HR Advisor

Location: Exeter, EX2 5AF

Salary: £29970.00 to £36483.00

Date posted: 14th February 2025

Closing date: 3rd March 2025

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Our professional responsibility is to reduce the risk of infection to others as far as possible. Getting vaccinated against diseases that can be passed person-to-person in healthcare settings is part of this responsibility. The Trust will provide advice, guidance and support on vaccinations and access to vaccinations where requested.

Job Description

Are you passionate about creating a workplace where fairness, learning, and compassion thrive? As an HR Advisor, you'll play a vital role in fostering a Restorative, Just, and Learning Culture, ensuring that our people feel valued, supported, and empowered.

This is more than just an advisory role; you'll be guiding managers through HR matters with empathy, and helping individuals navigate workplace challenges with fairness and integrity. You'll use your expertise to provide high-quality HR support, drive meaningful change, and ensure that our people practices align with our values.

Interviews are planned week commencing 10th March 2025

Main duties of the job

As an HR Advisor, you'll play a crucial role in supporting managers and employees by providing expert HR guidance and fostering a Restorative, Just, and Learning Culture. Your work will ensure fair, compassionate, and effective people management across the organisation.

• Provide Expert HR Advice: Act as the first point of contact for managers and staff, offering guidance on HR policies, procedures, and employment legislation.
• Support Employee Relations: Manage complex absence cases, redeployment processes, and employee concerns, ensuring fair and compassionate resolutions.
• Promote a Restorative Culture: Uphold and embed the principles of a Restorative, Just, and Learning Culture, ensuring fairness and support for all employees.
• Facilitate Training & Coaching: Equip managers with the skills and confidence to handle people management responsibilities effectively.
• Ensure Compliance & Best Practice: Keep policies and procedures aligned with current legislation, organisational values, and industry standards.
• Monitor & Report HR Activity: Analyse workforce data, track employee relations cases, and provide insight to support continuous improvement.
• Lead HR Projects & Initiatives: Contribute to policy development, contract reviews, and organisational improvements to enhance the employee experience.

About Us

About Devon Partnership Trust

We provide mental health, learning disability and neurodiversity services, as well as a range of specialist & secure services for the wider south west region & nationally. We are passionate about promoting good mental health & wellbeing. We strive to use the expertise & resources within our organisation, and through our partnerships, to deliver high quality services that are safe & focused on people's recovery.

We are committed to developing a culture of coproduction, involving patients, families & carers in everything we do.

Our values

We not only recruit based on qualifications & experience - we recruit individuals who possess & demonstrate the behaviours which underpin our Trust's core values. These include such attributes as showing a commitment to quality of care, improving lives of others, giving respect, dignity & compassion. We can bring those values to life in our everyday tasks by giving a smile; making time for people; challenging ourselves & others, & being open to new ideas.

We are committed to being an inclusive employer & applications are encouraged & welcomed from all sections of the community, regardless of any protected characteristics as governed by the Equality Act 2010. Part time & flexible working applications will be considered & supported, where possible. We particularly encourage applicants with lived experience of mental health conditions, neurodiversity or learning disabilities. We are a Disability Confident Leader.

Job Description

Job Purpose

To work as part of the HR Advisory Team to deliver high quality advice and guidance to managers in line with our policies, employment legislation, values and best practice.

Will support complex situations involving long-term absence and redeployment, ensuring staff and management are supported in line with Our Culture, in particular through compassionate leadership within a Restorative, Just and Learning Culture.

Duties And Responsibilities

Communication and Working Relationship Skills

• As a first point of contact, will be responsible for advising staff and managers on HR policies, procedures and terms and conditions of service. To have the ability to communicate complex or sensitive issues to staff and managers, show empathy and understanding with regard to their circumstance.
• To ensure effective communication and direction, cascading information and providing training coaching and support as required.
• To be proactive in identifying potential concerns, take preventative steps, and to be aware of the legal implementations.
• To advise managers and be involved in Employee Relation situations. This role will primarily support complex absence situations and the redeployment process.
• To send out communication to staff and managers as necessary through other channels including updating the intranet site as and when required, ensuring the information on the intranet is up to date and accurate.
• To continuously build and maintain effective and efficient working relationships within own Directorate and beyond.

Analytical And Judgemental Skills

• Review complex Employee Relation situations, providing advice based upon the judgement and analysis gained from various perspectives or systems, employment legislation, organisational precedent and best practice approaches.
• Develop and implement effective reporting arrangements to accurately record and monitor performance against targets.
• Provide regular reports on service activity to the Workforce team, Directorate teams and trade union colleagues, with assurance that appropriate follow up actions will be completed.
• Monitor the volume and quality of employee relations activity against agreed performance indicators and pro-actively manage variances.
• The post holder is required to prioritise their own and teams work effectively in a busy and often pressurised environment and to only escalate issues when appropriate.

Planning And Organisational Skills

• Plan and organise complex meetings such as Concerns or Resolution Meeting with various stakeholders; ensuring communication is in line with the Restorative, Just and Learning Culture principles.
• Coordinate training events, ensuring communication is shared using platforms such as the intranet to promote and maximise attendance with the aim of up-skilling Line Managers.

Responsibility for Patient/Client Care, Treatment and Therapy

• This role has no direct responsibility for patient care. However, the post-holder will ensure that the Trust has the capability of reaching the highest possible standards of care through the systematic implementation of high quality HR advice.

Responsibility for Policy and Service Development Implementation

• Responsible for the review and development of policies and procedures within the HR Advisory Team to support the consistent advice given through HR Advisory Team.
• Regularly review procedures to ensure they are in line with current legislation, and amend as appropriate.
• Provide support to contract review, development and implementation.
• To undertake any project work related to HR matters ensuring the implementation and monitoring of such activities when required.
• To assist with the review or creation of standard letters, databases and documentation in accordance with new policies, regulations and changes in employment legislation and take a lead on the review of the Trust employment processes, regularly updating as necessary.

Responsibility For Finance, Equipment And Other Resources

• Ensure appropriate financial authority is gained for any employee change/appointment forms and liaise with HR Connect to ensure that Emergency Payment requests are actioned as necessary.
• Ensure business justification forms are appropriately written and approval authorised.

Responsibility for Human Resources, e.g. Supervision, Training, HR Advice and Management

• Responsible for the delivery of a range of development activities aimed at improving line managers people management skill and confidence, including training, coaching, team facilitation, etc.

Responsibility for Information Resources and Administrative Duties

• To produce reports as and when required, pulling information from a range of data sources, often requiring analysis/interpretation.
• To review the HR Advisory intranet pages, ensuring the pages are up-to-date and informative for internal and external colleagues.
• Ensure that workforce systems are kept up to date and hold accurate data to enable effective decision making based on good workforce information; in particular the ER Casework Tracker and Redeployment Register.
• To provide any other required reports as required.

Responsibility for Research and Development

• To take part in or deliver surveys or audits with a view of measuring and improving HR delivery.

Freedom to Act

• Working within HR policies and procedures, national terms and conditions of employment and national legislation, the post holder is expected to work on their own initiative, taking HR management advice when required.

Any Other Specific Tasks Required

• Undertake project work, if and when required.
• Fully participate in the Trust appraisal and personal development planning process.
• Undertake training as necessary in line with the development of the post and as agreed with the HR Manager as part of the personal development planning process.
• Any other duties, which fall within the general scope of the job description and band.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

• Associate Diploma in People Management (Level 5) or equivalent qualification or equivalent level of experience
• Affiliate member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
• Demonstration of Continued Professional Development

Experience

Essential

• Demonstrate a range of generalist HR knowledge and experience
• Experience of interpreting and advising on terms and conditions, policies and procedures
• Experience of providing advice and support to managers on HR related concerns including absence management, disciplinary, grievance.
• Up to date knowledge of employment legislation and good employment practice.
• Experience of using Microsoft Excel or similar to provide reports or to interpret data

Desirable

• NHS or public sector experience
• Experience of using NHS systems including Electronic Staff Record
• Knowledge of the NHS Terms and Conditions Handbook
• Experience of employee relations gained within a unionised environment
• Experience of using and extracting information from HR Databases

Communication and Working Relationship skills

Essential

• Effective verbal and written communication and influencing skills
• Effective presentation and organisational skills
• Able to communicate information to staff at all levels of the organisation
• Able to deliver training on HR policies and procedures
• Able to maintain confidentiality and deal with situations in a sensitive manner
• Able to understand the HR issues arising from operational management issues and advise managers appropriately and persuasively on the course of action they should take.

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website.

Employer details

Employer name

Devon Partnership NHS Trust

Address

Wonford House

Dryden Road

Exeter

Devon

EX2 5AF

Employer's website

https://www.dpt.nhs.uk/

Contact Information

HR Operations Manager

Rachel Bingham