Head of HR / People & Culture

Head of HR / People & Culture

Christchurch | Full-Time | Senior Leadership Role

Lead our people strategy. Build great leaders. Create a high-performing customer serviceculture.

We are a growing New Zealand pharmacy retail business with an expanding network of stores and a strong focus on delivering exceptional value and service to our customers.

As we continue to grow, we are looking for an experienced and commercially minded Head of HR / People & Culture to lead our people strategy and help build the culture, capability and leadership needed for our next stage of growth.

This is a genuine leadership opportunity for someone who wants to make a difference — not simply manage HR processes.

About the Role

Reporting directly to the director, you will be responsible for developing and executing a practical, commercially aligned people strategy across our retail stores, pharmacy operations and Head Office.

You will be a trusted advisor to our leadership team and Regional/Store Managers, providing hands-on leadership across the full employee lifecycle.

Your focus will be on creating a high-performing, accountable and engaged workforce while ensuring our people practices are consistent, legally sound and aligned with our business strategy.

Key responsibilities include:

People & Culture Strateg

• Develop and implement a people strategy aligned to the company's growth plans.

   

   

• Build a strong, performance-focused culture across the store network.
  

• Develop initiatives that improve employee engagement, retention and team experience.
  

• Establish clear people metrics and reporting for the leadership team.
  

• Provide strategic HR advice to the Executive and senior leadership teams.

   

   

Leadership & Capability

• Build the capability of Store Managers, Regional Managers and Support Office leaders.
  

• Introduce and embed a structured leadership development programme.
  

• Develop talent pipelines and succession plans for key leadership roles.
  

• Implement Personal Development Plans and career pathways.
  

• Coach leaders to confidently manage people, performance and difficult conversations.

   

   

Performance Management

• Lead the implementation of a consistent performance management framework.
  

• Establish clear expectations, KPIs and accountability across the business.
  

• Build a culture where high performance is recognised and poor performance is addressed early and fairly.

   

   

Employment Relations

• Provide expert advice on employment relations matters across the business.
  

• Manage complex employee relations, disciplinary, grievance and performance matters.
  

• Ensure HR policies, processes and employment agreements remain compliant with New Zealand employment legislation.
  

• Ensure consistent and fair application of HR policies across the network.

   

   

Recruitment & Workforce Planning

• Develop a proactive recruitment strategy for our growing store network.
  

• Review and Improve recruitment, onboarding and retention processes.
  

• Develop workforce planning that supports new store openings and business growth.
  

• Strengthen our employer brand and employee value proposition.

   

   

Health, Safety & Wellbeing

• Provide leadership across workplace health, safety and wellbeing.
  

• Partner with Operations to build a strong safety culture across our stores.
  

• Ensure HR processes support a safe, inclusive and respectful workplace.
  

• Monitor people-related risks and ensure appropriate actions are taken.

   

   

HR Systems & Processes

• Review and improve existing HR processes, policies and systems.
  

• Identify opportunities to streamline HR administration and improve manager self-service.
  

• Establish consistent HR processes across all stores.

   

   

About You

We are looking for an experienced HR leader who is equally comfortable developing strategy in the boardroom and dealing with a complex people issue in a retail store.

You will ideally bring:

• 5-8 years' experience in senior HR/People & Culture roles.

   

   

• Experience in retail, pharmacy multi-site environment.

   

   

• Strong knowledge of New Zealand employment legislation and employment relations.
  

• Proven experience managing complex employment relations matters.

   

   

• Experience implementing performance management and talent development frameworks.
  

• Strong leadership development and coaching capability.
  

• Experience leading recruitment and workforce planning in a high-volume environment.
  

• Commercial acumen and an understanding of how people strategy drives business performance.
  

• Excellent communication and influencing skills.
  

• High emotional intelligence, sound judgement and discretion.
  

• The confidence to challenge senior leaders when required.
  

• A practical, hands-on approach - someone who gets things done.

   

   

A relevant tertiary qualification in Human Resources, Business, Organisational Developmentor a related discipline would be advantageous.

What Success Looks Like

In your first 12 months, you will have:

• Established a clear People & Culture strategy aligned to the business plan.
  

• Review and improvethe performance management framework.

   

   

• Strengthened Store Manager and Regional Manager leadership capability.

   

   

• Improved recruitment and onboarding across the store network.

   

   

• Established talent and succession plans for key roles.

   

   

• Improved employee engagement and retention.

   

   

• Strengthened employment relations capability across the leadership team.

   

   

• Reviewed and improved HR policies, processes and systems.

   

   

• Introduced meaningful HR reporting and people KPIs.

   

   

• Built a strong, trusted and commercially focused HR function.

   

   

Why Join Us?

This is an opportunity to join a growing New Zealand pharmacy retail business at an exciting stage of its development.

You will have the opportunity to shape the culture, build the leadership capability and develop the people systems that will support our continued growth.

You won't be joining to simply maintain an existing HR function — you'll be joining to build and improve it.

If you are an experienced HR leader who enjoys working in fast-paced, customer-focused environments and wants to have a genuine impact on a growing New Zealand business, we'dlove to hear from you.

Apply now

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