADMINISTRATOR NHS SBS SERVICES, JULY 2012 – AUG 2014
• Partnered with NHS Foundation Trusts and Ambulance Trusts to run monthly payroll cycles – initially hired as a Payroll Clerk and was promoted to Senior Payroll Clerk & HR Administrator after just 8 months.
• Formed an impactful member of the payroll and HR team to coordinate 8000+ employee payroll authorisations, payment setup and processes each month.
• Specialised in the action of monthly changes to payroll details, implementing incremental changes on time.
• Formed a part of the QA team to cross-check payroll for input accurate prior to send to finance.
• Coached, mentored, and trained new payroll and HR administrators through induction programmes.
   
 GI GROUP provides temporary and permanent recruitment, staffing and jobs in a variety of sectors, and is one of the largest companies in the staffing industry, headquartered in Milan, Italy. The GI Group provides a full range of HR services, inc. professional staffing, search and selection and executive search.
ACCOUNT MANAGER
GI GROUP, JULY 2010 – JULY 2012
• Hired to steer a recruitment project to source and select 150 permanent members of staff for a globally recognised enterprise – which following success, resulted in an offer of a permanent contract.
• Account Manager on the Temp Recruitment Desk, responsible for the sourcing and management of 250+ temps in active contracts for top clients, inc. Coopervision, a $1billion+ t/o corporate.
• Created branded job descriptions, advertisements, and content for multi-platform dissemination.
• Managed the end-to-end recruitment lifecycle inc. candidate screening, interview, and recommendation.
• Hosted a series of capability and assessment programmes to analyse candidates against client specifications.
• Maintained account and project documentation, statistics, and reports with regular updates to clients.
• Coordinated payroll new starter, leaver, and payment results on a weekly payment cycle.
• Owned employee relations, discipline, and grievance procedures raised by temp workers in various roles.

CIPD - Level 7 

Member of CIPD