Senior Workforce Advisor

This job is brought to you by Jobs/Redefined, the UK's leading over-50s age inclusive jobs board.

The James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust serves a population of around 250,000 people in the Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft and Waveney areas. The Trust provides an integrated hospital and community children's service.
Patent and staff experience is important to us and these are the behaviours we live by:

• Putting patients first
• Aiming to get it right
• Recognising that everybody counts
• Doing everything openly and honestly

'Prior consideration will be given to NHS At Risk staff within East of England'

Job overview

We are recruiting a Senior HR Advisor to join our small, friendly, and supportive People & Culture Business Partnering Team who work in a hybrid model. Reporting to the Employee Relations Manager and working closely with the People and Culture Business Partner, this rewarding role has a broad scope including coaching line managers, leading employee relations, and supporting a range of transformational projects. The role is primarily within our Corporate division, but with flexibility to support across the Trust. We are supportive of hybrid working.

Main duties of the job

Working collaboratively with our Organisational Development Team and Trade Union colleagues, you will support leaders in all areas of people management, including employee relations. Therefore, the ability to build strong relationships and be adaptable in your approach is essential. You will prioritise wellbeing, compassion and inclusion of our colleagues, whilst using your initiative and judgement to support managers with their decision making. Championing best practice, adherence with employment law, our values and behaviours as well as a Just and Learning Culture is key to success at our hospital.

We are looking for a CIPD qualified candidate who:

• Has previous experience of providing advice and support to leaders and staff on a wide range of HR operational issues, including formal casework, interpreting and applying their knowledge of employment law.
• Is comfortable interpreting and working with data, to develop understanding and insight, informing solutions.
• Will act as a role model both within the Trust and externally, demonstrating our Trust values and behaviours at all times.
• Is able to work both autonomously and collaboratively with key stakeholders to improve our patient and staff experience.

Working for our organisation

The James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust provides care to 250,000 people living in Great Yarmouth and Waveney, from our main hospital site in Gorleston, the nearby Newberry Clinic and other outreach clinics in the local area.

This is an excellent opportunity to develop your current skills as an experienced HR practitioner, within a challenging yet stimulating workplace, where we make a difference to the community we support.

We encourage all our staff to achieve a balance between work and personal life and understand how important flexible working can be. We support flexible working patterns and hybrid working, and we would encourage you to discuss this with the recruiting manager before or during the application process.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

- To provide an effective and professional workforce function; advising on a range of operational workforce issues and using judgement and initiative to interpret and apply policies appropriately.

- To develop and maintain good partnerships with managers to enable them to make informed decisions about workforce issues and to achieve common shared goals.

- To work in partnership with the People & Culture Business Partner to support the implementation of organisation change, workforce programmes and policies to enable the organisation to achieve its strategic objectives and increase workforce productivity.

Please refer to the Job Description for the full specification of responsibilities and requirements for this post.

Please note, the interview date is planned for Thursday 11 July 2024 on site at the James Paget University Hospital.

Person specification

Education and Qualifications

Essential criteria

• CIPD qualified or part CIPD qualified and willing to work towards Post-Graduate Diploma in Personnel and Development with equivalent and recent level of knowledge and experience.
• To hold the CIPD (Level 5) qualification

Experience & Knowledge

Essential criteria

• A comprehensive knowledge of employment law, professional workforce developments and best practice.
• The ability to drawn upon professional knowledge to analyse workforce cases and provide appropriate advice balancing individual and organisational needs and risks
• Good understanding of equality and diversity issues
• Commitment to improving and expanding own knowledge through continuous personal and professional development
• Demonstrates the momentum and ability to ensure that workforce interventions directly contribute to the organisation's objectives
• Works effectively in complex and changing environments
• Experience of working in a medium to large organisation
• Recent previous workforce experience in supporting managers in employee relations
• Knowledge and understanding of Data Protection ACT and General Data Protection Regulations
• Experience of undertaking formal ER casework

Desirable criteria

• Knowledge of NHS policies and procedures

Skills and Abilities

Essential criteria

• Good level of written communication skills, with the ability to write business letters to a good standard.
• Ability to use own initiative
• Excellent customer service skills i.e. ability to effectively analyse and communicate issues, demonstrate professional behaviour, respond appropriately and in a timely manner meet and strive to exceed expectations.
• Able to demonstrate their ability to translate business needs into creative workforce solutions.
• Potential leadership skills
• Displays effective and adaptable interpersonal and influencing strategies including the ability to persuade others with personal conviction and facts.
• Communicate effectively to a range of groups and individuals.
• Display a passion for excellence and the role workforce can play in improving patient services and managing organisational change.
• Demonstrates an ability to translate this passion into effective outcomes
• Effective problem solver
• Excellent organisational skills
• Fully conversant in Microsoft office software
• Able to put ideas across to a range of people either in a training situation or on a one to one basis.
• Skilled in building and developing relationships with a variety of groups and individuals from a range of backgrounds
• Possessing accuracy and eye for detail required for ensuring correct key information is recorded and issued.
• Experience of provision of basic advice within established procedures.
• Friendly, approachable and confident, with a positive "can do" attitude to service provision
• Self-motivated, but with a flexible and team-based approach
• Ability to work autonomously

The James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust recognises the requirement to promote health and reduce ill-health. The Trust is committed to the principles of improving working lives through a number of initiatives such as job share, flexible working and the development of a culture of openness and transparency. The Trust is committed to ensuring that no job applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of their age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation.
'Prior consideration will be given to NHS At Risk staff within East of England'

Tier 2 Sponsorship : We are pleased to consider applicants who require Tier 2 sponsorship to work in the UK but it is unlikely that we would be able to appoint if a suitably qualified, experienced and skilled UK/Right to work candidate is available. Applying for entry clearance into the UK, must provide a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) will also be subject to this requirement.

Please check your account regularly under "My Applications" to view the progress of your applications. If you do not hear from us within 4 weeks, please assume your application has been unsuccessful.

In submitting an application form, you authorise the Trust to confirm any previous NHS service details via the Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) process.

Please note that should we experience a high level of interest in this post, the vacancy may be closed prior to the stated closing date.

Employer certification / accreditation badges

Applicant requirements

You must have appropriate UK professional registration.

This post will require a submission for Disclosure to be made to check for any unspent criminal convictions.

Documents to download

• Job Description and Person Specification (PDF, 383.7KB)
• Hospital Site Map (PDF, 2.7MB)
• Recruitment of Ex-offenders (PDF, 90.9KB)
• Working At The James Paget (PDF, 22.7MB)
• Recruitment Brochure (PDF, 7.7MB)