About the job

Job summary

We are looking for two HR Advisors to join our HR team working within our busy People Division, as part of our HR Shared Services function and to support our small team of HR Business Partners.

This will be a busy role, focusing on employee relations cases and proactively upskilling management capability in this area as well as being joint leads for wellbeing across the organisation.

As the role is part of a shared service function, there will be the need to be able to support other parts of the employee lifecycle (such as recruitment, pay, policy, talent management etc) when business needs require.

This role is hybrid with a mixture of working from home and our offices in Taunton.

Please note our Policy on informal hybrid working (arrangements available as agreed with the line manager) applies within the UK, and does not extend to working overseas.

Job description

Managing employee relations cases:

• Providing an end-to-end proactive case management service for managers of varying levels of seniority for all employee relations cases including capability, misconduct, grievance, attendance management, investigations and appeals, except for high-risk complex cases that HR Business Partners will be responsible for managing. 
• Supporting preparation for employment tribunal hearings as and when necessary. 
• Using data insights, work with managers of varying levels of seniority by proactively managing attendance. This will include progressing complex and specialist occupational health assessments or professional interventions. 
• Providing detailed risk-based options for resolving cases to enable managers and decision makers to make informed decisions. 
• Ensuring that the case management system is fully updated and that relevant data feeds into the People Metrics Dashboard for the HR Business Partners to review with their areas of the business. 
• Developing the people management capability of managers within UKHO through the design and delivery of appropriate learning interventions, for example bitesize training, coaching etc. 
• Liaising with external organisations (inside and outside of the civil service) to respond to queries on behalf of the UKHO and where required, to seek professional or legal advice before feeding this back into advice given or into employee relations cases risk profiles. 
• Capturing learnings from high-risk and complex employee relations cases and leading on action plans to make improvements where necessary. 
• Suggesting improvements and updates to people related policies.  

Wellbeing:

• You will be responsible for planning, designing, delivering, and promoting an organisation wide wellbeing programme.
• Linking in with affinity and diversity champions and leaders across the business to ensure a joined up and cohesive approach.
• Using metrics to evaluate the success of campaigns and initiatives and identifying trends
• Ensuring that UKHO wellbeing initiatives are in line with professional best practice, sourcing and building relationships with wellbeing suppliers.  

 

 Supporting other parts of the employee lifecycle:

• Supporting other parts of the employee lifecycle such as recruitment, reward, policy, talent management and employee experience in line with business needs as required as part of the wider HR shared services function. This could include monitoring the HR Requests inbox, running recruitment campaigns in times of surge, or contributing to a business improvement project.  

Person specification

Qualifications 

• Associate Membership of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. 

Experience 

• Experience of working as either a HR Advisor or Employee Relations Advisor role including coaching and developing managers of varying seniority to independently resolve a variety of different employee relations cases.  
• Experience of updating and using HR systems.  
• Creation of case management documentation including investigation reports, outcome letters and risk-based options for resolving cases. 
• Enhancing and developing the people management capability of managers through coaching and influencing as well as learning interventions. 

Skills

• Ability to work practically and logically using their own initiative.
• An excellent communicator with effective verbal and written communication skills
• Positive approach to customer care
• A sound understanding of employment law and regulatory bodies to manage employee relations cases to conclusion.
• Ability to balance multiple priorities and to prioritise and deliver at pace
• Keen attention to detail

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £35,744, UK Hydrographic Office contributes £9,650 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths, Experience and Technical skills.

For further information or an informal discussion about this opportunity, you can contact the Line Manager for the post, Lisa Paterson via email on Lisa.Paterson@UKHO.gov.uk

How to Apply:

Please upload your anonymised CV demonstrating your relevant experience and qualifications for the role (see below) by clicking "Apply Now" at the bottom of this page.  You will also be given 500 words to answer the following question, 'Being mindful of GDPR and privacy, please describe an employee relations case you have supported that was out of the ordinary. Please include:

• What the situation was
• Your approach
• Any obstacles that you faced along the way
• The outcome and what you and the organisation learned from this
• What you would do differently next time

Timeline:

• Advert Closes for applications: Thursday 7th March 2024
• Shortlisting: week commencing 11th March 2024
• Interviews: week commencing 18th March 2024 

We will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates change. 

Sift/Shortlist Criteria: 

All applications are processed anonymously.

Your CV will be short-listed against the following criteria: 

• Experience of working as a HR Advisor or HR Officer role or similar – Lead criteria

Should we receive a high volume of applications they will first be assessed against the lead criteria as shown below.  Only those that score highly enough against that criteria will have their applications considered against the other criteria listed.

Your answer to the question detailed above will be short-listed against the following criteria: 

• Experience of managing employee relations cases/tribunal cases

Interview Criteria: 

Experience:

• Experience of managing employee relations cases (assessed via presentation/discussion of scenario based exercise)

Civil Service Behaviours (Level 3):

• Changing and Improving
• Communication and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace
• Making Effective Decisions

Strengths:

• Resilience
• Confidence

See here for further information: Success Profiles - Civil Service Behaviours (publishing.service.gov.uk)

 Process:  

• Single Stage Interview via MS Teams. You will be contacted to book a suitable slot if you are shortlisted (see our Candidate Pack for further information)
• Interview will be with a panel of no more than 2 people and will last approx. 1 hour

Onboarding Checks:

In the event you are offered a role with us, you will be required to go through Basic Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) checks which will include Employment and Right to Work Checks. Please see our attached Candidate Pack for further details and Terms.

Please note, we are unable to offer visa sponsorship.

BPSS – non reserved
This is a Ministry of Defence non-reserved post and is open to UK, British Commonwealth, and European Economic Area nationals. Successful applicants will be required to pass the Basic Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) and will therefore need to provide evidence if they have resided outside of the UK for a period of 6 months or longer within the last 3 years. This is not a bar to employment, but a successful applicant will be required to provide sufficient evidence to allow the UKHO to conduct meaningful background checks. Please contact the recruitment team on the email address below if you have any concerns regarding this.

Eligibility

Due to the secure nature of our work, there may be eligibility restrictions if you hold dual nationality or are not a British Citizen. We will consider each application on a case-by-case basis. We will ask you in our application form to confirm your place of birth and details of any dual or previous nationalities.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.