- Organisation: Birmingham Royal Ballet
- Role: Interim Head of People and Operations
- Lead Consultant: Steven Fraser
- Date of Appointment: April 2026
About
Birmingham Royal Ballet (BRB) is one of the world’s greatest touring classical ballet companies, with a permanent orchestra, The Royal Ballet Sinfonia, supporting its extensive national tours. As an arts organisation, BRB needed interim leadership to maintain day-to-day stability while continuing momentum across culture, operational resilience and organisational development.
The appointment mattered because the Interim Head of People and Operations role sits at the intersection of people leadership and operational delivery, providing continuity and ensuring key HR and operational workstreams are supported without disruption during a 6–9 month contract period.
The Brief
BRB’s priorities were predominantly operational and tactical rather than heavily strategic. Key HR responsibilities included HR operations, employee relations and union engagement, immigration and Visa sponsorship, and policy and compliance, alongside culture, EDI and wellbeing.
On the operations side, the post also supported Health & Safety leadership, facilities and asset management, IT systems and digital capability, sustainability and carbon reduction, and procurement. Team leadership was essential, alongside a broad understanding of HR and some ability to support wider operations.
The role would initially be 6-9 months, working hybrid from BRB’s Birmingham site.
Our Approach
We ran a focused recruitment campaign tailored to BRB’s hybrid requirement and its emphasis on day-to-day, ‘hands-on’ operational HR leadership. Our search concentrated on candidates who demonstrated broad HR leadership experience and the ability to lead HR employees, while also showing interest in operational issues that affect the running of a high-performing organisation.
Throughout, we supported inclusive and values-led hiring, aligning the shortlist to the behaviours and operational mindset BRB needed for continuity during the interim period.
We built a strong pipeline of candidates through rolling submissions, with evaluation centred on fit to the role’s HR breadth, employee relations and compliance focus, and the practical ability to support operational workstreams.
The Outcome
Christina Haydock progressed successfully through the process and was ultimately selected for the placement.
With Christina in post, BRB gained interim leadership capacity to stabilise HR operations, strengthen policy and compliance, and support critical operational areas including health and safety, facilities and assets, and digital capability, enabling the organisation to keep progressing its wider culture, resilience and development workstreams during the contract period.
If you would like support in sourcing exceptional HR talent into a role in your organisation, find out more about our Permanent or Temporary and Interim Recruitment, or reach out to the team.