People & Culture Lead

The organisation

innocent started with a simple mission: create tasty drinks that are good for people and the planet. The company started in 1999, mixing up a few smoothies and handing them out at a music festival; today they offer a wide variety of healthy fruit and veggie-based drinks and sell more than three million bottles per week across Europe.

The company is owned by Coca-Cola and until recently relied on a network of third-party partners and co-packers to fulfil their supply chain needs. In 2021 innocent built their new juice and smoothie factory called ‘the blender’ in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The carbon neutral facility enables the brand to produce and pack the majority of their products in-house and supports their mission to work more efficiently and sustainably. innocent is proud to be a B Corporation and donates 10% of their annual profit to charity, including to their own innocent foundation, which focuses on helping to battle world hunger.

Over the past two years, innocent has grown significantly and continues to do so as they ramp up their production capacities at ‘the blender.’ The company is on a journey to stabilize their in-house operations and build up their supply chain teams, enabling the blender to run smoothly and maintain their market position as Europe’s favorite healthy little drinks company.

The position

innocent makes ‘Europe’s favorite healthy little drinks.’ The company is transitioning after moving production and majority of their supply chain to their carbon-neutral factory in Rotterdam in 2021. The People & Culture Lead will head the People & Culture Team, build the people agenda, optimize organizational design, and drive employee engagement.

innocent is in the middle of an important scale-up phase. The company is not only transforming their production but also their way of working, focusing on transitioning towards being a results-driven and value-led organization. The People & Culture Lead will facilitate this transformation as the leader of the People & Culture team and

member of the Supply Chain Leadership Team. They will implement leadership strategies aligned with innocent’s mission and company culture, enhancing internal capabilities, optimizing organizational design, and driving high performance.

The People & Culture Lead will lead innocent’s People & Culture team consisting of nine (in)direct reports. The team is arranged across four key pillars, including People Partnering & People Operations, Talent Partnering, Learning & Development, and Office & Culture. Guiding and motivating the team, they will increase employee engagement and drive the establishment of streamlined processes across innocent’s Supply Chain organization consisting of 300 FTEs, located in both Rotterdam and London.

The People & Culture Lead will further build the people agenda for the entire Supply Chain Team. They will focus on building an organization ready for the future and supporting the delivery of innocent’s ambitious supply strategy, both in the short and long term. Focused on driving sustainable growth, they will implement plans to improve employee experience, proactively manage talent, define clear roles and responsibilities, and offer interesting career journeys. Utilizing people performance data and insights, they will identify challenges and implement strategies which support the improvement of talent engagement, retention, development, and attraction.

Reporting to the Director of People Partnering, who is based in the UK, the People & Culture Lead will also be part of innocent’s global People Partnering Lead Team and act as an important business partner to the Supply Chain Director and the Supply Chain Leadership Team. As a confident and energetic leader, the People & Culture Lead connects, motivates, and inspires. They have a vision for the future of innocent’s people agenda and understand how to effectively manage the change needed to achieve it.

“We have taken huge steps to improve our production, now we need the right people strategy to enable high performance and happy employees. The People & Culture Lead will link our business and our people, your ideas, and the processes you put in place will be the foundation of our future success.” – Naomi Wallace, Director of People Partnering

Candidate profile

innocent employees live by the company’s five main values: commercial, responsible, natural, open-minded, and unified and share a passion for the company’s mission to keep people healthy and make sure our planet becomes healthier too. This role is perfect for an entrepreneurial and results-driven individual with a can-do attitude. It is an exciting challenge for a candidate with a background in people processes and operations looking for a leadership position where they can make a significant impact.

Requirements:

• 10+ years of experience in HR
• Experience in supply chain or a manufacturing environment
• And with works councils and trade unions
• Stakeholder management
• Confident team leader
• Fluent in Dutch

Interested?

You are invited to apply for this position by following the link below.