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Talent Resourcing Manager

At ustwo we invent, design and build digital products, services, and immersive experiences that people love. We also help our clients to change their digital culture and boost their capabilities.

We believe that by caring deeply for our people, clients, and partners, we can unleash our “collective genius”. That means mastering the art of collaboration, crafting the optimal conditions for a team to perform at its absolute best.

ustwo is committed to making a measurable positive impact on people's everyday lives. We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity. We believe diverse teams help us make better products and services and actively hire for cultural growth. We welcome people of all ages, genders, stories and backgrounds.

The Role

The ever-increasing volume, value and complexity of the London studio mean that operational best practice and support are more important than ever. We see this requirement only getting bigger over time.

Central to the success of the studio is our people. The Talent and Resource Manager will play an integral role in helping to define and build our resourcing capability, helping to power ustwo’s continued growth as a global digital product studio by providing an analytical and decision-support function. The primary objective is to help embed vital resource management processes and ensure that we are successfully resourced for all upcoming external and internal projects.

By ensuring that we have the right people working on the right projects, this role is pivotal in ensuring we consistently win and deliver outstanding work that our teams are passionate about, and in helping our people continue to grow and develop personally and professionally.

This role will help to shape resourcing across the local studio (which includes teams in Lisbon and Tokyo) and support our transition into a more proactive approach of delivery. As you grow, you will work directly with department heads to plan and forecast opportunities for growth and how to scale the business locally. You will also have the opportunity to shape and grow the resource function across the company in partnership with colleagues in our Malmo, New York and Sydney studios.

This role will be reporting into our Head of Finance and alongside this individual will be expected to achieve the larger goal of driving optimal revenue and profit performance via operational efficiency. This individual must be able to work cross functionally with the project, commercial, senior management and business support teams to thoughtfully and accurately succeed in this role. This individual must be a highly motivated, hands-on, and effective communicator who thrives in the challenging but essential task of managing a detail-oriented discipline inside rapidly changing, ever-innovative organisations.

Key Relationships

Primary stakeholders

Delivery teams, Commercial team, Discipline Leads, Business Support, People team, MD

Functional reporting line

Head of Finance

Role Specifics

Casting / Resourcing

• Hold a studio level view of casting, ensuring that our projects and new business opportunities are well resourced and that we are maximising the value we are getting from our people.
• Liasing with our other studios to help successfully staff inter-studio projects and look at how we can share resources.
• Being a lynchpin of project delivery within the business, with up-to-date knowledge of our project teams and the skills needed to deliver against the briefs/projects.
• Ensure that we are proactively resourced for all upcoming projects by tracking resource requirements and assigning project teams accordingly.
• Working with project teams to resolve resource challenges and clashes week to week.
• Liaising with all heads of department to offer visibility on upcoming resource capacity as well as providing insight on how it will affect delivering the studio strategy.
• Growing and managing a network of freelancers, external resources and suppliers to support our resourcing needs. Lead the hiring of our freelance resource pool including sourcing, interviewing and negotiating rates and contractual terms.

Systems

• Managing our resource management platform and training project leads on resource management processes.
• Casting systems: ownership and improvement of systems and tools for managing our resources. This includes our resource planner, updating the workflow tools, weekly casting reports and studio calendar with essential information which will impact team availability (overview of vacations and leave etc).

People Growth

• People centric; have a deep knowledge of our people’s experience, capabilities, development priorities and learning opportunities.
• Develop a working relationship with our delivery function including an in-depth understanding of professional aspirations, experiences, strengths, development needs, and relevant personal circumstances – both on an on-going basis and around specific engagements.
• Participate in regular updates on people’s strengths/development areas to incorporate into casting decisions, including onboarding of new client facing hires

Commercial Management

• Ensure teams for new business opportunities are mobilised effectively.
• Clear understanding of our product offering and how they work to support suitable casting suggestions.
• Liaise with the Commercial and Finance teams and Directors/Leads to incorporate strategic casting into our pricing on proposals.
• Work with our Commercial and Finance teams to resource and assure project profitability.
• Detailed knowledge of our new business pipeline activity and the associated casting implications.

Analysis & MI

• Work with our People team to understand industry trends, competitor analysis, external influences, together with talent spotting in the market.
• Provide commercial talent commentary and background information for the weekly commercial meetings.
• Work with Finance to understand how to optimise resource utilisation.
• Pro-actively looking at what should we be doing differently, looking to learn from other companies about how we can improve and bringing in ideas to the team for consideration.

Studio Experience

• Keep our Business Support teams fully informed on project and people changes to ensure effective workspace planning, onboarding experience and compliance with statutory requirements (contractual, legislative).
• Work as part of the wider Studio Operations team to deliver continued operational efficiencies and an overall best in class studio experience.
• Holiday planning; proactively manage and monitor work leave with department leads.

Meetings & Global connections

• Work with our other studios to create a consistent approach to talent management globally.
• Regularly communicate with global resourcing teams to support with international resourcing requests.

Ad-hoc

• Support the wider Studio Operations team with any priority items.
• Provide inter-studio support where required.
• Help deliver ongoing operational and strategic initiatives, both at a Local and Group level.

About you

• Proactive, pragmatic and solutions-oriented.
• Excellent decision-making skills.
• Exceptional organisational skills with the ability to manage various workloads.
• Adept at resolving challenges and be quick at finding smart solutions.
• Excellent communication/negotiation skills.

The skills

• 5 years experience in a similar role preferable.
• Experience managing resources for multi-discipline teams.
• Systems experience with Kimble, 10K and Excel preferable.
• Degree-level education.
• Proactive and self-motivated.
• Background in research or knowledge of creative and communication agencies desirable