Sarah Cowan
Head of HR & Retail @Lk Bennett
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WORK HISTORY
Head of HR & Retail @Lk Bennett
Directed people strategy and HR across head office, boutiques, and flagship stores, aligning talent, performance, leadership, and culture initiatives with business growth and luxury client experience.Trusted advisor to COO and senior leadership on organisational design, workforce planning, culture transformation, and change programmes, including restructures, consultations, and insolvency management.Fostered an inclusive, high-performance culture through leadership development, coaching, wellbeing initiatives, and embedding company values to improve engagement, resilience, and operational performance.Ensured compliance with UK employment law, managed complex ER cases, external legal relationships, and analysed operational KPIs to drive sales, efficiency, and risk mitigation.
SKILLS
ABOUT SARAH COWAN
I’m a strategic HR leader who partners senior leadership teams to align people strategy with commercial performance across brand-wide markets.As a trusted first point of contact for executive teams, I bring clarity, structure and pace to complex people challenges — from organisational design and change management to leading high-risk investigations and disciplinary processes. My focus is always on balancing commercial outcomes with strong governance, employee experience and legal compliance.I’ve led the full talent lifecycle across head office and retail environments — acquisition, onboarding, performance, development, succession and retention — delivering brand-wide talent and organisational development strategies that build capability and future-proof the business. This includes designing and facilitating talent forums, succession planning frameworks and development initiatives with measurable ROI.My experience spans:• Aligning people strategy to commercial KPIs• Organisational structure design and workforce planning• Leading change and engagement programmes• Coaching senior leaders to build confident people management capability• Championing diversity, equity and inclusion• Implementing performance and reward frameworks that drive motivation and retention• Managing HR budgets and annual payroll, delivering £1m+ cost efficiencies through strategic planning and process improvement• Overseeing HR legislation compliance and benefits strategyI’m passionate about building high-performing, engaged cultures where commercial success and people experience go hand in hand.
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