Position title: HR Manager / People & Culture Manager
Employment type: Part-time (2–3 days per week)
Location: Newcastle / Hybrid
Reporting to: CEO
Commencement: February 2026 (preferred)
The HR Manager / People & Culture Manager is responsible for leading and delivering all internal people and culture activities at Pay Cat, ensuring alignment with business objectives and relevant legislative requirements.
The HR Manager / People & Culture Manager is responsible for leading and delivering all internal people and culture activities at Pay Cat.
The HR Manager / People & Culture Manager is responsible for leading and delivering all internal people and culture activities at Pay Cat.
This role partners closely with the leadership team to ensure Pay Cat has the right people, systems, and culture in place to support sustainable growth, strong performance, and compliance with employment legislation.
The role is hands-on and operational, while also contributing to workforce planning and people strategy as the business continues to scale.
Key responsibilities
- Workforce planning & leadership support
- Partner with leadership to plan workforce needs aligned to business growth
- Provide practical HR advice to managers on people, performance, and culture matters
- Support leaders to build strong, engaged, and high-performing teams
Recruitment & onboarding
- Manage end-to-end recruitment for internal roles
- Support role design, job descriptions, and selection processes
- Coordinate offers, contracts, and onboarding
- Continuously improve the onboarding experience for new employees
Performance & development
- Design and manage performance review and feedback processes
- Support managers with goal setting, performance management, and development planning
- Ensure compliance with Fair Work legislation, National Employment Standards, and relevant state/territory employment laws.
- Identify development and capability gaps across the business
Employee relations & compliance
- Manage employee relations matters in line with legislation and best practice
- Provide advice on performance improvement, disciplinary processes, and terminations
- Ensure compliance with Fair Work legislation and National Employment Standards
- Support fair, consistent, and well-documented people decisions
Policies, systems and governance
- Develop, review, and maintain HR policies, procedures, and templates
- Ensure HR systems and records are accurate and up to date
- Support the ongoing improvement of HR processes and documentation
- Partner with payroll and operations teams where HR and compliance intersect
Culture, Engagement & Reward
- Support initiatives that strengthen engagement, wellbeing, and retention
- Contribute to reward, recognition, and benefits programs
- Strong working knowledge of Australian employment legislation, including the Fair Work Act 2009 and National Employment Standards.
- Support a positive, inclusive, and high-trust workplace culture
Skills & experience
Essential
- Proven experience in a generalist HR or People & Culture role
- Strong working knowledge of Australian employment legislation
- Demonstrated experience in developing and implementing HR policies and procedures.
- Experience with HRIS implementation or optimisation.
- Experience supporting managers with performance and employee relations matters
- Ability to work autonomously in a growing business environment
- Practical, solutions-focused approach to HR
Desirable
- Experience in professional services, payroll, or regulated industries
- Experience supporting growing or scaling organisations
- Tertiary qualification in HR, Business, or a related field
Personal attributes
- Approachable, professional, and trustworthy
- Pragmatic and commercially minded
- Confident communicator with strong judgement
- Comfortable balancing people needs with business priorities
- Enjoys building frameworks without unnecessary bureaucracy
Authority & decision making
- Provides HR advice and recommendations to leaders
- Manages day-to-day HR decisions within policy and legislation
- Escalates complex or high-risk matters to the Managing Director as required
Performance measures
- Timely and effective recruitment outcomes
- Quality and consistency of performance review processes
- Manager satisfaction with HR support
- Employee engagement and retention indicators
- Compliance with employment legislation and internal policies
