Senior HR Advisor
Part-time | 20–25 hours per week | Hybrid / South Wales
Salary: £20,000–£25,000 per annum depending on contracted hours (equivalent to £40,000 FTE)
About the role
SMEBP is growing, and we’re looking for an experienced Senior HR Advisor to join our team and help us deliver a responsive, practical and high-quality HR service to our clients.
This is a varied and very hands-on role. You’ll work across a portfolio of retained clients, taking responsibility for their day-to-day HR requirements – from responding to queries and preparing contracts and employee documentation through to advising managers on employee relations matters.
We’re looking for someone who enjoys getting things done and is as comfortable with the detail and administration of HR as they are providing advice and guidance.
For the right person, there is also a genuine opportunity to grow with SMEBP. As your knowledge of our clients and experience develops, we see the role progressing towards greater client ownership and, longer term, an HR Business Partner position.
What you’ll be doing
Working across a portfolio of retained clients, you’ll provide a responsive, hands-on HR service combining HR administration, day-to-day advice, employee relations support and project work.
Your responsibilities will include:
- Managing the day-to-day HR requirements and queries of retained clients
- Monitoring and responding to client emails, providing practical HR advice and guidance
- Preparing offer letters, contracts of employment and new starter documentation
- Drafting contractual change letters, salary review letters and other employee correspondence
- Preparing documentation to support absence, performance, disciplinary, grievance and other employee relations processes
- Processing starters, leavers and employee changes across relevant HR systems
- Updating HR systems and employee records to ensure information remains accurate and up to date
- Supporting recruitment, onboarding and offboarding activity
- Drafting and updating HR policies, procedures and supporting documentation
- Advising managers on routine employee relations and people matters
- Supporting managers through more formal people processes, with guidance available for more complex cases
- Keeping on top of client actions, deadlines and follow-ups
- Maintaining organised and accurate client records and documentation
- Supporting ad hoc HR projects and additional client work as required
- Building strong relationships and becoming a trusted day-to-day HR contact for our clients
This is very much a hands-on role. We are looking for someone who is equally comfortable drafting a contract amendment, updating an HR system or preparing employee documentation as they are advising a manager on an HR issue.
About you
You’ll already have good generalist HR experience, ideally gained at HR Advisor or Senior HR Advisor level, and be confident handling a broad range of day-to-day people matters.
Just as importantly, you’ll be organised, responsive and happy to take ownership of the detail required to provide a great service to clients.
You’re likely to have:
- Previous experience in an HR Advisor or Senior HR Advisor role
- Strong generalist HR knowledge and practical employee relations experience
- Confidence advising managers on day-to-day people matters
- Experience producing contracts, letters and other employee documentation
- Good working knowledge of HR processes across the employee lifecycle
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Strong attention to detail and a high standard of accuracy
- The ability to organise and prioritise a varied workload across multiple clients
- Confidence working independently and taking ownership of tasks through to completion
- The judgement to know when something needs to be escalated or discussed
- A practical, pragmatic and commercially minded approach to HR
- The ability to build trusted relationships with clients and managers
- Good working knowledge of HR systems and Microsoft Office
- CIPD Level 5 qualification as a minimum.
CIPD Level 7 and/or experience working within an outsourced HR, consultancy or multi-client environment would be advantageous but are not essential.
The person we’re looking for
The right person for this role will enjoy variety.
One minute you might be preparing a contract for a new starter, the next responding to a manager’s HR query, updating a client’s HR system or helping them navigate an employee relations issue.
You’ll be someone who:
- Enjoys providing a responsive and helpful service
- Takes pride in getting the detail right
- Is happy to roll up their sleeves and get things done
- Can work independently and use their initiative
- Is comfortable managing competing priorities
- Builds relationships easily and communicates with confidence
- Approaches HR practically rather than making things unnecessarily complicated
- Enjoys working with different businesses, managers and ways of working
- Wants to continue developing their HR career
We’re not looking for someone who only wants to provide high-level HR advice. The administration and implementation that sit behind good HR are an important part of this role, and you’ll be expected to take ownership of both.
Development opportunity
We want this role to develop as SMEBP grows.
Initially, your focus will be on taking ownership of day-to-day client HR delivery and becoming a trusted point of contact for the businesses you support.
Over time, there will be opportunities to take on more complex work, develop deeper client relationships and assume greater responsibility for your own client portfolio.
For someone with the right capability and ambition, our longer-term aim is to provide a development pathway from Senior HR Advisor to HR Business Partner.
Working arrangements
- 20–25 hours per week
- Flexible working pattern to be agreed
- Hybrid / remote working
- Ideally South Wales based
- Approximately one day per week working from the office
- Some travel to client sites may be required from time to time
We’re open to discussing how the 20–25 hours are structured across the working week for the right candidate, while ensuring we can continue to provide a responsive service to our clients.
Salary & benefits
- £20,000–£25,000 per annum, depending on contracted hours
- Equivalent to a £40,000 full-time salary
- Life assurance
- CIPD membership
- Equipment provided
- Flexible / hybrid working
- Ongoing professional development
- Longer-term opportunity to develop towards an HR Business Partner role
Why join SMEBP?
You’ll be joining SMEBP at an exciting stage of our growth and will have the opportunity to make a genuine contribution to how we support our clients and develop the business.
Working across different organisations means no two days are quite the same. You’ll gain exposure to a broad range of businesses, managers and people challenges rather than working within one internal HR function.
You’ll also have the opportunity to work closely with the wider SMEBP team, have real ownership of your work and see the direct impact of the support you provide.
For someone who enjoys being hands-on, building relationships, solving problems and delivering great HR support – while continuing to develop their career – we think this could be a great next step.
Pay: £19.23 per hour
Expected hours: 20.0 – 25.0 per week
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Llantrisant (Rhondda Cynon Taff)
