Senior HR Advisor

Happy Humans Consulting; Sunshine Coast Regional; Hybrid; AUD 105,000 - 120,000; Part time

Benefits offered by this job

Salary: $105,000–$120,000 pro rata + 9

Three days a week, flexible, mostly at

Autonomy from day one

Build accreditations for clients

Small energetic team

Job summary

Happy Humans Consulting is seeking an experienced HR generalist to own a portfolio of client accounts, mostly remotely with one in-person day per week and travel across South East Queensland as needed.

You will advise on modern awards, manage performance, terminations and restructures with fairness, coach leaders, and design workshops for clients across diverse sectors.

Qualifications

• Five+ years in generalist HR advising small and medium businesses.
• Strong knowledge of modern awards and proper clause application.
• Hands-on experience with performance management, terminations and restructures.
• Ability to advise senior leaders and challenge a CEO when needed.
• Sound judgment on when to seek legal advice or a second opinion.
• Excellent writing and communication with minimal edits.

Responsibilities

• Run client accounts end to end with owners, leaders, CEOs and executive teams.
• Advise on award coverage, classifications, contracts and compliance.
• Guide performance management, misconduct, terminations and restructures with fairness.
• Handle grievances, complaints, conflict and early dispute resolution.
• Help clients manage psychosocial hazards and wellbeing in work.
• Coach managers through hard conversations and better leadership habits.
• Design and deliver workshops, webinars and leadership sessions.
• Use psychometric tools such as DISC, OPQ and LSI where accredited.
• Shape content and tools as the practice grows.

Skills

HR generalist

Advisory to SMBs

Performance management

Leadership coaching

Employee relations

Workshop design

Remote work

Education

Degree in HR, business or psychology

Tools

DISC

OPQ

LSI

Job description

• Part time, 3 days (flexible) · $105,000 to $120,000 pro rata plus super

If you got into HR to change how teams feel, connect and perform, and you're tired of being the policy police, read on.

We don't do HR by template. We do it fast (HR fires wait for no one), creatively (no cut and paste here), in the spirit of excellence and growth (always learning and improving). One week you're rethinking how a 20-person business handles performance.

The next you're in a boardroom helping a not-for-profit board work through a tricky CEO matter. Then you're running a leadership session for a team that’s never had one. And yes, you’ll still read the award clauses twice, because getting the detail right is what earns you the room to do the interesting work.

We want someone agile: someone who moves at pace, thinks sideways when the textbook answer won’t fit, and wants more from HR than compliance. If you need a manual and a manager, this isn’t it. If you’ve been waiting for HR work that uses everything you’ve got, we might need to get a coffee.

About happy humans

We’re a thriving HR advisory, leadership and recruitment consultancy based on the Sunshine Coast. We work with SMEs, not-for-profits, government and corporate clients, from 12-person hospitality businesses, to real estate agencies, to medical practices, to boards and executive teams of councils. Bonnie (Managing Director) and Emil (General Manager) lead the business together, and we’re growing.

Why clients choose us, and stay

Plenty of consultancies can tell a client what the Fair Work Act says. Our clients come to us, and stay with us, for something different:

We give a straight answer.

Our clients get our advice in plain English, and the reasoning and risk behind it, not a list of options and a disclaimer.

We work inside real business constraints.

Cash flow, a stretched manager, a board that meets once a month. The right answer is the one the business can actually commit to and deliver.

Detail is non-negotiable.

The classification, the clause, the date on the letter. Small errors in HR become expensive problems, so we measure twice before we cut.

People come first, on both sides.

The employee being performance managed is a person too. We protect the business and treat people with dignity, and we don’t think those two things compete.

We think past the template.

When the standard approach won’t fit, we find one that will, and we can explain why it’s sound.

We’re in it for the long haul.

We build authentic partnerships, not one-off jobs. We want to be the first call to drive proactive HR, not the last resort when it’s already on fire.

We bring energy.

HR is often called in when things are hard. We turn up with warmth, pace and a bit of fun, and clients feel the happy humans difference.

That’s the standard you’d be holding, from day one.

The role

You’ll own a portfolio of client accounts and be their first call for everything people related. Most of the time you’ll work remotely. About one day a week we’ll work together in person, so you need to be based in Brisbane or on the Sunshine Coast and happy to travel to client sites across South East Queensland when required.

We’re thinking three days a week. For the right person, we’ll talk about how those days fall and whether a little more or less suits.

What you’ll be doing

• Running client accounts end to end, working directly with owners, leaders, CEOs, executive teams and boards
• Advising on award coverage and classifications across a wide range of modern awards, plus contracts, policies and compliance
• Guiding clients through performance management, misconduct, terminations and restructures, including redundancy consultation, with procedural fairness and humanity always prioritised
• Handling employee and industrial relations matters: grievances, complaints, conflict and early dispute resolution
• Helping clients understand and manage psychosocial hazards and build wellbeing into how they work and lead
• Coaching managers and leaders through hard conversations and better leadership habits
• Designing and delivering workshops, webinars and leadership sessions
• Using psychometric tools such as DISC, OPQ and LSI where accredited
• Helping shape how happy humans works as we grow: content, tools and better ways of serving our clients

What you’ll need

• At least five years in generalist HR, with real time spent advising small and medium businesses, whether in-house, in a consultancy, or both
• Confidence across a wide range of modern awards. You can find the clause, read it properly and apply it without phoning a friend
• Hands‑on experience running performance management, terminations and restructures yourself, not just observing them
• The presence to advise senior people, including telling a CEO "not like that" and being thanked for it
• Sound judgement on when a matter needs legal advice or a second opinion, and the honesty to say so
• Excellent writing. Your advice letters, file notes and emails go to clients without a rewrite
• The self‑management to do great work from home

What would make you stand out

• A degree in HR, business or psychology
• Psychometric accreditation, such as DISC, OPQ, LSI or similar
• Governance experience: AICD, board reporting, or working closely with boards
• Facilitation experience: workshops, webinars or leadership programs you’ve designed and run
• Coaching qualifications or a real track record coaching leaders

We know this is a long list. We don’t expect anyone to tick every box. We do expect you to be strong on the essentials and have an appetite to learn.

Who this role isn’t for

We’d rather be clear now than waste your time later. This role probably isn’t for you if:

• You want a detailed procedure manual and someone checking your work every afternoon
• You’ve always had a specialist team to pass the hard calls to, and you’d rather keep it that way
• You prefer to give the textbook answer and leave the client to work out how to apply it
• You see HR as compliance only, or as pastoral care only. We need both, in the same person
• You’d rather stay behind a screen than stand up in front of a leadership team
• You’re looking for something to tide you over

Culture matters here

We’re a small team, which means you’ll be trusted and you’ll be visible. Clients will know your name and ask for you. That’s the upside. The other side is that there’s nowhere to hide, and we wouldn’t want there to be.

We hold a high bar. We check twice, we care about getting it right, and we take the work seriously because it affects people’s lives and families. We also laugh a lot, back each other, and don’t take ourselves too seriously. We want someone who brings their heart to this work, who wants to make a real difference in their community, and who wakes up wanting to be better at HR than they were yesterday.

You’ll have Bonnie’s backing on the complex and high‑stakes matters, of course. We’re a team!

If you read this and thought "finally", we’d love to hear from you. If you thought "that’s a lot", you’re right, and that’s ok. It just isn’t this role.

What’s in it for you

• $105,000 to $120,000 pro rata plus super, depending on experience
• Three days a week, flexible, mostly from home
• Real variety: hospitality, trades, health, not-for-profits, government and corporate, all in the same week
• Autonomy and trust from day one, with senior backup when you need it
• Support to build your accreditations where they serve our clients
• A small, energetic team that cares about the work and about each other

happy humans is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people with disability and people from culturally diverse communities. If you need any adjustments to apply, let us know.

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