Labour Manager

Job Description Labour Manager

Location: Midlands (within commuting distance of Birmingham)
Employment Type: Permanent or 12-month Contract
Start Date: January / February / March 2026

Purpose of the Role

The Labour Manager is responsible for the day-to-day management of labour supply across all client projects. This includes taking bookings, sourcing and coordinating workers, ensuring full shift coverage, managing attendance, resolving operational issues and maintaining strong client and worker relationships. The role is central to delivering a reliable, safe and high-quality workforce to rail and civils sites.

Key Responsibilities

Client & Booking Management

• Act as the primary point of contact for daily client labour requirements.
• Receive and process shift requests with full clarity on competencies, PPE, reporting locations and access instructions.
• Provide clients with regular updates, fill-rate summaries and service feedback.
• Build strong working relationships with site supervisors, project managers and client operational teams.

Worker Sourcing, Allocation & Rostering

• Work closely with the recruitment team to source suitable workers for each shift.
• Build, maintain and grow a pool of available, competent and reliable workers.
• Allocate workers to shifts, prepare rosters and issue accurate confirmations.
• Communicate daily with workers to manage availability, updates and shift changes.

Daily Operational Delivery

• Monitor worker attendance and manage issues such as late arrivals, no-shows and urgent replacements.
• Resolve on-the-day operational challenges including shift amendments, competency queries and site-based adjustments.
• Maintain accurate worker information including competencies, expiry dates, availability and contact details.
• Escalate safety or compliance concerns immediately to the relevant manager.

Compliance & Documentation Support

• Ensure only competent, compliant and approved workers are deployed.
• Support compliance partners by providing accurate worker information and verifying competency details.
• Maintain audit-ready records in line with RISQS, Sentinel and client requirements.

Timesheets & Administration

• Collect, verify and submit timesheet information accurately to payroll.
• Assist operations and administrative colleagues in ensuring documentation and records are complete.

Culture, Quality & Continuous Improvement

• Contribute to a positive, safety-focused and communication-driven culture.
• Promote reliability, strong service delivery and proactive problem-solving.
• Help refine and build processes as the business grows from a zero base.

Experience Requirements

• Experience in labour supply, rail, civils, construction, logistics or high-volume workforce coordination.
• Strong organisational skills with the ability to manage multiple tasks under pressure.
• Confident communicator with clients, workers and operational teams.
• Understanding of competencies, right-to-work checks and basic compliance processes.
• Comfortable working in a start-up or early-stage environment where processes evolve rapidly.
• Experience with rostering or labour-management systems is advantageous.

Personal Attributes

• Calm, structured and organised when dealing with urgent or high-volume requests.
• Strong communicator able to build trust with workers and clients.
• Quick-thinking problem solver with strong situational judgement.
• High attention to detail with excellent record-keeping habits.
• Positive attitude with a strong sense of ownership and accountability for service delivery.

Reporting Structure

• Reports directly to the Managing Director or Operations Lead.
• Works closely with compliance, safety, recruitment, payroll and worker engagement teams.

Overall Summary

The Labour Manager is the central operational role within a labour supply business. They ensure clients receive the right workers, at the right time, with the right competencies-while maintaining safety, reliability and strong communication. The position is critical for establishing early credibility and operational strength within a growing labour-supply operation.