HR Advisor

Job overview

Bringing with you experience of working in a busy and varied employee relations environment, you must be CIPD qualified (or equivalent experience), a team player and able to cope with change whilst remaining focused on achieving results.

The role will often require you to manage conflicting priorities with high levels of demands, remaining an excellent communicator and having a hands on approach as you develop strong relationships with managers to support and advise them on sickness absence management, complex and sensitive employee relations matters (including advising on investigation processes). In addition, you will deliver training and coaching specific to HR processes and procedures.

You will be based at Trust HQ at Pinewood House, Dartford, with flexibility for limited home working but the role will involve some travel to our sites and therefore you will need to have the ability to travel where required.

Main duties of the job

Reporting to the Head of Human Resources, Forensic and Offender Healthcare Services, the HR Advisor is responsible for providing a fully comprehensive and high-quality HR support and advisory service to the Trust managers and staff.

They will be a values-driven professional, who is passionate about equalities, driving improvements and promoting excellence, who will help us to build a best-in-class HR Advisory Service.

They will work collaboratively with the Directorate Management Teams, building thriving working relationships with managers at all levels. They will play an active role in; organisational change, job evaluation, job redesign, employee relations, contractual and other operational HR issues.

They will build and maintain positive and constructive working relationships with managers, staff, staff representatives and peer networks, ensuring a focus on early resolution is developed within the service. They will ensure managers are equipped to deal with issues with their staff effectively, providing support and advice to reach informal resolutions and minimise escalation to formal processes.

Our HR Advisors are also responsible for the provision of a generalist advisory service to managers on all aspects of People matters, ensuring a strong focus on data-driven decisions, consistency and clarity of approach.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

• Provide coaching and facilitation support to Managers to develop improved leadership competence, confidence and behaviours.
• Design and deliver bespoke training interventions tailored to the needs of the Service Directorate/s.
• Provide support to the management and operational teams, supporting them to improve their people-practice and to become increasingly confident and competent people-managers via training and coaching.
• Work in partnership with the Strategy, OD and Improvement Team, to support plans to improve culture, team working and team effectiveness, improving the experience of staff members in the Directorate, ensuring staff wellbeing, retention and engagement.
• Provide advice to the Directorates on change management and TUPE transfers, using workforce data to inform decision making and planning, and ensuring compliance with employment legislation and best practice, proactively engaging with staff and their representatives to mitigate risks to plans.
• Provide guidance and support to staff and managers involved in change management, both internal and external to the Trust, using tact and empathy to convey difficult messages about transfers or redundancies, for example.
• Support the Directorates with bids for new services as well as defensive tender processes.
• Provide support to ensure effective implementation of workforce systems (for example, e-rostering and job planning systems).

Employee Relations

• Support managers at all levels in effective implementation of the Trust’s HR policies, ensuring staff members feel supported.
• Advise and support managers and medical staff on appropriate action to take regarding performance management, absence management, and informal employee relations issues, with minimal supervision, in line with Trust policies and procedures. Where managers are new to this area, providing hands on support, advice and training to help up-skill them.
• Provide expert advice to ensure a focus on early resolution is developed within the service. Ensure managers are equipped to deal with issues with their staff effectively, providing best practice advice, in order to reach informal resolutions. Minimise escalation to formal processes (which will be dealt with by the ER/Investigation Team).
• Provide coaching to managers to support them in intervening where team members are in conflict, helping to build confidence in initiating and having early resolution conversations, signposting to other interventions where appropriate.
• Attend informal and formal sickness meetings and hearings, as necessary, and advise on documentation and correspondence in accordance with Trust procedures. Assist in the presentation of sickness absence cases up to and including dismissal and attend appeals and employment tribunals, as and when necessary.
• Provide expert advice and guidance to Managers regarding Freedom to Speak Up / Whistleblowing cases within the Service Directorate/s, ensuring timely case resolution.
• Build and maintain positive and constructive working relationships with staff members, staff representatives, and peer networks.
• Produce and monitor monthly sickness absence statistics, interpreting information, identifying problem areas, and working with managers to address them.
• Work in partnership with the ER/Investigation Team to monitor and analyse employee relations reports, where formal processes are required, to identify areas of concern within the Service Directorate/s. In collaboration with the Head of Human Resources, Forensic and Offender Healthcare Services, ensure lessons learned and recommendations from formal ER cases are implemented in the Directorate and improvements are made.
• Keep up-to-date with current employment legislation and best practice, ensuring that these are reflected in current HR practice. Highlight any changes, working proactively to make improvements and ensuring changes are implemented in advance of legislative changes.
• Address complaints from members of staff and patients in a timely and effective manner. Ensure our practice minimises the risks to the Trust, ensuring timely management of cases and liaison with the Trust’s Solicitors.
• Contribute to policy development, implementation, research and review, using an Experience-Based Co-Design approach, to ensure we are constantly making improvements in our practice, incorporating feedback from staff and managers involved in these processes, and following best practice guidelines.
• Support Commissioning Managers, Hearing Chairs and Investigating Officers, to ensure they are confident in undertaking these roles and are clear about the requirements.
• Ensure that data / feedback from key sources is continuously monitored to ensure improvements are being made in the Directorate. This includes annual Staff Surveys, Staffside Focus Groups, Staff Networks and forums, annual Equality and Diversity reports and action plans, Workforce Race Equality Scheme (WRES) reports and action plans, and Workforce Disability Equality Scheme (WDES) reports and actions plans.

Training and Development

• Contribute to the design and delivery of training for managers on the full range of issues that may result in a formal process, including conduct, capability, sickness, discrimination, management of investigation processes, ensuring all managers are adequately trained and supported in dealing with employee relations issues.
• Ensure managers are equipped to deal with issues with their staff effectively, providing best practice advice, in order to reach resolutions.
• Provide coaching and facilitation support to Managers to develop improved competence, confidence and behaviours in this specialist area.

Communication and Relationship Skills

• Provide and receive complex, sensitive or contentious information, which requires tact and persuasive skills. Be able to motivate, negotiate, provide empathy or reassurance, where there are barriers to understanding or co-operation is required.
• Liaise and communicate with staff, managers, other professionals and service users at all levels.

Workforce Information

• Advise managers on queries about payroll forms, such as change forms or termination forms, to ensure they are completed correctly and meet policy, legislative and audit requirements.
• To utilise workforce information in the implementation of HR practices.
• To be familiar with the Trust’s computerised HR information system to input and retrieve information as required.
• To support the implementation and use of the Electronic Staff Record system.

Employee Services

• To advise managers and staff on the interpretation and application of terms and conditions of service and contractual issues.
• To advise managers about the correct use of fixed term, honorary and/or locum contracts, identifying when each type of contract would be appropriate.
• To offer consistent advice and interpretation of Trust policies and Terms and Conditions to both managers and members of staff, taking into account the impact and contribution to the wider perspective.
• To advise managers and support them with the processing of all maternity/paternity leave, special leave, flexible working and flexible retirement activity across Directorates.
• To be responsible for supporting managers in the appraisal process.

Recruitment and Retention

• To ensure there is an effective link with the HR Business Support Team and the Recruitment Team.
• To ensure that exit questionnaires and interviews are conducted and effective statistics produced and analysed for potential problem areas.
• To participate as the HR representative on selection panels as and when required, ensuring best practice and Equal Opportunities are applied.

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.