Head of Labour & Performance

About us

Halfords is on a journey - building the future of motoring and cycling and looking for people who want to help shape what comes next. We’re a place for co‑creators: people who want to make a real impact, take ownership and be part of something that’s still evolving.

That means real variety for our colleagues, along with the opportunity to learn, stretch and develop as the business moves forward. Whatever your role, you’ll be part of a team focused on delivering exceptional service - using your expertise to solve problems, guide customers and help keep the nation moving with confidence.

About the role

We're looking for a strategic and commercially minded leader to join our Garage Operations team as Head of Labour & Performance. This is a critical leadership role responsible for driving operational excellence across our garage network, ensuring we maximise labour utilisation, unlock growth opportunities and deliver exceptional performance across every centre.

Leading through data, insight and operational coaching, you'll work closely with regional and centre leadership teams to improve efficiency, profitability and consistency of both colleague and customer experience. You'll identify opportunities, challenge performance, embed best practice and create a culture of continuous improvement across the estate.

Acting as deputy to the Garage Central Operations Director, you'll play a key role in shaping operational strategy and influencing the future performance of our network.

Key responsibilities

• Own and continuously evolve the Garage labour strategy, ensuring labour deployment, utilisation and productivity models support business growth, operational efficiency and exceptional customer outcomes.
• Lead the design, implementation and optimisation of the Garage Operating Model, delivering sustainable reductions in cost to serve while maintaining quality, compliance and customer experience standards.
• Accountable for Garage labour budgets and workforce planning, including forecasting, headcount strategy, payroll management and resource allocation across the network.
• Develop and maintain demand forecasting and capacity planning frameworks, ensuring centres are appropriately resourced to meet customer demand and commercial objectives.
• Design and oversee centre workforce structures and skills mix, ensuring the right capability, capacity and flexibility is in place to maximise performance across all locations.
• Own the performance management framework for the Garage Network, establishing meaningful KPIs, reporting, analytics and performance insights that drive accountability and decision-making.
• Provide data-driven recommendations to the senior leadership team, translating operational and financial performance data into actionable strategies that improve productivity, profitability and growth.
• Lead operational improvement and transformation initiatives, including the implementation of new systems, tools, processes and ways of working that enhance labour efficiency and colleague effectiveness.
• Partner with Operations, Finance, HR and Learning teams to identify performance and capability gaps, develop improvement plans and build organisational capability across the network.
• Design, govern and evaluate incentive and reward programmes, ensuring bonus structures align colleague performance with operational, customer and commercial objectives.

About you

• A commercially minded operational leader with significant experience in workforce planning, labour optimisation and multi-site performance management, ideally within a service-led or operational environment.
• Highly analytical and comfortable interpreting complex operational and financial data, translating insights into practical actions that improve productivity, profitability and customer outcomes.
• A strong collaborator who builds credibility through partnership, working closely with centre teams to understand operational realities, challenge assumptions and validate performance data.
• Skilled at influencing and engaging stakeholders at all levels, with the confidence to lead change, challenge constructively and drive accountability for results.
• Passionate about developing people and building high-performing teams, using coaching, mentoring and succession planning to strengthen capability and long-term performance.
• Customer-focused and results-driven, with excellent commercial acumen and the ability to balance operational efficiency, colleague experience and customer satisfaction while delivering against ambitious business goals.

Reward & benefits

• A fair and competitive salary evaluated against market data, car allowance, annual discretionary bonus scheme, pension, life assurance, 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays and enhanced family leave.
• Commitment and dedication to your ongoing personal and professional development. We help you to own and grow your potential so you can be at your best in your current role and to support your future career aspirations.

• We offer hybrid working in our Support Centre, you will be based at our Support Centre 3 days a week with an optional 2 days working from home.
• You will have access to a wealth of employee discounts across the Halfords suite of products and services.
• Wellbeing and inclusion are at the heart of our colleague experience. We offer resources and ongoing support to enhance your wellbeing at work and active Colleague Networks supporting inclusion initiatives across Halfords.

Not sure you meet all the criteria? We'd encourage you to take the wheel and apply anyway! At Halfords we are committed to creating an inclusive workplace for our colleagues. We're an equal opportunities employer and proud to welcome applications from all backgrounds and embrace diversity within our one Halfords Family.

At Halfords, we operate a hybrid working policy with 3 days on site at our Support Centre in Redditch.