Human Resources Consultant

People Business; Ottershaw; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 61,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working

25 days holiday

Pension

Volunteer day

Free parking

Job summary

People Business in Ottershaw, Surrey, seeks an experienced HR Consultant focused on employee relations to join the HR team. The role balances generalist HR activity with complex ER cases, providing practical and commercially minded advice to CEOs and directors across diverse industries.

The successful candidate will handle investigations, disciplinary and grievance matters, absence management, and changes with the Equality Act in mind.

Qualifications

• CIPD qualification level 5 essential; level 7 desirable.
• Business or HR degree desirable.
• Experience independently managing complex employee relations cases.
• Strong knowledge of Equality Act and employment law.

Responsibilities

• Provide practical, commercially focused HR advice across recruitment, employee relations, employment legislation, engagement, talent management and L&D.
• Manage investigations, disciplinary and grievance processes, performance and capability concerns.
• Support managers with sickness absence, occupational health referrals, reasonable adjustments and settlements.
• Develop client relationships and help grow the consultancy through new opportunities.

Skills

Relationship building

HR partner

Investigation skills

Organisation

Problem solving

Attention to detail

Networking

Communication

Client management

Education

CIPD Level 5 essential

CIPD Level 7 desirable

Business/HR degree desirable

Tools

MS Office

Teams/Zoom

PowerPoint

Job description

The Role

People Business has an opportunity for an experienced client focused HR professional to join our HR team in Ottershaw, Surrey. This is a particularly suitable opportunity for an HR professional who enjoys employee relations work and employment law. Whilst the role encompasses the full range of generalist HR activities, a significant proportion of the work involves supporting clients through complex employee relations matters, providing practical and commercially focused advice, and managing cases through to conclusion.

Our consultants’ experience extends across all aspects of generalist HR and Talent. Members of our team include former HR Directors, Learning and Development and Organisational Development experts, Change Management and Mediation Services professionals.

Our consultants are MCIPD qualified, with a variety of psychometric, coaching and business qualifications. We love working together and living our core values of valuing people, enabling change, working with integrity and keeping it professional yet relaxed. If you join our team, you will always find supportive colleagues available to help you any time you need support to deliver a seamless service to our varied client base.

You will work as an HR Consultant in our HR team supporting a portfolio of clients and assisting CEOs, Directors and key stakeholders from a variety of different industries to plan, develop, design and deliver customised HR services to meet their business needs.

Main Responsibilities

The consultant service spans all HR disciplines including recruitment and selection, employee relations, employment legislation, employee engagement, talent management and learning and development. However, employee relations constitutes a substantial element of the role and candidates should be comfortable managing complex and often sensitive people matters.

You will regularly provide advice and hands-on support to clients on issues including investigations, disciplinary and grievance processes, performance and capability concerns, sickness absence management, occupational health referrals, reasonable adjustments, ill-health retirement cases, redundancy processes, dismissals, protected conversations and settlement agreements.

Many of our clients engage us specifically to help navigate challenging employee situations, therefore the successful candidate will need to be confident taking ownership of cases, balancing legal compliance with commercial considerations, and supporting managers through difficult conversations and decision‑making.

In addition, you will be very involved in helping to grow new business.

You will also play your part in developing relationships and business with existing clients as well as generating new client opportunities for the team, responding to potential client enquiries, preparing proposals and pitching for work.

You will be joining a team of three within the HR function, who all work part-time across the week. We are therefore looking for a candidate who would work five days a week to complement the current team’s working patterns.

About you

• A CIPD qualification (level 5 essential, level 7 desirable) as well as have a keen interest in keeping up to date with current employment legislation and employment related people themes.
• A business or HR related degree (desirable).
• Excellent relationship building and teamwork skills, ideally evidenced through past experience as a trusted HR business partner.
• Significant experience of independently managing complex employee relations cases including disciplinary, grievance, capability, absence and performance matters.
• Strong investigation skills with experience conducting fact-finding, disciplinary and grievance investigations and producing comprehensive investigation reports.
• Experience supporting managers with long-term sickness absence cases, occupational health referrals and workplace adjustments.
• A thorough understanding of Equality Act obligations, including advising on reasonable adjustments and disability-related employment issues.
• Experience advising on dismissals, settlement agreements and other high-risk employment law matters.
• The confidence and resilience to manage sensitive and challenging employee situations whilst maintaining strong client relationships.
• Strong employment law knowledge and the ability to apply legislation pragmatically within a professional services environment.
• Strong self-management – be skilled in planning, organisation, problem solving and analysis with a good attention to detail.
• The ability to understand a business very quickly and the confidence to lead work with clients to achieve the desired outcome.
• Good networking skills. Experienced in creating and following up business opportunities.
• IT literacy – with MS Office (inc. PPT) Teams/ Zoom meetings.

What we offer

Salary: £55,000 FTE

Benefits include: 25 days holiday (rising to 28 after a year’s service), pension, hybrid working, flu jab, free parking and a yearly volunteering day

Please note that we are unable to provide visa sponsorship for this role.

People Business is an equal opportunities employer we adopt a zero-tolerance approach to discrimination on any of the protected grounds in the Equality Act 2010.

We aspire to have a diverse workforce because, in our view, diversity enables better business outcomes. We also believe that a more inclusive workplace, where people of different backgrounds work together, ensures better outcomes for all staff. From application to interview, we place inclusion at the heart of all we do. We strongly encourage suitably qualified applicants from a wide range of backgrounds to apply and join People Business.

If you’re looking for a role where you can make a real impact, enjoy variety and become an integral part of a growing consultancy, we’d love to hear from you.

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