People Advisor

Department: Business Support

Location: Home based, UK

Reports to: Head of People Operations

Hours: 37.5  per week

Salary: (Depending on experience) 

Role Overview 

The People Advisor role is perfect for someone who brings well-rounded business experience alongside People expertise. Your understanding of various business functions, gained through hands-on experience, will be valuable in providing comprehensive People support across the organisation. As our People Advisor, you'll be the first point of contact for employee queries while supporting managers with day-to-day people matters.

Working collaboratively within the People team, you'll handle everything from employee relations and absence management to learning initiatives and engagement programs. This role offers an excellent opportunity for someone with solid human resources experience who wants to further develop their career in a varied and rewarding position.

Key responsibilities:

Employee Relations

• Act as the first point of contact for employee queries and concerns (anything from holiday calculations through to advising on challenging performance conversations)
• Provide guidance and support to managers on employee relations issues
• Facilitate conflict resolution and mediation when necessary
• Manage and monitor employee absence, including sick leave, holiday, and other types of leave
• Conduct return-to-work interviews and support attendance management processes

HR Policies and Procedures

• Develop, implement, and maintain People policies and procedures
• Keep up to date with changes in employment law and regulations and ensure our policies and processes are aligned with these changes
• Conduct regular policy reviews and updates

Talent Management

• Develop and implement employee onboarding and offboarding procedures
• Support managers in performance management processes

Learning and Development

• Identify training needs and coordinate learning opportunities
• Design and deliver training sessions on People-related topics
• Work together with the Talent Acquisition & Development manager to develop career progression pathways

Employee Engagement and Well-being

• Develop and implement employee engagement initiatives
• Promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace
• Support mental health and well-being programs
• Implement initiatives to improve work-life balance and reduce absenteeism

People Analytics and Reporting

• Collect and analyse People data to provide insights and recommendations
• Prepare regular reports on key People metrics, including absence rates and trends
• Use absence data to identify patterns and suggest interventions

Compensation, Payroll and Benefits

• Assist in the administration of compensation and benefits programs
• Provide guidance on salary benchmarking and job evaluations
• Support the performance review and salary review processes
• Assist with payroll processing and administration
• Maintain accurate employee payroll records and information
• Coordinate with the Finance team on payroll-related matters

Candidate Specification: 

Essential:

• Extensive hands on experience in Human Resources with a focus on employee relations and advisory work
• Previous work experience in business support roles demonstrating progression (such as administration, customer service, or finance administration)
• Good working knowledge of UK employment law and HR best practices
• Strong administrative and organisational skills
• Natural communicator with excellent interpersonal abilities
• Experience in handling confidential information with discretion
• Proficiency in Google suite and HR systems
• Proven ability to build strong relationships at all levels
• Practical problem-solving approach
• Experience in managing HR documentation and employee records

Desirable:

• CIPD qualification (or working towards it)
• Experience in supporting employee engagement initiatives
• Understanding of payroll processes and administration
• Previous involvement in coordinating training activities
• Experience with producing HR reports
• Knowledge of absence management processes
• Background in customer-facing roles
• Experience in finance or business administration
• Understanding of recruitment and onboarding processes
• Previous involvement in wellbeing initiatives

Company Benefits: 

• Remote first company providing flexibility to work from home
• Pension with up to 5% matched contributions
• 25 days holiday + Flexi bank holidays + 1 day off on your birthday
• A day for volunteering
• Enhanced Maternity and Paternity Leave 
• Health & Wellbeing allowance of up to £30 per month
• Annual Summer and Xmas events
• Company socials including everything from Cambridge College formals, pub nights to team building events
• CPD Allowance alongside quarterly reflections to ring fence time for development and growth
• Private medical insurance and cash plan
• Holiday buy back scheme (up to 10 days p/a)
• EAP with 24 hour confidential support line

Background to our Organisation

We are an education technology company that enables corporate and government organisations to achieve their business goals by educating their workforce with critical digital transformation skills to succeed in the AI era.

We deliver unique and innovative professional education that is accelerating the digital transformation of our clients, advancing the careers of their employees, helping people get into work and closing the digital skills gap. We are in a sector that is crucial to the economy and workforce, with a lot of opportunity for change and innovation. We are at the cutting edge of teaching applied data and digital skills, with our unique patented learning platform EDUKATE.AI offering our clients and learners a unique learning experience. EDUKATE.AI was developed with support from Innovate UK and provides all of our learners with 24/7 immediate feedback on their work, helping accelerate the learning process and providing a sandbox environment to experiment on real world datasets.

Since 2016, we have supported more than 15,000 learners across four continents with nearly 550,000 pieces of code submitted for feedback on EDUKATE.AI. We are trusted by some of the most recognisable brands in the world to educate their workforce, including Microsoft, the NHS, GSK, easyJet, the BBC and John Lewis. Our focus on applied learning to create business impact sets us apart - individual learners have reported applying their skills at work to generate recorded value of up to £40m. 

Values

At the centre of the way we work together and inspire each other to achieve success are these core values:

Entrepreneurial

We take initiative and show entrepreneurial spirit which fuels innovation at Cambridge Spark. This includes identifying opportunities for improvement, taking ownership for implementing solutions effectively and driving improvement by using proof of concepts to demonstrate the feasibility and value of their work.

Team Spirit

Everyone is part of building an open and transparent culture, communicating effectively to raise issues, discuss improvements and share the evidence used to make decisions.

Customer-focused

Our customers are at the centre of everything we do, inspiring us to create great work. We strive to build friendly, professional and lasting relationships with them to better understand and anticipate their needs.

Gold Standard

We are experts in our field and are constantly developing our technology and offering. We set the benchmark in our industry: both in what we offer customers and in how we deliver it.

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Cambridge Spark is an Equal Opportunities Employer and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any kind.  Cambridge Spark is committed to the principle of equal employment opportunities for all employees and to providing employees with a work environment free of discrimination and harassment. All employment decisions at Cambridge Spark are based on business needs, job requirements and individual qualifications, without regard to race, colour or ethnicity, ability or disability, gender or gender reassignment, sexual orientation, marital status, religion, age or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate. Cambridge Spark will not tolerate discrimination or harassment based on any of these characteristics. Cambridge Spark encourages applicants of all ages.