People Officer

Gateshead College; Gateshead; On-site; GBP 28,000 - 36,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous holiday allowance

Mental health support

Pension (LGPS)

Travel support

Discounts

Job summary

Gateshead College is seeking a proactive People Officer to join our People team. You’ll support the employee lifecycle, coordinate onboarding, and ensure accurate records while delivering responsive service to staff, managers and candidates.

You’ll work with the People team to improve processes, use iTrent and Microsoft 365, and provide guidance on policies and procedures with a professional, inclusive approach.

Qualifications

• Experience providing a responsive service in a busy environment.
• Experience coordinating processes involving different people, steps and deadlines.
• Strong organisation and prioritisation skills.
• Excellent attention to detail.
• Clear, professional and inclusive communication skills.
• Confidence using Microsoft 365 and other digital systems.
• Experience maintaining accurate records and handling sensitive information.
• Ability to explain processes clearly to different audiences.
• Take ownership of routine work and escalate when needed.
• Level 2 English and maths or equivalent literacy/numeracy.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate recruitment activity from vacancy approval through to appointment, including advertising, candidate communication and interview arrangements.
• Review recruitment adverts and documentation to ensure clarity, accessibility, inclusivity and consistency.
• Support recruiting managers to follow College recruitment processes.
• Coordinate offers, references and pre-employment checks, including right to work, qualifications, health clearance and DBS checks where required.
• Prepare contracts, contractual change letters and other routine employment correspondence.
• Process starters, changes and leavers and maintain accurate employee records in our HR System iTrent.
• Provide first-line information on People policies, procedures and conditions of service.
• Support routine People processes, including absence, probation, flexible working and family-friendly arrangements.
• Produce operational reports and help resolve data-quality issues.
• Create practical guidance, checklists and process information.
• Identify opportunities to reduce duplication, delays and unnecessary manual activity.
• Provide meeting coordination, note-taking and record-keeping support when required.

Skills

Organisation

Attention to detail

Communication

Customer service

Collaboration

Problem solving

Education

Level 2 English & maths

HR / Admin qualification

Tools

Microsoft 365

iTrent

HR systems

Job description

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The job requirements are detailed below.

We’re looking for an organised and proactive People Officer who enjoys helping others and providing a great customer experience to join our People team.

This is a varied role where you will help make it easier for colleagues and managers to do their jobs, while ensuring applicants receive a welcoming, inclusive and professional recruitment experience. You will provide practical support across the employee lifecycle, from advertising vacancies and coordinating onboarding through to preparing employment documentation, updating employee records and supporting routine People processes.

You’ll be a first point of contact for staff, managers and candidates, providing clear and helpful information and taking ownership of routine enquiries through to resolution. You’ll work collaboratively with colleagues across the People team and help us continually improve our systems, processes and customer experience.

What you’ll be doing

You will:

• coordinate recruitment activity from vacancy approval through to appointment, including advertising, candidate communication and interview arrangements
• review recruitment adverts and documentation to help ensure they are clear, accessible, inclusive and consistent
• support recruiting managers to follow College recruitment processes
• coordinate offers, references and pre-employment checks, including right to work, qualifications, health clearance and DBS checks where required
• prepare contracts, contractual change letters and other routine employment correspondence
• process starters, changes and leavers and maintain accurate employee records in our HR System iTrent
• provide first-line information on People policies, procedures and conditions of service
• support routine People processes, including absence, probation, flexible working and family-friendly arrangements
• produce operational reports and help resolve data-quality issues
• create practical guidance, checklists and process information
• identify opportunities to reduce duplication, delays and unnecessary manual activity
• provide meeting coordination, note-taking and record-keeping support when required.

What we’re looking for

You don’t necessarily need to have worked in HR before. More important is your ability to provide a responsive service, manage detailed processes and maintain accurate and confidential records.

You will need:

• experience of providing a responsive service in a busy environment
• experience of coordinating processes involving different people, steps and deadlines
• strong organisation and prioritisation skills
• excellent attention to detail
• clear, professional and inclusive communication skills
• confidence using Microsoft 365 and other digital systems
• experience of maintaining accurate records and handling sensitive information
• the ability to explain processes clearly to different audiences
• the confidence to take ownership of routine work and recognise when something needs to be escalated
• Level 2 English and maths, or the ability to demonstrate an equivalent level of literacy and numeracy
• a collaborative, proactive and solutions-focused approach.

Experience in an HR, People or recruitment environment would be helpful, but it is not essential. Experience of iTrent or a similar system, or a relevant HR, customer service, digital or business administration qualification, would also be an advantage.

This is a great opportunity if you enjoy combining customer service, organisation and digital systems to help a busy team work effectively. You’ll have the chance to contribute ideas, improve processes, build your People knowledge and support activity that makes a real difference to candidates, colleagues and managers across the College.

If you are curious about how processes work, comfortable taking ownership and committed to providing an accurate, responsive and inclusive service, we would love to hear from you.

If you have any queries about the role or would like to have an informal chat about the role, please contact Sara Reay (Senior People & OD Business Partner) via email at [e-mail] .

About Gateshead College

At Gateshead College we’re famous for education with Employment Edge, industry inspired education that combines high quality learning with real world skills. This means giving our students the knowledge and skills to be successful in work and life and supporting them to be the best they can be.

This means putting everything we’ve got into making sure our students are the most employable and this is what makes our college such an exciting place to work.

From bringing industry expertise into the classroom and working hand in hand with businesses, to delivering the highest quality teaching and learning and supporting students to develop personally as well as professionally, we’re all about creating experiences that will set learners up for life

If you share our ambition, we’d love to hear from you.

In return we can offer a values-driven organisation and the chance to work with brilliant people who put students first. You’ll be listened to and will have opportunities to make an impact. We prioritise health and wellbeing and your work life balance will be respected.

Our inclusive culture means you’re valued for being yourself and diversity is celebrated, and our commitment to being a sustainable organisation means we always try to do business the right way to make our community better for everyone.

At Gateshead College we all have the opportunity to help our learners succeed and it’s this clear purpose and shared effort that makes us such a great place to work; we hope you think about joining.

• Generous holiday allowance of 33 days plus bank holidays.
• Mental health and wellbeing support, with 24/7 access to an employee assistance programme and counselling services.
• Career average pension with the Local Government Pension Scheme.
• Travel support including free onsite parking, discounted public transport scheme and cycle to work scheme.
• Retail and travel discounts.

Interviews will take place on 19th November 2026.