HR Advisor - Operations

Astroscale UK is looking to bring in an experienced HR Advisor for maternity cover for 7 months. In this varied role you will have exposure to generalist HR topics with a focus on Employee engagement, Wellbeing, Reward and recognition as well as a small number of employee relations/performance improvement/absenteeism cases. You will be part of a friendly, supportive and established HR team who have built a good reputation for delivering proactive and supportive HR. This role will report into the Head of HR Operations and work alongside an HR Administrator.

Responsibilities

• Partnering with the business: Develop meaningful professional relationships with people from across the business to understand each team's purpose, qualities, challenges and ways of working. Supporting the key annual operational activities such as salary review and performance appraisal campaign. Understand and interpret HR needs for each department, provide practical advice and propose solutions.
• Employee Engagement, Wellbeing and Internal Communications: Lead on the topics of Employee Engagement and Internal Communications with guidance from the HR VP and Head of HR Operations. Support meaningful impact in priority areas such as talent retention and employee engagement and motivation. Develop and maintain our employee representatives' group, including recruiting volunteers and explaining their role. Work with employee representatives to ensure we measure employee feedback on a continuous basis and ensure it's fed into the business (engagement surveys, employee representatives feedback etc.). Work closely with our employee representatives to understand feedback: strengths to capitalize on as well as areas of improvement to address and work with them to make sure progression of actions. Foster strong internal communication through company events and activities. Collaborate closely with the Marketing and communications department to progress our internal communication plan and initiatives. Maintain our Mental Health first aider team, ensure they have the training that they need, and work with them on activities which support employees’ mental health. Carry out wellbeing calls with employees where the need arises.
• Reward and Recognition: Take the lead on embedding Astroscale’s EPIC reward and recognition awards program. Including communication to UK employees, coordination of the voting process and working with the leadership team to pick the winners.
• Employee Relations and Performance Improvement: Actively support cases of absenteeism. Guide managers to support long-term sick employees to return to work. Using Occupational Health as a tool to advise the business. Manage conflict through to resolution, proposing various solutions, such as mediation. Play an instrumental and impartial role in facilitating disciplinaries and grievances to support employees and to protect the company’s interests. Ensure underperformance, where identified, is addressed by managers and help to support corrective action plans.
• Other HR Lifecycle tasks: Other HR varied tasks including employee loans, sickness/return to work, HR inductions, Visa sponsorship management process, advising on HR process or policies e.g. probation, performance reviews, benefits. Proactively suggest changes to policies and practices to ensure that we are best in class and compliant with employment legislation.

Essential Skills

• CIPD level 5 or equivalent
• 3+ years experience as a Human Resource generalist in a similar level role including within the HR department of a complex engineering environment.
• Demonstrable up-to-date knowledge of UK legislation, practices and procedures, and putting this into practice including employee relations.
• Team player and collaborative
• Solutions orientated and results driven
• Confident and articulate communicator with strong interpersonal skills for effectively managing both internal and external stakeholders
• Proactive, and excellent organisation skills, working at pace
• Good presentation skills with the ability to facilitate plans, projects and initiatives.
• Pragmatic and commercial approach to HR processes with the ability to adapt and enhance processes to improve employee experience.
• Demonstrates behaviours in line with Astroscale values (mission and people focused, transparent, innovative and pioneering, diverse and customer focused)
• Strong data analytical skills
• MS Office proficiency.
• Ability to work and deal with confidential information.

Desirable skills

• A Bachelor's Degree in Human Resources and or relevant field
• Experience using BambooHR
• Mental Health First Aid trained

Benefits

• Competitive base salary
• Opportunity to work with a highly talented, diverse & dynamic international team with cutting edge technology
• Flexible working around core hours in a friendly and supportive environment
• Optional 9/75 working pattern
• Hybrid working available (dependent on individual role requirements)
• 25 days holiday (increasing yearly up to a maximum of 28 days) + 8 days Bank Holiday
• Life insurance and long-term sick pay
• Private healthcare (taxable benefit)
• Regular social events

Location

Astroscale UK (Harwell), hybrid working pattern with a minimum of 2-3 days on site per week.

About Astroscale

Founded in 2013, Astroscale is the global leader in on-orbit servicing, dedicated to the secure and sustainable development of space for the benefit of future generations. We provide trusted and value-added solutions for government and commercial clients from their geography of choice, to drive the long-term, circular space economy. Astroscale is also collaborating with government and commercial stakeholders to develop norms, regulations, and incentives that promote the sustainable growth of space.

Since our first successful launch in March 2021, Astroscale has proven rendezvous and proximity operations technologies in orbit during the ELSA-d and ADRAS-J missions, establishing the company as a leader in on-orbit servicing. Astroscale spacecraft have been selected for pioneering missions with JAXA, the U.S. Space Force, the European Space Agency, the UK Space Agency, and Eutelsat OneWeb. As more satellite operators adopt on-orbit servicing to routinely inspect, service and remove, the potential of a circular space economy — and a future of no waste in space — is being unlocked.

At Astroscale we pride ourselves on our inclusive culture. Our essential criteria are based solely on the requirements necessary to perform the role. If any criteria could present a barrier, we are open to discussing reasonable adjustments and are committed to ensuring an inclusive recruitment process. Astroscale is also open to supporting job share arrangements, to further our flexible working offering.