HR Advisor (FTC)

Are you an experienced HR professional who thrives in a busy, fast-paced environment? We are looking for a proactive and motivated HR Advisor to provide first-class HR advice and support across the College. This is a fantastic opportunity to work across the full employee life cycle, from recruitment and onboarding to employee relations, wellbeing initiatives, and payroll administration.

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Job Details

Are you an experienced HR professional who thrives in a busy, fast-paced environment? We are looking for a proactive and motivated HR Advisor to provide first-class HR advice and support across the College. This is a fantastic opportunity to work across the full employee life cycle, from recruitment and onboarding to employee relations, wellbeing initiatives, and payroll administration.

Main Purpose of the Role:

To provide high-quality first-line HR advice and support to staff and managers across the College. You will be the first point of contact for HR queries, ensuring advice is consistent, accurate, and aligned with policy, procedures, and employment legislation. The role supports the entire employee lifecycle, including wellbeing, recruitment, employee relations, payroll, and performance management.

Key Responsibilities:

In this role, you will:

  • Provide advice and guidance to managers on employee relations issues such as disciplinary, grievance, capability, and performance management.
  • Coach and support managers in the effective use of HR policies and procedures, including probation reviews and appraisals.
  • Lead wellbeing initiatives across campuses, promoting a positive staff culture.
  • Support absence management, liaising with external organisations where necessary.
  • Produce accurate monthly, quarterly, and annual HR reports for senior management and external bodies.
  • Drive the annual appraisal cycle, ensuring consistency and compliance.
  • Manage a high volume of HR queries, prioritising effectively.
  • Support recruitment processes, including preparing documentation, organising interviews, and facilitating onboarding.
  • Deliver monthly induction sessions for new staff.
  • Prepare HR documentation such as contracts, payroll inputs, DBS checks, and employee records with high accuracy.
  • Input into HR policy, procedures, and process improvement.
  • Support payroll administration by preparing and inputting monthly data.
  • Contribute to safeguarding and PREVENT practices across the College.
  • Undertake ad hoc projects and provide cross-campus HR support as required.

About You:

We’re looking for someone who is:

  • CIPD Level 3 or equivalent qualification.
  • Significant HR Advisor experience in a busy and fast-paced environment.
  • Strong understanding of employee relations issues and basic employment law (e.g., TUPE, discrimination, statutory pay).
  • Excellent organisation, time management, and prioritisation skills.
  • Proven ability to work independently and support senior HR colleagues.
  • Strong coaching, influencing, and stakeholder management skills.
  • Excellent verbal and written communication.
  • Self-motivated and proactive.

Desirable (but not essential): 

  • CIPD Level 5 or a relevant degree.
  • Experience providing high-level HR administrative support, including payroll.
  • Experience reviewing and updating policies and procedures.
  • Previous experience working within an education environment.

The right candidate will have:

This role will suit someone who is confident, approachable, and solutions-focused. You’ll be able to manage competing priorities and maintain professionalism while supporting staff at all levels. You’ll bring resilience, a proactive mindset, and the ability to balance day-to-day HR tasks with strategic projects. Above all, you’ll be passionate about people, wellbeing, and supporting the College’s mission to create an inclusive and supportive workplace.

Why choose us?

Our strategy is to create a Career Focused, Digital Learning environment, ensuring that the learner experience and our relationship within our community, local and regional employers, are at the heart of everything we do. We are proud to be selected as finalists for the AoC Beacon awards for effective use of digital Technology in FE. Providing a high achieving, focused learning environment allowing our students to achieve the grades they need for higher educations, or the skills and aptitude required to secure a suitable role in their chosen career. Our college is set in the leafy suburbs of Essex, with easy access to surrounding areas and amenities, we are based in a well-connected location both by road and rail.

What we offer:

* subject to terms & conditions

This role is considered exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 and the amendments to the Exceptions Order 1975, 2013 and 2020. Which means that when applying for certain jobs and activities certain spent convictions and cautions are ‘protected’, so they do not need to be disclosed to employers, and if they are disclosed, employers cannot take them into account. Further information about filtering offences can be found in the DBS filtering guide.  It is an offence to apply for the role if you are barred from engaging in regulated activity relevant to children.

Shortlisted candidates will be required to complete a self-declaration of their criminal record or information that would make them unsuitable to work with children. Self-declaration is subject to Ministry of Justice guidance on the disclosure of criminal records, further information can be found on GOV UK

USP College is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children, young people and vulnerable adults, we therefore expect all staff to share this commitment. The successful applicant will be required to undertake an enhanced disclosure via the Disclosure and Barring Service, and any other checks that the role requires to ascertain suitability for working with children and/or vulnerable adults, which may include online searches.

We will hold and process any personal data, including sensitive (special category) personal data, relating to you in accordance with our legal obligations, in the manner set out in the Privacy Notice for staff and in accordance with our Data Protection Policy, which is set out on the College’s website, found here. You should familiarise yourself with our Data Protection Policy (and all other subsidiary policies to it) and comply with them at all times. Neither the Privacy Notice for Staff nor those policies form a part of your contract of employment.