Scott Taviner has over 30 years of experience in human resources management, most recently as Head of HR at The Southern Co-operative from 2008 to 2013. In this role, he designed and implemented HR strategies to support business growth, delivered reductions in labor costs and turnover, and increased rates of internal promotion. Some of his accomplishments include decreasing labor turnover from 45% to 30%, reducing costs by £2.5 million, and increasing internal promotion rates by 10%. He has expertise in areas such as recruitment, performance management, learning and development, and change management.

1. Scott Taviner DPM MSc MCIPD
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A passionate and dedicated Head of HR and trusted business partner to Executive and Leadership
Teams, Senior managers and their teams. Expertise in strategy formation and implementation with
proven project management and communication skills. Experience of delivering HR best practice and
high quality support and advice in a commercially focused, fast paced, pressurised multi-site
environment. Analytical and articulate with an ability to build relationships based on integrity and
trust. Well versed in the practical elements of HR management including recruitment, reward,
disciplinary, grievance, change, talent management, learning and development, engagement and
Performance. Professional, influential and confident approach with a track record of adding value.
Career Summary
October 2015 – December 2015 Upskill People - HR Consultant
 Development of new e-learning packages for management skills including, recruitment, induction,
performance management and talent management.
October 2015 – December 2015 Stafford Rhodes Group - HR Consultant
 Providing bespoke business growth and development solutions including coaching, training,
development and outsourced HR services.
Oct 1987 – July 2015 The Southern Co-operative
Aug 2013 – July 2015 Operations Manager
 Control of Franchise areas. Direct responsibility for over 100 food stores, 52 Post Offices and 3
new Starbucks franchises and over £300m turnover
 Delivered the people strategy and drove change within the business through key communication
activity.
 Responsible for budget setting, forecasting and targeting at all levels of the business with sales
budgets having been in excess of £300m in total and People costs in excess of £15m.
Aug 2008 – Aug 2013 Head of HR
Key member of the organisations leadership team providing senior level strategic support in a multi-
site operation. This encompassed 4000 employees in 220 locations
 Designing and developing HR strategy to support goals in a period of significant business growth
and leading the people agenda across the key business areas.
 Delivered reduced labour turnover from 45% to 30% over a 3 year period increasing stability, and
achieving a reduction in cost base of £2.5m over 2 years and increases to internal promotion
rates of circa 10%
 With the Leadership team delivered a significant increase in acquisitions. Provided HR structure
and guidance which delivered an increase in sites of approximately 50 over a four year period
with an extra 1000 employees. Delivered 40 site acquisitions including group acquisition and
businesses in administration. This included, recruitment, on boarding and TUPE
 Created a People Pathway to deliver into roles which saw a 10% increase in internal promotion
rates reducing reliance on external resource and reducing agency fees by 100K per annum.
Supported the Head of Retail Development in redesigning his team in order for it to move from
10-12 acquisitions per year to 30.
 Consistently managed budgets to target figures including reforecasts resulting in savings of up to
£250K per annum when required
 Re-negotiated legacy contracts that were not giving value for money. Selection processes were
conducted in key areas such as company car and medical insurance provision resulting in
improvements to contract and savings of £100K over a 2 years
 Introduced Colleague opinion surveys and consistently achieved over 90% completion rates.
Forums undertaken to examine the data resulting in an increase from 85% to 93% in the strategic
engagement measurement of pride in the organisation. Delivered all internal communications on
this including presentation and written collateral
 An ongoing programme of training and awareness at management level on dealing with sickness
and performance issues saw a labour turnover reduction of 15% over 3 years

2. Scott Taviner DPM MSc MCIPD
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 Introduced mediation in disputes and built effective relationships with key operatives in 3 unions
resulting in no cases at tribunal and settlements at below £25Kpa for 3 years
 Introduced e-learning solution across the business delivering basic skills and compliance training
with 100% completion rate and over 90% pass rate on each topic
 Sourced selected and implemented apprenticeships at level 2 and 3 with 50 apprentices in the
first year of implementation and Apprentice of the Year
 Introduced an enhanced Management Development Programme after gap analysis which
included Chartered Management Institute programmes at Level 3 with over 30 candidates
completed in the first 18 months
 Implemented a Foundation Degree with Manchester Metropolitan University subsequent to the
set-up of the company’s first graduate programme for aspiring leaders with 11 candidates
completed over 3 years
 Lead the development and delivery of interventions to support the line in dealing with
disciplinary, grievance, sickness and performance issues. This enabled managers who had
previously not been capable or confident enough to deal with these issues to take control in their
units moving from circa 30% capability to circa 75%
 Conducted a full review of the HR team. Successfully integrated HR, Payroll and Learning and
Development teams with a coherent approach based on best practice and business need.
Restructured elements of the HR team to better deliver which included retraining, reallocation of
roles and some redundancy with greater levels of effectiveness and engagement after completion
 Worked collaboratively to deliver change in structure and culture subsequent to Leadership Team
changes and increased growth – this included business wide communications
 Provided effective Leadership and role modelling to the business resulting in the smooth
transition to a new Leadership team
 Rewriting and harmonisation of policy, practice and culture through, induction, training,
communication, guidance and support. This included supporting and engaging management
levels through the change process on individual sites to ensure acquisitions were integrated
operationally and culturally within a 3 month period.
 Conducted a number of restructures within central support functions including, Finance and
Development which all successfully concluded with seamless transition to new roles and smooth
exit where required
 Project sponsor and budget holder for the replacement of HR systems to an integrated system
which included payroll services and future proofing for Real Time Information and Auto
Enrolment. Communication and training delivery of new back office and central stock functions to
directly affected parties through to trial stage. Successfully used a variety of media to begin the
process of embedding cultural change required for upcoming changes to working practices.
 Created and implemented organisational designs to deliver skills and succession on a
department by department basis including targeted rates of internal progression.
 Oversaw the re structure of the Operational team from a team of 6 area Managers to a team of
10 Area Managers and 2 Operations Managers.
 Assessed the impacts of a major business IT initiative supporting the definition of a revised
structure and development of Target Operating Models
 Supported the Leadership team in recruitment of key roles sourcing and recruiting into senior
roles internally and externally
 Conducted organisational and job training needs analysis in support of role summary and
contract changes
 Designed and delivered a revised appraisal process to support a new incentive scheme allowing
easier and more standardised identification of emerging talent across all areas of the business.
 Relationship building with local communities saw us form mutually beneficial partnerships and
associations with local and national institutions such as schools and colleges raising the employer
profile
 Oversaw the first ‘Celebration of success’ for colleagues who had participated in learning events.
 Arranged participation in national events designed to deliver improved perception of the sector
as an employer resulting in one of our graduates reaching the final three in one national event
 Conducted a root and branch review of Learning interventions resulting in a new strategy to
deliver improvements to rates of internal appointment resulting in a 10% increase in a single year
 Coached the Leadership Team as required in a wide range of scenarios to gain solutions and
build self confidence in dealing with the issues on their own

3. Scott Taviner DPM MSc MCIPD
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 Supported one of the Leadership Team through a significant change process within their
department by coaching on the actions and prevention of
 Acted as mediator between Heads of Department with competing priorities. Facilitated individual
meetings and then a mediation session at which differences were resolved and their relationship
moved to a more productive level
 Provided mentoring for graduate programme and emerging leaders to support them in
understanding their own knowledge, skills and attitudes and support success in their first
appointments
 Improved analysis and presentation of management information for Line Managers to use in
easily understandable and relevant formats.
 Provided previously unavailable data on internal promotion rates giving the business an
opportunity to identify where it was not performing well and then providing supporting strategies to
improve it
 On line data analysis of basic skills training via e-learning down to individual level to support
improvements to completion rates and legal compliance
 Production of by colleague sickness absence statistics to support closer management absence
 Produced labour turnover reporting at unit level to enable regional and area comparisons and
highlight best practice within operations
 Implemented reward strategy into business using Hay Group Job Evaluation Methodology to
ensure legislative compliance and competitiveness in the market
 Lead the Job Evaluation Panel evaluating all organisational roles to enable benchmarking
internally and externally.
 Implemented new welfare and wellness packages to support organisational values and principles.
 Supported the provision of expert guidance through Employee Relations areas on a range of
complex cases advising on employment law implications and managing risk
 Dealt with the exit of an Area Manager during their probationary period after they had become
aggressive and accusatory in relation to the reasons for their exit. Ensured a safe and legal exit
from the business with the Operations team feeling supported and in control
 Resolved a sexual harassment for someone senior in the business whose views were
challenging. This resulted in coaching and retraining to enable them to successfully return to
work after disciplinary
Jan 2006 – Aug 2008 Operations Manager
 Responsible for the P&L of the full food store estate of 150 sites and circa 2500 colleagues
approximately £125m sales. Supporting internal service departments to deliver the customer
experience with 3 Regional Area Managers as direct reports
May 2004 – Jan 2006 Area Operations Manager
Feb 2000 – May 2004 Learning and Development Manager
Jun 1998 – Jan 2000 Management Training Manager
Mar 1990 – Mar 1998 Retail Manager
Oct 1987 – Mar 1990 Trainee Manager
Education and Qualifications
 Member of the CIPD
 MSc in Human Resource Management
 Postgraduate Diploma in Human Resource Management
 HNC (level 4 degree equivalent) in Business and Finance
 NEBOSH Certificated in Health and Safety
 DBS (formerly CRB) approved