Careers at Harris James
Perhaps you're looking for somewhere that thinks a little differently too.
Harris James was created around a simple belief:
Most people don't want care. They want life to continue on their terms.
That belief shapes the people we look for too.
People who notice.
People who think.
People who build relationships.
People who understand that helping somebody doesn't always mean doing more for them.
And people who want to keep learning where their own strengths could take them.
If your first instinct is to ask what matters to them,
rather than what you need to get done,
we should probably talk.
A different kind of career
The job isn't to become the most important person in somebody's life.
It's to help their life remain important.
Sometimes that means helping somebody regain confidence.
Sometimes protecting what they can already do.
Sometimes coaching.
Sometimes practical support.
Sometimes building relationships.
Sometimes solving problems.
Sometimes noticing that something has changed.
Sometimes stepping forward.
And sometimes having the judgement to step back.
Harris James contains different roles because people's lives require different things.
Different professions.
One way of thinking.
Who we look for
Skills matter.
So does the person bringing them.
01
You notice
You notice when somebody isn't quite themselves.
When something becomes easier.
When something becomes harder.
When confidence changes.
When a detail matters.
You don't simply complete what's written down. You pay attention.
02
You're curious
You ask questions because you're genuinely interested.
What matters to them?
What do they enjoy?
What have they stopped doing?
What would they love to do again?
What makes a good day feel like a good day?
Good relationships begin with curiosity.
03
You're reliable
You understand that trust is built through ordinary things.
Turning up.
Calling.
Following through.
Remembering.
Doing what you said you would do.
Reliability is part of the relationship.
04
You have judgement
Not every situation comes with a script.
You can think.
Listen.
Ask.
Recognise your limits.
Know when another person needs to be involved.
Knowing when to ask matters too.
05
You don't need to be the hero
Harris James exists to support somebody else's life.
Not to make the professional the centre of it.
Their life. Their home. Their choices.
Some things can be learnt
You don't necessarily need to arrive knowing everything.
Different Harris James professions require different experience, knowledge, qualifications and competence.
But depending on the role, systems can be learnt.
Processes can be learnt.
Knowledge can develop.
Skills can be built.
Confidence can grow.
Curiosity is harder to teach.
Reliability is harder to teach.
Caring whether you got the little things right is harder to teach.
Bring those with you.
There isn't one route into Harris James
Your experience may have started somewhere completely different.
Some Harris James professions require specific sector experience or qualifications. Others may benefit enormously from experience gained elsewhere.
Hospitality. Coaching. Health. Social care. Fitness. Retail. Education. Customer relationships. Community work. Business. Leadership. Life.
Someone from hospitality may understand what exceptional service feels like.
A coach may understand motivation.
A teacher may understand communication.
Someone from retail may know how to read people.
Someone from care may already understand the responsibility of being invited into somebody's home.
Sometimes the important question isn't only what you've done.
It's what you've learnt from doing it.
Careers across Harris James
There is more than one way to build a career here.
Harris James brings together different professions, and those professions will continue developing as the organisation grows. This is what a career here could look like. It isn't a list of current vacancies.
Lifestyle & Independence
The person matters just as much as the support.
For people interested in relationships, everyday life, practical support, familiarity and helping protect independence.
Active
The exercise isn't the interesting part.
Where it might take somebody is.
For people interested in coaching, movement, confidence, strength, balance and helping people maintain or regain physical capability.
Relationships & Coordination
Good coordination should still feel like a relationship.
For people who can combine organisation, problem-solving and operational responsibility with genuine relationships with people, families and teams.
Quality & Development
Good enough should never become the standard simply because it's familiar.
For people interested in quality, improvement, learning, standards, coaching others and continually asking how Harris James can become better.
Leadership & Operations
The people furthest from the front door still influence what happens when somebody walks through it.
For people interested in leadership, operations, people, systems, growth and creating the conditions for others to do exceptional work.
Specialist & Professional Careers
Different expertise can change the question.
As the wider Harris James ecosystem develops, specialist professional disciplines can contribute different perspectives to helping people maintain, regain and continue living life on their terms.
The Harris James Academy
Your first Harris James role doesn't have to be your last.
People change.
Interests develop.
Strengths emerge.
Sometimes you become exceptional at the work you already do. Sometimes you discover you're good at something you hadn't considered before.
The Harris James Academy exists to create a more intentional approach to learning, development and career progression across the wider Harris James world.
Join for a role.
Discover where it could take you.
More than training
Learning should change what becomes possible next.
Of course people need the knowledge and training required to do their current role well. But development shouldn't stop there.
The Harris James Academy should help people:
become better at what they already do
deepen their knowledge
develop new skills
build confidence
gain new competence
discover strengths
explore other Harris James professions
prepare for greater responsibility
develop specialist expertise
mentor or support others
prepare for future leadership opportunities
Training completes a requirement.
Development creates possibility.
Careers don't only move up
Progression can have more than one direction.
Deeper
Become exceptional at what you already do.
Develop greater confidence, knowledge, competence and expertise within your current profession.
Progress does not require leaving the work you love.
Wider
Understand more of the Harris James world.
Develop knowledge beyond your immediate profession.
Understand how different disciplines contribute to somebody's life.
Across
Discover another profession.
Someone may join Harris James in one role and later discover that their strengths and interests could suit another part of the organisation.
Where genuine opportunities exist, the Academy should help make those conversations possible.
Forward
Take greater responsibility.
For some people, progression may involve mentoring, specialist responsibility, coordination, quality, management or leadership.
Progression doesn't always mean moving away from what you're good at.
Sometimes it means getting closer to it.
What are you good at?
Sometimes somebody else notices your next career before you do.
Perhaps you're brilliant with people.
Perhaps you naturally organise.
Perhaps colleagues always come to you when something needs solving.
Perhaps you love teaching others.
Perhaps you notice quality.
Perhaps you're fascinated by movement.
Perhaps you're excellent at building relationships.
Perhaps you're the person who asks why we do it that way.
A good development conversation shouldn't only ask whether you want a promotion. It should ask:
What are you good at?
What do you enjoy?
What would you like to learn?
Where could those strengths matter next?
Where a career might go
Careers here can branch.
These are illustrative possibilities rather than guaranteed routes. What becomes possible depends on development, suitability and whether genuine opportunities exist.
Someone may start in Lifestyle & Independence
They may choose to deepen their expertise there.
Or, depending on their strengths, development and future opportunities, they might become interested in mentoring, relationships, coordination, quality, training, leadership, or another Harris James profession.
Someone may develop through Active
An Active Coach may want to deepen their specialist coaching capability.
Over time, genuine opportunities might involve mentoring, coach development, programme development, training, or wider Active leadership.
Someone may discover they love quality
A person working directly with clients may find that they are particularly good at spotting patterns. Asking questions. Coaching colleagues. Improving standards. Understanding why something happened.
That strength might eventually lead them towards another part of Harris James.
Someone may discover they are a leader
Not because they want a title.
Because people trust them. They make decisions. Take responsibility. Help others improve. And understand what Harris James is trying to achieve.
Your starting point matters.
It doesn't have to define your destination.
Person-centred careers too
If we believe people's lives shouldn't be forced into boxes, neither should their careers.
Development shouldn't simply mean asking everyone to complete the same programme and climb the same ladder. Different people have different:
strengths.
ambitions.
interests.
learning needs.
experiences.
and ideas about what a successful career looks like.
Some want leadership. Some don't.
Some want specialist expertise.
Some want to become outstanding at the work they already love.
Some want to explore.
Progression should fit the person too.
Learn beyond your own profession
One of the most interesting things about Harris James is what sits beside you.
Harris James brings together different ways of thinking about later life. As the organisation and Academy develop, learning may draw on areas including:
professional coaching
clinical thinking
behavioural insight
independence-focused practice
movement and physical capability
home and environmental thinking
quality improvement
relationships
later-life planning
leadership
operational experience
The objective is not to turn everybody into every kind of professional.
It's to understand when another perspective might matter.
Specialist development
Some professions need their own pathway.
Harris James Active Coaches complete the specialist EverFit training and certification pathway designed around independence through movement.
This demonstrates an important Academy principle: different professions require different expertise.
What you can expect from Harris James
If we expect people to grow, we have responsibilities too.
Clarity
You should understand your role and what is expected of you.
Honesty
We should be realistic about the work, the challenges and the opportunity.
Support
People should know where to go when they need guidance.
Feedback
Good work should be noticed. Where something needs improving, you should understand what and why.
Development
Learning should help you become more capable, not simply more compliant.
Opportunity
Where Harris James grows and genuine opportunities exist, people should be able to understand what those opportunities are and what development may help prepare them.
We expect a lot from our people.
They should be able to expect a lot from us too.
Opportunity isn't the same as entitlement.
We want Harris James to be somewhere people can develop meaningful careers. But progression cannot be automatic.
Different professions may require:
particular experience
demonstrated competence
qualifications
professional registration
successful development
available opportunities
business need
suitability for the role
The Academy can help people prepare and explore. It cannot guarantee a particular job or promotion.
Development is something we can create together.
Opportunity still has to be earned.
Warm doesn't mean casual
Being human and being professional are not opposites.
Relationships matter. So do:
boundaries
safety
confidentiality
accountability
training
communication
accurate records
following agreed processes
asking when you're unsure
learning from mistakes
Harris James wants people who can bring personality into their work without forgetting the responsibility that comes with being invited into somebody else's life.
Human enough to build trust.
Professional enough to deserve it.
What we expect
A philosophy isn't useful if it disappears when work gets difficult.
The Harris James Standard matters when:
everything is going well.
someone is frustrated.
the plan changes.
you make a mistake.
you're under pressure.
a colleague needs help.
somebody says no.
or nobody is watching.
Listen properly.
Be reliable.
Protect choice.
Notice the details.
Use judgement.
Say what you will do.
Do it.
Own it when you don't.
Sometimes doing your job well means somebody needs less from us.
If somebody becomes:
more confident.
more capable.
able to do something themselves again.
or able to reduce some support.
that should be something to celebrate. There will also be times when somebody genuinely needs more. Good judgement means recognising both.
Success is about their life.
Not protecting our involvement.
Relationships matter
People remember how you made ordinary moments feel.
The conversation.
The cup of tea.
The joke.
Remembering something somebody told you last week.
Knowing when they don't want to talk.
Understanding why something that looks insignificant matters enormously.
These things may not look impressive on a CV. But they can be the difference between receiving support and feeling known.
Current opportunities
Where could you start?
Your first Harris James role doesn't have to be the one you finish in. But every career needs a starting point.
Nothing quite right today?
The right career doesn't always begin with the right vacancy appearing today.
Harris James is developing. So are the professions within it.
If you recognise yourself in the way we think, keep an eye on future opportunities.
What happens next?
We'd rather get to know you than simply process an application.
1Explore the role
Understand what the opportunity actually involves.
2Tell us about you
Apply and tell us about your experience, strengths and interest.
3Have a conversation
Where appropriate, an initial conversation helps both sides understand whether there may be a fit.
4Get to know each other properly
Further interview, discussion or role-specific assessment may follow.
5Safer recruitment
Relevant roles remain subject to appropriate checks, references, right-to-work requirements, qualifications and safeguarding requirements.
6Start your Harris James career
If it feels right on both sides, we'll explain what happens next.
Different professions may involve a different process. We'll explain what applies to the role you're interested in.
Might Harris James be for you?
Ask yourself a few questions.
Would you notice if somebody was quieter than normal?
Would you care why?
Can you support somebody without automatically taking over?
Can you admit when you don't know?
Do you keep your word?
Are you curious about people whose lives may be very different from yours?
Can you follow standards without losing your personality?
Can you receive feedback and use it?
Do you want to keep learning?
Could you imagine discovering a career direction you hadn't considered yet?
If those questions make sense to you, perhaps Harris James might too.
The Harris James Academy
Perhaps the role you apply for is where you start.
Not where you finish.
As Harris James grows, we want the people within it to have opportunities to grow too.
Not only upwards. But deeper. Wider. Across.
And towards the work they're best at.
You can teach somebody how a system works.
You can help somebody develop new skills.
You can open doors to new careers.
But first, you need the right person.
Perhaps that's you.
Build your career with Harris James
Where could this take you?
You don't need to know where your career will finish. Start by finding the opportunity that feels right today.
Bring your experience. Bring your curiosity.
Bring the things that are harder to teach.
And we'll see what becomes possible next.
