Human Resources Officer | The Christie NHS Foundation Trust in Manchester

We have an exciting opportunity for a proactive, people focused Human Resource Officer to join our HR Advisory Team. As a key member of the team, you’ll play a vital role in supporting managers and staff in the effective management of attendance, contributing to a high quality, compassionate and efficient HR service across the organisation.

Responsibilities

• Provide first line HR advice to managers on sickness absence and support the consistent application of attendance policies.
• Assist managers with routine sickness cases, including preparing documentation and attending absence review meetings.
• Monitor absence trends, identify patterns, and escalate complex cases to HR Advisors where needed.
• Liaise with Occupational Health and support processes such as reasonable adjustments, redeployment and injury allowance.
• Maintain accurate HR records and produce absence reports using ESR and digital systems.
• Support the coordination of attendance related hearings and contribute to improvement work across the HR Advisory service.
• Supervise and delegate tasks to the HR Assistant and participate in managing the ASK HR inbox.

Service Delivery

• Act as a first point of contact for managers and staff (non‑medical) providing HR advice and guidance on absence management.
• Communicate and consider sensitive information from Occupational Health reports at sickness absence meetings using tact and persuasion to ensure that managers act in accordance with the Management of Attendance Policy.
• Escalate unresolved or complex absence queries to the HR Advisor as appropriate; provide advice and guidance to managers on the management of attendance policy.
• Support managers with non‑complex management of attendance cases.
• Work alongside managers to ensure that sickness absence is managed proactively and robustly across the Division to reduce the absence rate.
• Escalate any localised patterns and concerns to the HR Business Partner.
• Liaise with and utilise the Occupational Health service to seek expert advice for effective, fair and proactive resolution of sickness absence cases.
• Support managers to draft sensitive and confidential letters to a professional standard regarding management of attendance.
• Utilise ESR and other digital systems to capture, analyse and report on all relevant HR metrics to aid action and planning.
• Coordinate multi‑disciplinary Stage 3 Hearings and undertake project work to improve attendance across divisions, liaising with managers, Occupational Health and the Engagement team.
• Delegate administrative tasks to the HR Assistant where appropriate and with instruction and support.
• Signpost staff to access to work and support managers with process.
• Support managers to identify staff who have met absence triggers and require a stage meeting in line with policy.
• Support managers to identify patterns of short‑term absence.
• Support managers to identify staff that require long‑term sickness absence reviews in line with the Management of Attendance policy.
• Attend absence meetings / reviews with managers.
• Escalate to HR Advisor for attendance at more complex absence reviews.
• Assist with the production and review of letters and reports.
• Offer ad‑hoc meetings with managers to discuss overall absence, identify patterns and reasons, and ensure overall compliance with the policy.
• Provide advice and support to managers on reasonable adjustments.
• Manage the redeployment process by supporting the manager and staff member, including advising both the releasing and receiving managers and escalating to the HR Advisor where appropriate.
• Advise on and manage the injury allowance process, ensuring managers are aware of the process, the correct information is obtained, outcomes are provided to employees and payroll is actioned by liaising with the Workforce Systems Team.
• Respond to queries in the ASK HR inbox, ensuring all emails are answered in a timely manner and documents are filed electronically in the correct place and appropriately named.
• Maintain effective office systems and procedures by making maximum use of technology and updating information and process logs as appropriate.
• Ensure all computerised personal staff records are managed, maintained and archived in line with Trust policies and to assist with the safe handling of staff information.
• Organise and prioritise own workload daily to meet time deadlines and accommodate urgent work.
• Undertake any personal training and development necessary to fulfil the requirements of the post.
• Maintain strict confidentiality in all aspects of the work, complying with policies and procedures on the safeguarding of personally identifiable information.
• Use a VDU for the majority of the working day.
• Maintain stock levels of office supplies, reorder from the approved supplier when necessary, and order IT and other equipment from the approved supplier on an ad‑hoc basis.
• Oversee the invoicing and payment of suppliers/services via the Integra system.

Reporting

• Provide ad‑hoc absence reports as requested by the HR Advisors and Managers.
• Ensure that confidential record‑keeping systems are maintained to provide accurate and timely management information in line with GDPR.

Training and Development

• Support the HR Advisors with the development and delivery of HR training to managers and staff on management of attendance.

Research, Development and Audit

• Where necessary undertake audits on absence management.
• Keep working practices under constant review to improve efficiency and effectiveness, and be involved in new developments to redesign and modernise processes.
• Carry out any other reasonable duties within the overall function, commensurate with the grading and level of responsibility of the post.