Halfords

About us 

At Halfords, our mission is to inspire and support a lifetime of motoring and cycling. As a specialist retailer, we lead the market through customer-driven innovation and a distinct product range. We are dedicated to providing our customers with an integrated, unique, and convenient service experience - from e-bike and electric vehicle servicing to on-demand solutions. Our commitment is to foster customer loyalty by offering compelling reasons to keep coming back to our stores, ensuring a lifetime of motoring and cycling enjoyment. 

The teams at our Redditch Support Centre work with every other area of our business, putting them at the heart of the action and playing a key role in our success and growth. Everyone brings their individual knowledge and experience to work every day, working as one team to keep things moving smoothly. 

If you’re willing to get stuck in, you’ll love it here too. So put yourself at the heart of a dynamic, fast-paced working environment where expertise and focus take people far. 

The role 

As a Forecasting & Planning Analyst at Halfords, you’ll play a central role in making sure our contact centre operations both in-house and with our outsource partner, run at their best. Supporting over 400 people across multiple channels and services, you’ll take ownership of the data, analysis and forecasting that ensures we have the right people, in the right place, at the right time. It’s a hands-on role where your models, insights and recommendations will directly influence service levels, recruitment plans and budget performance. 

You’ll thrive if you enjoy turning complex datasets into meaningful insight, building and maintaining forecasting models, and spotting trends that others miss. With advanced Excel skills and a solid grounding in contact centre or workforce planning environments, you’ll be confident manipulating large data sets and providing clear, actionable analysis to stakeholders. You’ll work closely with our Forecast & Capacity Manager, who’ll focus on the strategic decisions, while you make sure the data, models and forecasts are accurate, current and delivering what the business needs. 

This is a newly created role, so there’s plenty of scope to make it your own. You’ll help shape our processes and tools, challenge how things are done today, and play an active part in improving how we plan, forecast and allocate resources. For someone who loves data, enjoys collaborating, and wants the chance to have a visible impact in a fast-moving, customer-focused environment, this is a great opportunity. 

Key responsibilities 

• Build, maintain and improve forecasting models for our in-house and outsourced contact centre teams, covering multiple channels including retail, garages, membership and customer retention. 

• Analyse historical and real-time data to spot trends, understand drivers and provide clear insight into workload, staffing and performance. 

• Partner closely with the Forecast & Capacity Manager, providing the data and analysis that supports strategic decisions around recruitment, budgets and capacity planning. 
  Prepare clear reports and dashboards to communicate performance, forecast accuracy and operational insights to stakeholders at all levels. 

• Collaborate with outsourcing partners to ensure forecasts align with contractual requirements and operational capabilities. 

• Use advanced Excel skills (and ideally Power BI) to manipulate large datasets and create models that improve forecasting accuracy and efficiency. 

• Support continuous improvement by reviewing existing processes, identifying opportunities to refine models and introducing better ways of working. 
  
  

About you 

• Strong experience in forecasting or workforce planning within a contact centre or similarly complex environment. 

• Highly proficient in Excel with proven ability to build and maintain forecasting and planning models; knowledge of Power BI or other visualisation tools is an advantage. 

• Comfortable working with large datasets and using data to explain trends, tell a story and influence decisions. 

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with great attention to detail and the ability to work at pace. 

• Confident communicator who can explain complex data in simple terms, collaborate effectively and build trust with colleagues and partners. 

• Curious, proactive and organised, with experience working in a fast-moving environment and enjoys shaping processes as much as maintaining them. 

Reward & benefits  

• A fair and competitive salary evaluated against market data, annual discretionary bonus scheme, pension, life assurance, 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays and enhanced family leave. 

• Commitment and dedication to your ongoing personal and professional development. We help you to own and grow your potential so you can be at your best in your current role and to support your future career aspirations. 

• You will have access to a wealth of employee discounts across the Halfords suite of products and services.  

• Wellbeing and inclusion are at the heart of our colleague experience. We offer resources and ongoing support to enhance your wellbeing at work and active Colleague Networks supporting inclusion initiatives across Halfords. 

Not sure you meet all the criteria? We'd encourage you to take the wheel and apply anyway! At Halfords we are committed to creating an inclusive workplace for our colleagues. We're an equal opportunities employer and proud to welcome applications from all backgrounds and embrace diversity within our one Halfords Family. 

At Halfords, we operate a 2 days per week on-site hybrid working policy at our Support Centre in Redditch Worcestershire.