HR Advisor

Ellison Institute of Technology; Town of Oxford; On-site; CAD 71,000 - 112,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Enhanced holiday 25 days + 8 bank hols

9% Pension + 5% employee contribution

Life Assurance

Income Protection

Private Medical Insurance for employee

Employee discounts

Electric car scheme

Nursery Salary Sacrifice

Cycle to Work

Family Planning

Neurodiversity support

Coaching & Therapy services

Job summary

Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT) seeks an experienced HR Advisor to deliver a professional HR service across the organization. You’ll advise managers and staff on policies, employment law and processes, while collaborating with HR Partners on workforce initiatives and policy development.

You will help with onboarding, lifecycle management, employee relations, learning, engagement, and HR operations, ensuring data accuracy and compliant records.

Qualifications

• Knowledge of HR principles, policies, procedures, and employment law.
• Experience handling multiple employee relations issues with discretion.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with the ability to influence stakeholders at all levels.
• Strong organisational and project management skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities.
• Analytical thinking and decision-making ability to address HR challenges proactively.
• Experience within biotechnology, life sciences, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, or regulated environments.
• Adaptable in a fast-paced environment with a solution-focused approach.
• Bachelor’s degree in HR, Business Administration, or related field, or clear evidence of qualification by experience.

Responsibilities

• Provide HR advisory support to managers and employees on policies, procedures and best practice.
• Support managers across the employee lifecycle, ensuring a consistent and professional HR service.
• Build relationships with stakeholders across the business and act as a trusted HR contact.
• Support onboarding, probation reviews, employee changes, leave processes and offboarding activities.
• Ensure employee records are accurate and compliant.
• Assist with administration and coordination of people processes throughout the lifecycle.
• Provide support on employee relations matters including absence management, disciplinary, grievance and performance cases.
• Prepare documentation and attend meetings; support case management.
• Escalate complex or high-risk matters to HR Business Partners as appropriate.
• Coordinate learning and development activities across the organisation; support engagement initiatives.
• Help identify opportunities to enhance employee experience and culture.
• Maintain HR systems and ensure data accuracy; produce regular reports.
• Support HR initiatives, change activities and improvement projects.
• Contribute to policy and guidance development.

Skills

HR knowledge

Employee relations

Communication

Project management

Problem solving

Adaptability

Education history evidence

Education

Bachelor’s degree in HR or Business Administration

CIPD Level 3 or 5 (Desirable)

Job description

Join us at EIT:

At the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), we’re on a mission to translate scientific discovery into real world impact. We bring together visionaryscientists, technologists, engineers, researchers, educators and innovatorsto tackle humanity’s greatest challenges in four transformative areas:

• Health, Medical Science & Generative Biology
• Food Security & Sustainable Agriculture
• Climate Change & Managing CO₂
• Artificial Intelligence & Robotics

This is ambitious work - work that demands curiosity, courage, and a relentless drive to make a difference. At EIT, you’ll join a community built on excellence, innovation, tenacity, trust, and collaboration, where bold ideas become real-world breakthroughs. Together, we push boundaries, embrace complexity, and create solutions to scale ideas from lab to society. Explore more at www.eit.org.

Your Role:

At EIT we are seeking an experienced HR Advisor with exceptional attention to detail to support the delivery of a professional and effective HR service across all areas of EIT. Working as part of the central HR team, the postholder will provide advice and guidance to managers and employees on a wide range of people matters, ensuring that policies, procedures, and employment legislation are applied consistently and appropriately.

Working closely with HR Business Partners, the HR Advisor will support the implementation of people-related initiatives and contribute to the development and review of HR policies, processes, and practices. The role will help ensure a positive employee experience, support organisational change and growth, and use workforce data and insights to inform decision making and HR service improvement.

Your Responsibilities:

HR Advisory Support

• Provide support to HR Business Partners to enable them to provide advice and guidance to managers and employees on HR policies, procedures and best practice.
• With direction from HR Business Partners. support managers across the employee lifecycle, ensuring a consistent and professional HR service.
• Build effective relationships with stakeholders across the business and act as a trusted HR contact.

Employee Lifecycle Management

• Support the HR Operations team with onboarding, probation reviews, employee changes, family leave processes and offboarding activities.
• Ensure all employee records and documentation are accurate, up to date and compliant.
• Assist with the administration and coordination of people processes throughout the employee lifecycle.

Employee Relations

• Provide support on employee relations matters including absence management, disciplinary, grievance and performance cases.
• Prepare documentation, attend meetings where required and support case management activity.
• Escalate complex or high-risk matters to HR Business Partners as appropriate.

Learning, Development and Engagement

• Support the coordination of learning and development activities across the organisation.
• Assist with employee engagement, wellbeing and recognition initiatives as directed from wider HR team.
• Help identify opportunities to enhance the employee experience and strengthen organisational culture.

HR Operations and Projects

• Maintain HR systems and ensure data accuracy and integrity.
• Produce regular HR reports and analyse key people metrics.
• Support the delivery of HR initiatives, organisational change activities and continuous improvement projects.
• Contribute to the development and implementation of HR policies, processes and guidance materials.

Compliance and Governance

• Ensure HR activities are conducted in line with employment legislation, company policies and best practice.
• Support audits, compliance reviews and governance requirements.
• Promote a culture of fairness, inclusion and accountability.

Essential Skills, Qualifications & Experience:

• Human Resources Knowledge: Working knowledge of HR principles, policies, procedures, and employment law.
• Employee Relations: Experience handling multiple employee relations issues with sensitivity and discretion.
• Communication: Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to engage and influence stakeholders at all levels.
• Project Management: Strong organisational and project management skills, with the ability to manage multiple priorities effectively.
• Problem Solving: Analytical thinking and decision-making ability to address HR related challenges proactively.
• Experience: Experience within biotechnology, life sciences, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, research or other highly regulated environments.
• Adaptability: Ability to thrive in a fast-pacedenvironment with a flexible, solution-focused approach.
• Education: Bachelor’s degree in human resources, Business Administration, or a related field is preferred or clear evidence from career history of qualification by experience.

Desirable Skills, Qualifications & Experience:

• CIPD Level 3 or Level 5

We offer the following benefits:

• Competitive salary (dependent on experience) + travel + bonus
• Enhanced holiday. Our annual leave allowance is 25 days plus 8 bank holidays and an additional 3 days between Christmas and New Year. You will also have the opportunity to purchase an additional 5 days annual leave in January and July.
• Pension - Employer contribution 7.5%, minimum employee contribution 5%
• Life Assurance.
• Income Protection
• Private Medical Insurance as standard for you, your partner and any dependents. Including hospital Cash Plan
• Employee discounts
• Electric car scheme
• Nursery Salary Sacrifice scheme
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Family Planning
• Neurodiversity support including advise and assessments
• Coaching & Therapy services

Working Together – What It Involves:

• You must be eligible to work in the UK with a willingness to travel as necessary.
• You must be based in, or within easy commuting distance of, Oxford.
• During peak periods, some longer hours may be required and some working across multiple time zones due to the global nature of the programme.
• Due to the nature of this position, this is an office-based role.