HR, People and Culture Leads for Community and Environmental Projects - Volunteer

HR, People and Culture Leads needed to shape the organisational infrastructure initiatives for exciting new community and environmental projects.

What difference will you make?

You will have a profound and lasting impact on the successful delivery and growth of new, community-owned, biodiverse parks and gardens. By providing expert guidance on people strategy and implementation, you will build the framework that enables our entirely volunteer-led organisation to thrive, scale, and remain sustainable for years to come.

Your work will be vital in

• Building a Thriving Team Designing and implementing strategies for volunteer recruitment, onboarding, engagement, and retention across projects with the design team.
• Ensuring Organisational Health Developing the policies, processes, and culture that ensure our environment is inclusive, supportive, and effective, ensuring volunteers feel valued and motivated.
• Driving Success Providing the foundational human resources support that ensures ambitious projects—such as brownfield remediation, wetland development, and community building—have the dedicated, high-performing teams needed to succeed.
  
  

Your input will ultimately help us inspire, educate, and engage the local community by ensuring our internal operation is as vibrant and resilient as the green and blue spaces we are creating.

What are we looking for?

• People Strategy & Leadership
• Volunteer Lifecycle Management Develop and implement strategies for effective volunteer recruitment, onboarding, performance check-ins, recognition, and retention.
• Organisational Development Design and advise on the appropriate organisational structure, roles, and responsibilities to ensure the long-term sustainability and effectiveness of the project.
• Policy Development Draft, review, and refine essential HR-related policies (e.g., code of conduct, safeguarding, grievance procedures) suitable for a volunteer-led, non-profit environment.
• Culture & Collaboration Skills
• Interdisciplinary Communication Work effectively with diverse professional volunteers (e.g., architects, ecologists, quantity surveyors, fundraisers) to foster a positive and collaborative working culture.
• Inclusion & Equity Champion diversity, inclusion, and equity initiatives to ensure the volunteer community is welcoming, representative, and supportive of all members.
• Conflict Resolution Mediate and resolve volunteer or team issues in a sensitive, fair, and objective manner, maintaining a healthy and productive environment.
• Analytical & Organisational Skills
• Process Design Design efficient and scalable processes for all HR functions (e.g., volunteer application to induction) that minimise administrative burden.
• Data Analysis Use data (e.g., volunteer survey results, recruitment metrics) to analyse engagement levels and turnover, and recommend improvements to the people strategy.
• Risk Management Identify potential people and cultural risks (e.g., burnout, skill gaps, policy breaches) and develop proactive mitigation strategies.
• Passion & Commitment
• Community Passion A genuine passion for community development and creating an inclusive public asset for local people.
• Environmental Stewardship A commitment to the sustainable and ethical development of a new biodiverse park.
• Resilience The ability to navigate people challenges and adapt people strategies to the needs of a dynamic, volunteer-led initiative.
  
  

What will you be doing?

East London Waterworks Park is a volunteer-led charity that won a 2024 New London Architecture award and has raised £2m towards buying land from the Department for Education to transform the 14-acre Thames Water Depot on Lea Bridge Road on the border of Waltham Forest and Hackney, into a new biodiverse park with natural swimming ponds, forest schools and community spaces.

We are looking for HR, People, and Culture Leads to participate in our community-led working group, focused on building the organisational infrastructure and human resource strategy for our community and environmental projects. You'll help us with volunteer recruitment, retention, engagement, and organisational development as we scale up to deliver vital green and blue spaces.

This is a unique opportunity to lead and implement the people strategy for a large-scale community infrastructure project. You'll have the chance to apply your skills across the entire volunteer lifecycle, ensuring the success of teams focused on brownfield remediation, wetland development, natural swimming ponds, forest school areas, and community buildings.

You'll collaborate with volunteer architects, ecologists, quantity surveyors, community researchers, campaigners, fundraisers, and communications professionals, all coming together to create these vital spaces.

The Design Circle currently meets monthly on a Tuesday evening on Google Meet, and spends voluntary time outside of the meetings completing agreed tasks remotely. There is also optional monthly in-person meetings for those near North East London.