Human Resources Officer

We Are Zenith; Wolverhampton; On-site; GBP 32,000 - 36,000; Full time

Job summary

We Are Zenith in Wolverhampton is seeking an experienced HR Officer to support managers and delivery of the HR strategy, including recruitment, absence management, disciplinaries, grievances, flexible working and family-friendly policies.

You will handle investigations, prepare meeting invites, witness statements, and evidence packs, drive compliant processes, collaborate with unions and external bodies, and ensure audit readiness.

Qualifications

• Must have Level 5 or Level 7 HR qualification.
• Strong experience in employee relations and HR casework.
• Good knowledge and understanding of HR processes and procedures.
• An Enhanced DBS on the Update Service.

Responsibilities

• Support disciplinary investigations and grievance hearings following policies and law.
• Prepare invitations, warnings with dates and expiry, and clear communications.
• Assist in evidence packs and witness statements; liaise with solicitors and external bodies.
• Manage recruitment processes, SLAs and advertising with agencies at competitive prices.
• Ensure audit readiness for Ofsted and external audits; maintain documents and HR system data.

Skills

Employee relations

HR casework

HR processes

Education

Level 5 HR qualification

Level 7 HR qualification

Job description

Zenith are looking to recruit an experienced HR Officer to effectively support managers to achieve the strategicobjectives and HR strategy. To provide a comprehensive and efficient HR service including the management of recruitment/selection, absence management, disciplinaries, grievances, flexible working, and the implementation of family friendly policies. To effectively support the HR team on all aspects of the HR strategy working independently and collectively as appropriate.

Key Responsibilities

To support nominated managers with disciplinary investigations and grievance hearings ensuring that policies and legislative requirements are followed.

To ensure that all invitations to meetings are compliant and accurate including ensuring that allegations are full and correct, any expectations letters are clear and communicate what has been agreed in the meeting, all warnings to be accurate with a clear date of issue and expiry.

To encourage managers where appropriate to handle issues informally but to recommend when issues should be formalised.

To also ensure that witness statements are prepared and agreed with witnesses in a timely manner. To assist in the preparation of papers for disciplinary/capability hearings, appeal hearings, tribunals, county court claims, personal injury claims, absence meetings and grievance hearings etc.

To ensure that fact finding meetings establish clearly if there is a case to answer and if so, what case.

To produce evidence that supports the decision and includes evidence that is contrary if available. To then recommend on the balance of probability but ensure that all evidence is contained within the packs stating where information has been disregarded and why. To liaise with solicitors and external agencies as directed.

Ensure that all aspects of HR policies/processes are organised in a timely manner, recruitment SLA s are delivered, ensuring all aspects of recruitment/selection processes are delivered effectively.

Liaising with agencies and advertisers for recruitment advertisements to get first class service at competitive prices.

Facilitating appropriate testing is used and administered correctly according to the job role and ensure that appropriate feedback is collated through the process and effectively given to candidates and the recruitment manager.

Lead on unstructured interviews as appropriate and contribute to recruitment decisions based on the process is managed correctly.

To work with managers on staffing requirements and performance management issues as they occur. To ensure that the correct processes are followed in a timely manner.

To ensure that we are audit ready at all times for external/internal audits, Ofsted Inspections and any other body where an audit could be demanded. To ensure that all documents/records are fully completed eg. References, signed contracts, copies of qualifications, sickness certificates, health employment forms, induction checklists, upload onto the HR system etc.

Where directed to, manage restructures/redundancy programmes/processes. To produce reports to enable critical analysis for restructures, compliance, etc.

Managing absence processes including health review meetings and referrals to Occupational Health timely to ensure that sickness absence is minimised whilst ensuring that employees receive appropriate support.

Liaising with occupational health for guidance on any complex medical issues to address any long term sickness absence cases.

Actively striving to keep sickness absence levels to a low and ensuring early intervention is made on any long term sickness cases.

Working with our recognised trade unions on an informal and formal basis to achieve the best result for disputes/situations. To refer individuals to occupational health as and when required to obtain a quicker/sustained return to work or conclusion of ill-health dismissal grounds.

Construct correspondence to comply with employment legislation, taking accurate notes of meetings and ensuring that the formal version of the notes are coherent and produced timely.

Able to input information accurately on HR Systems including starters, changes, leavers, sickness absence, disciplinary, training etc. All letters/emails sent out must be accurate, well worded and conform to our policies. Maintain personnel files and ensure that filing is completed as soon as possible.

To contribute to projects, including training sessions on all aspects of HR initiatives as directed.

Must have:

• Level 5 or Level 7 HR qualification.
• Strong experience in employee relations and HR casework.
• Good knowledge and understanding of HR processes and procedures.
• An Enhanced DBS on the Update Service.