Head of People & Performance

Why this pivotal role with Challenger Services Group is your next defining career move:

• Highly Competitive Executive Package: Secure a genuinely attractive salary package designed to reward your strategic impact and extensive experience, reflecting the significance of this role
• Influence at the Highest Level: Join our Executive Leadership Team, reporting directly to the Chief Legal Officer, where you'll shape and execute the national People & Culture strategy, directly influencing our strategic direction and hypergrowth ambitions.
• Drive Transformational Impact: Lead the strategic design, implementation, and continuous optimisation of our entire employee experience, from end-to-end onboarding to fostering a high-performance, inclusive culture. This includes optimising and enhancing scalable, compliant, and efficient people processes across the business.
• Autonomy with Purpose: Champion our values, spearhead innovative talent strategies, and embed an Employee Value Proposition that truly differentiates Challenger Services Group as an employer of choice across the facility management, cleaning, and security industries.
• Lead a High-Performing Team: Provide exceptional leadership and mentorship to our national P&C team, building capability and fostering a culture of continuous learning and excellence.
• Join a Culture of Diversity & Excellence: Be part of a passionate, inclusive team dedicated to driving service excellence, innovation, and a proactive approach to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).
• Perks & Benefits:
• Genuine performance-based incentives that truly reward your achievements.
• Exclusive discounts (Woolworths, Amazon & more).
• Confidential Employee Assistance Program (EAP) providing trusted support and resources.
• Real career progression opportunities in a continually growing business.
• Tailored training platform for personal and professional development.

About the Role

As our Head of People & Performance, you will be the strategic architect behind our most vital asset: our people. Based in our modern Port Melbourne office, you'll be a key member of the Executive Leadership Team, responsible for providing strategic leadership and ensuring operational excellence across all facets of People & Culture for Challenger Services Group nationally.

Having successfully grown into a significant national business, we've reached a crucial milestone. We're now poised for our next major leap, and this role is about enhancing our People & Culture capability to precisely support and complement our journey towards that next significant growth milestone.

This isn't merely an HR function; it's a transformative leadership position where strategic vision directly translates into tangible organisational success. You will shape our national P&C strategy, foster a high-performance, inclusive, and engaging company culture, and drive strategic talent attraction and retention across our diverse workforce, including our high-volume frontline workers in cleaning, hospitality, food production and security services. Your leadership will ensure alignment with legal and compliance requirements, contributing directly to business growth and maintaining our values-driven culture.

Key Responsibilities:

• Strategic P&C Leadership: Develop and implement a comprehensive national P&C strategy, acting as a trusted advisor to the Executive Leadership Team on all people-related matters, utilising data-driven insights to inform decisions and demonstrate ROI.
• Culture & Engagement Champion: Define, embed, and continuously improve Challenger Services Group's desired company culture, aligning it with our values. Design and execute initiatives to enhance employee engagement, satisfaction, wellbeing, and foster an inclusive and diverse work environment. Transform employee engagement data into strategic initiatives that drive measurable improvements in culture and performance.
• Talent Attraction & Retention Expert: Develop and oversee innovative talent acquisition strategies, focusing on expanding recruitment pipelines for high-volume frontline workers and ensuring a positive candidate experience.
• People & Culture Team Leadership: Provide strong leadership, mentorship, and strategic direction to the national P&C team, building capability and overseeing the effective and efficient delivery of all P&C operational services to our high valued internal customers.
• Seamless Onboarding & HRIS Optimisation: Lead the strategic design, implementation, and continuous optimisation of the end-to-end national onboarding experience. This encompasses every stage from pre-boarding to post-onboarding integration, ensuring a seamless, consistent, and highly engaging welcome for all new starters across diverse teams and locations. Oversee the optimisation of a fit-for-purpose Human Resources Information System (HRIS) that supports P&C operations, data analytics, and accurate document management.
• Employee Relations & Performance Management: Oversee and actively manage all aspects of Employee Relations, providing expert advice and guidance. Develop and embed effective performance management processes that drive accountability, recognise achievement, and support employee growth, including regular performance reviews and feedback mechanisms. Manage company-wide performance review cycles, including goal setting, feedback, and evaluation frameworks.
• Learning & Development: Identify and address organisational learning and development needs, with a focus on creating opportunities that bolster employee retention and continuously improve skills and expertise. This includes designing and implementing internal training and development programs for employees at all levels, with a keen eye on emerging technologies like AI, to evolve and strengthen our current workforce capabilities.

About You:

You are a highly accomplished and visionary People & Culture leader with a proven track record of driving strategic change and cultivates exceptional, high-performance workplace cultures. You possess the commercial acumen to align people strategies with business growth and the ethical leadership to ensure compliance and integrity. You excel in evolving environments, with a proven track record of implementing strategic people initiatives that drive significant improvement and elevate existing capabilities.

What You Bring to the Table:

• Executive P&C Leadership: Extensive senior leadership experience (10+ years) as a CPO or Head of P&C in a large, multi-site, national organisation, ideally within a service-based blue-collar industry with a significant operational workforce.
• Strategic Impact: Demonstrated success in developing and implementing P&C strategies that have significantly improved company culture, employee engagement, and talent attraction/retention.
• Legal & Compliance Acumen: Deep expertise in Australian employment law, industrial relations, and Work Health & Safety (WHS) legislation is essential. Experience with modern awards, particularly those relevant to cleaning and security, would be a distinct advantage.
• Team Builder & Mentor: Proven experience in building, managing, and mentoring high-performing P&C teams, fostering a culture of continuous learning and excellence.
• Exceptional Influencer: Outstanding communication, interpersonal, and influencing skills, capable of engaging with and building robust relationships with stakeholders at all levels, from the Board to frontline employees.
• Culture Architect: High emotional intelligence and a strong commitment to fostering a positive, inclusive, and diverse workplace culture, with experience in developing and implementing DEI strategies.
• Data-Driven Decision Maker: An analytical mindset with the ability to use data and metrics to drive decision-making, measure impact, and demonstrate ROI on people initiatives.
• Relevant Qualifications: Tertiary qualifications in Human Resources, Business, Organisational Psychology, or a related field.

About Us

Challenger Services Group is a premier national provider of essential service solutions, spanning cleaning, security, hospitality, government, aged care, and education sectors. Operating across all Australian states and territories with 1000+ employees and associates, we are unwavering in our commitment to excellence, safety, sustainability, and fostering enduring partnerships.

At Challenger Services Group our core values are:

• Ownership – I take responsibility for outcomes and never walk past something that needs to be done.
• Team Player – I share success, I lift others up and bring out the best in my team. No one is left behind.
•  Stay Loyal – I stay true to the company, the brand, my team and my commitments. Integrity is important and I’m in for the long haul.

We are proud of our highly supportive culture, which champions career growth, leadership development, and a shared dedication to collaboration, integrity, and innovation. We are sincere advocates for First Nations employment and cultural safety, enthusiastically encouraging Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander candidates to apply. At Challenger, we raise the bar on service excellence—together.

Ready to Lead Our People & Culture Evolution?

Thank you for considering a future with Challenger Services Group If you are an accomplished and strategic People & Culture leader ready to make a significant impact on a growing national business, we encourage you to apply.

Learn more about us at www.csgroup.com.au

Challenger is an equal opportunity employer. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.