Entreprise
Context & Company
Our client is a major international group specialising in business-to-business services. Its German subsidiary runs a labour-intensive business across several dozen sites and brings together more than 5,000 employees : the quality of the service depends directly on the people who deliver it every day.
The Group is accelerating its development in Germany through external growth, with the ambition of significantly increasing its workforce in the medium term.
In this context, we are looking, on behalf of our client, for its HR Director Germany : the executive who will make the HR function capable of absorbing these acquisitions without losing control of its sites or of its social climate.
Poste
What is at stake
The whole challenge of the role fits in one equation: growing fast without weakening what already holds.
Reporting to the Managing Director Germany, with a functional line to Group Human Resources, you sit on the German Executive Committee and lead the subsidiary’s HR function across several dozen sites and more than 5,000 employees.
Your missions
▪ Harmonise HR processes across all sites : Stand alongside operational managers as their closest HR advisor, and structure and professionalise practices so that every site director relies on the same standards.
▪ Steer HR performance : Turn indicators (absenteeism, turnover, productivity, payroll) into decisions taken with site management.
▪ Lead the social dialogue : Co-lead employee relations with the Betriebsrat, negotiate company agreements in a constructive yet firm spirit, aligned with the economic interests of the subsidiary and the Group, and ensure strict compliance with German labour law.
▪ Drive the HR stream of every acquisition : Harmonise employment terms, align structures, bring teams into the Group culture, support managers through transition phases and retain key talent in the companies integrated.
▪ Build recruitment and retention at scale : Hire in volume in a sector facing talent shortages, identify high potentials and lead People Reviews with the Group.
▪ Manage and upskill : Develop the local HR team and make the German managerial line autonomous on its people responsibilities.
Profil
The profile we are looking for
This role is for an experienced HR Director or HR Business Partner who has already led a multi-site scope of several thousand employees in a labour-intensive environment : B2B services, logistics, retail or the service industry.
Holding a Master’s degree (HR, business school or employment law), you bring at least ten years of HR experience and proven practice of the Betriebsrat and German labour law. You have led transformation cycles through to completion and carried at least one post-acquisition integration.
The position is based in Hamburg, with frequent travel to the sites.
You work in German every day, your English or French is excellent. Beyond technical expertise, it is the way you operate on the ground that will make the difference.
▪ Field legitimacy : You earn the authority of demanding site directors through your presence and the accuracy of your answers, more than through your title.
▪ Composure in ambiguity : You decide quickly and soundly when the situation is unclear, in high-volume environments where waiting is not an option.
▪ Constructive firmness : You hold a position with social partners without breaking the dialogue, and you know what each agreement costs and brings to the subsidiary.
▪ Economic reading : You argue HR decisions in terms of payroll, productivity and data, drawing on global HR information systems such as Workday or SAP.
▪ Group ambition : You want to grow within a major international group, with a strategic vision that reaches beyond the traditional HR scope.
Why join them ?
Joining this subsidiary means joining a major international group, with the resources and standards that come with it, and a direct line to Group Human Resources.
What sets this role apart is the moment at which you take it on: the subsidiary is preparing to change scale. It is yours to structure the HR organisation able to absorb that growth : harmonised processes, an integration method, a managerial line ready to carry change.
Take your seat on the German Executive Committee and step into a role whose impact is measured in the social climate, the stability of the sites and the success of the integrations.
Your application will be handled in strict confidence.
