HR Advisor

Canterbury Cathedral; England; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A historic religious establishment in England is seeking an HR Advisor to join their small HR department. The ideal candidate will provide professional HR advice, maintain compliance with employment laws, and leverage excellent IT skills. Additional responsibilities include supporting HR processes, ensuring timely payroll administration, and fostering collaboration within the team. A strong educational background and CIPD Level 5 are required, along with at least 3 years of relevant experience.

Qualifications

• At least 3 years experience in a similar position.
• Knowledge and experience of records management.
• Understanding of and sympathy with the aims and purposes of the Cathedral.

Responsibilities

• Provide professional HR advice to managers on best practice.
• Maintain compliance trackers in line with Employment Law.
• Assist in producing Standard Operating Procedures for HR processes.

Skills

Excellent IT skills, especially Office 365 and Payroll Systems (SAGE 50) & Sage HR

Excellent organisational skills

Excellent standard of written English

Confident and willing to take responsibility

Self-motivated and able to work both independently and collaboratively

Education

CIPD Level 5

High standard of education

Tools

Sage Payroll

Office 365

Job description

Remuneration

DOE

Closing Date

19-Dec-25

About Canterbury Cathedral

Canterbury Cathedral is the cathedral of the archbishop of Canterbury, the leader of the Church of England and symbolic leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Located in Canterbury, Kent, it is one of the oldest Christian structures in England and forms part of a World Heritage Site.

Post

HR Advisor

Responsible to

This post reports to the Human Resources Manager.

Summary of post

This is a busy and varied generalist role within a small HR department. The post holder will provide professional HR advice to managers, delivering appropriate people management solutions that reflect best practice and current employment legislation.

Canterbury Cathedral is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults. All post holders and volunteers are expected to share this commitment

Principal Tasks

HR Operations

• Maintain the establishment list and a range of compliance trackers in line with Employment Law and Church of England Safer Recruitment requirements.
• Work with the HR Manager to administer all aspects of job evaluation, ensuring roles are appropriately grouped into job families and job descriptions remain accurate and up to date.
• Build and maintain a succession planning matrix.
• Ensure sickness absence records are accurate and up to date within the HR system.
• Assist the HR Manager in producing Standard Operating Procedures across all key HR processes, including onboarding, offboarding, appraisal cycles and payroll.
• Support the development and delivery of a training plan and materials for new and existing managers.
• Work with the HR Manager to develop robust HR reporting metrics for SLT and Chapter, covering trends, succession, absence, areas of excellence and areas requiring development.
• Lead or support on employee relations casework.
• Provide HR administrative support as required.
• Ensure that professionalism, discretion, and confidentiality are maintained at all times.
• Carry out any other reasonable duties and work flexibly to ensure departmental cover.

Payroll

• Ensure users of Sage Payroll are trained and familiar with the system
• Pension administration including auto enrolment pension scheme
• Prepare regular reports based on staff costs and staff numbers as required
• Ensure payroll and pension inductions for new staff are suitable

The post holder should be flexible in approach to hours worked to provide the managerial coverage needed to be effective in the position and may be required to carry out any reasonable task that may be requested by Chapter.

Person Specification

• A high standard of education.
• At least 3 years experience in a similar position.
• Excellent IT skills, especially Office 365 and Payroll Systems (SAGE 50) & Sage HR
• Excellent organisational skills
• Excellent standard of written English
• Understanding of and sympathy with the aims and purposes of the Cathedral, its mission and ministry.
• CIPD Level 5
• Knowledge and experience of records management.

PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES - Self-motivated and able to work both independently and collaboratively with internal and external contacts and colleagues.

• Confident and willing to take responsibility and make decisions.
• Well presented, organised and self-disciplined.

Additional Requirements

A satisfactory disclosure from the Disclosure and Barring Service will be required upon employment. This position is exempt from the provision of Section 4(2) of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 by virtue of the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975. The grounds on which it is exempt are that in the normal course of your duties you will have access to persons under the age of 18, and that your normal duties will be carried out wholly or partly on the same premises where the provision of training to persons under 18 takes place. Applicants are therefore not entitled to withhold information about convictions which for other purposes are spent. The DBS Code of Practice is available on request, alternatively you can obtain it from the DBS website www.homeoffice.gov.uk/dbs.

Location

Canterbury Cathedral Precincts

Equality Statement

The Dean and Chapter recognises that discrimination and victimisation is unacceptable and that it is in the interests of the organisation and its employees to utilise the skills of the total workforce. It is the aim of the organisation is to ensure that no employee or job applicant receives less favourable facilities or treatment (either directly or indirectly) in recruitment or employment on grounds of age, disability, gender / gender reassignment, marriage / civil partnership, pregnancy / maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation.

This job description is provided to assist the post holder to know their principal duties. It may be amended from time to time in consultation with the post holder, by, or on behalf of, the Head of the Department, without change to the level of responsibility appropriate to the grading of the post.

Our recruiting Approach

As applications are received, interviews may take place prior to the advertised closing date.