Historic England is the public organisation that brings new life to heritage to build a better future for every place and everyone.
Historic England has a fantastic opportunity for you to join us as our Human Resources Adviser.
This is a part time (28.8 hours a week), permanent position.
The location of this role is Swindon, inclusive with hybrid working.
We offer a wide benefits package including a competitive defined benefit pension scheme to which we make 28.97% employer contributions, a generous 28 days holiday, corporate discounts, free entry into English Heritage sites across the country and development opportunities to ensure you achieve your goals.
To view our full range of benefits please follow the link here.
What you will be doing
The HR department forms part of the Corporate Services Group and provides HR services through a centralised shared service model. Based within the central HR team, the HR Adviser is responsible for delivering proactive, customer-focused operational HR support across the employee lifecycle, including employee relations and building management capability.
The role manages a caseload and provides pragmatic, risk-based advice and guidance to managers and staff on complex people issues, including sickness, performance management and grievances. It also involves developing and delivering coaching for managers, building trusted relationships with client groups, supporting organisational objectives, championing wider HR initiatives and working collaboratively with HR colleagues to ensure consistent, joined-up support that promotes engagement, inclusion and a positive working culture.
Who we are looking for
- Experience of having responsibility for a personal caseload of complex issues including sickness, performance and grievances.
- Ability to coach managers to reach pragmatic risk based solutions through appropriate challenge and effective influencing skills.
- Build effective relationships, learning from others and promoting simplicity, fairness, innovation and learning.
- Ability to accurately assess situations using excellent analytical/investigative skills.
- Communicates openly with clients and colleagues, demonstrating trust, collaboration and empowerment to team members, to make the right decisions at pace.
- Competent using IT including Microsoft and HR systems (i.e. Oracle HR/Midland ITrent
Please note your application will be scored and assessed against the above criteria.
Historic England is a Disability Confident Leader and normally offers guaranteed interviews to disabled candidates who meet the minimum criteria for the role, where it is practical and appropriate to do so. We want all candidates to shine in the recruitment process, so please tell us what we can do to help you show us your very best self. For more information, please visit our Everyone is Welcome page, or contact us at [email protected] if you have any recruitment queries.
We are an equal opportunity employer which values diversity and inclusion. If you have a disability or neurodiversity, we would be happy to discuss reasonable adjustments to the job with you. Having won the Gold Award from MIND for workplace wellbeing in seven consecutive years, we also recognise the importance of a healthy work-life balance.
We are an inclusive employer and believe that flexible working options are for everyone. We want to make sure our working arrangements don’t prevent anyone from joining us because of their personal circumstances. We also want to provide you with the best balance in your home and work life that we can.
We are open to considering options including job sharing, part-time working, compressed hours working and different working locations, including hybrid working. Please visit our jobs pages or contact us to find out more.
Why work for Historic England
We are committed to promoting equality of opportunity for everyone. Diversity helps us to perform better and attract more people to support our work. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds.
We particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic candidates and candidates with disabilities as they are underrepresented within Historic England at this level.
Historic England wants all of our candidates to shine in the recruitment process. Please tell us what we can do to make sure you can show us your very best self. You can contact us by email at [email protected] if you have any recruitment queries.
At Historic England we use a hiring system called Applied. Applied is a behavioural science-backed recruitment platform that reduces bias, improves quality of hire and increases diversity. We do not use CV application for the majority of our hiring processes. You will answer a selection of questions that allow our hiring teams to test your skills and suitability for the role.
At Historic England, we value the expertise and individuality each candidate brings and want to hear about this in your own words. If you require the use or AI tools or other resources to support your application, we ask that all information is factually accurate, original, and reflects your own experience. To best represent yourself, we encourage you to write in your own words and use AI-generated content only as inspiration—not as direct input.
Provisional interview dates: 15th September 2026
Please follow the link for a full copy of the Job Description –
https://historicengland.org.uk/media/hh4pnx1p/hr-adviser.odt
Pay: Up to £38,400.00 per year
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Swindon (Wiltshire, South West Region)
