Senior HR Advisor

Interim Senior HR Advisor   

Reference no: Oxfordshire 5226155   

Pay rate up to £23.09 per hour PAYE depending on experience 

This opening assignment is for 5-6 months 

To support the council in delivering its business objectives to the residents of Oxfordshire through a high performing, capable and motivated workforce by providing professional HR expertise on employee relations, performance management and attendance 

Key responsibilities: 

• Diagnose, advise and work with staff to resolve workplace disputes and conflict accessing specialist input from Organisational Development, mediation and other specialists where necessary with the aim of achieving informal resolution wherever possible.  
• Advise and support managers on matters relating to sickness absence. Monitor long term sickness and update case management information, to ensure all sickness absence cases are proactively managed. 
• Promote and advise on good working practices and fair and effective procedures to encourage a swift return to work where possible. 
• Advise and support Grievance Managers to manage formal grievances and disputes including setting terms of reference, liaising with the aggrieved employee, trade unions and investigating officer.  
• Act on behalf of the council and its interests in negotiating settlement agreements and exit strategies with employees, legal representatives and trade unions and advise on legal claims including preparing for appeals and tribunals where required.  
• Advise and coach managers in dealing with change and direct them to access support and advice from other services where required e.g. H&S team and Wellbeing service. 
• Contribute to the development of best practice policies and procedures, feeding back through 121’s and attendance at HR practice learning meetings. 
• Advise and coach managers to manage poor-performance and misconduct informally, effectively and promptly.  
• Advise managers on formal misconduct and capability matters including issues involving suspension, formal investigations and dismissals. Act as adviser on formal panels where required. 
• Ensure risks to the council including of litigation, are properly assessed and managed in the provision of advice to managers on employee relations matters.    
• Dealing with a range of complex and contentious matters requiring support, persuasion, advocacy and sensitivity, within the application of operational guidelines 

“Role Requirements” – to give yourself the maximum chance of success please try and ensure your CV addresses the following essential criteria: 

• ***Qualification details and all other experience/skills relevant to the job role to help support your application (and help us to help you!) - please give full details within your CV document.  
• Minimum of 12 months recent experience in a similar role, or context and ideally within a public sector organisation. 
• CIPD qualified to graduate level with up to date knowledge of employment law and employee relations best practice 
• Considerable experience that would have been gained from at least five years of providing professional advice on employee relations matters in a diverse and complex organisation. 
• Experience of understanding and advising on a variety of complex HR matters including contractual terms and conditions, pay and benefits, employment status and the interpretation of policies and procedures 
• Experience of advising on informal performance improvement and formal disciplinary and capability procedures 
• Experience of collaborating with a team and other stakeholders 
• Good IT and administration skills with a sound understanding of the legal requirements in handling personal and sensitive data and ability to use Excel spreadsheets to manipulate data. 
• Good organisation skills with ability to prioritise a case load, ensuring cases are progressed and resolved in a timely way 
• Resilient with the ability to deal with challenging behaviours and conflict.  
• Ability to analyse complex situations, gather the facts and take a risk assessment approach to finding the best solutions 

• Strong IT skills using Microsoft packages or equivalent (e.g. G Suite). 

NB: Please feel free to apply to us direct via [email protected] by quoting the job reference and job title exactly. SEE DETAILS AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS AD. 

If you have previously applied to one of our vacancies and have already sent the required supporting documentation to us, please make this clear when you re-apply as this will help speed up your application. 

To help speed up the process of uploading your CV to the client we would suggest that you send us your CV in Word format (or equivalent) if possible, rather than as a PDF. 

If you are successful in securing this role, please note that for the entire duration of this contract, regardless of extension you will be working this role at the PAYE rate that has been advertised. For absolute clarity, we only work on a PAYE basis, rather than entertaining umbrella pay terms, we do not offer Ltd/umbrella or outside IR35 rates. If you wish to understand PAYE vs Umbrella more, please let us know and we can send you some additional information for clarity.