Lead Senior HR Advisor

The HR function is split across several key areas: Business Partnering, Talent and Culture which includes Diversity, Equity & Inclusion; Reward & Benefits; Services & Policy; and Organisational Learning & Development, all working collaboratively together and with the wider business to deliver the people aligned Firm strategy. Providing a trusted, high-quality service and delivery in line with our Firm values is key to the professional reputation of the function.

Role Purpose: Reporting into the Lead HR Business Partner, this role will supervise the central team of HR Assistants and oversee the team of HR Advisors, providing advisory and administration support across the employee lifecycle, ensuring service excellence, operational efficiency and compliance with processes. This is a hybrid role, with responsibility as a Senior HR Advisor for a designated client group(s), working closely with the HR Business Partners to deliver people priorities aligned to the Firm’s people agenda. As well as being a trusted advisor to key stakeholders, you will cover a range of HR activities including advisory and reporting. You will assist with many of the HR processes, such as talent acquisition, compensation and benefits, employee relations, talent management, diversity, equity and inclusion and wellbeing as well as ad hoc people projects.

Key Tasks and Responsibilities:

• Comply with all relevant legal and regulatory obligations including the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Standards and Regulations, and Principles.
• Deliver an effective, efficient and friendly HR support service to the business, implementing and ensuring delivery against SLA’s where required.
• Support the team in delivery of the end-to-end employee lifecycle, driving efficiencies and improvements.
• Effectively manage the HR Assistants and HR Advisors, providing guidance, coaching and mentoring.
• Coordinate management of the HR Shared inbox’s and ensure timely execution of requests, managing efficient and effective workflow.
• Ensure that Toolkits and processes are up to date and being used to drive improvements in administration.
• Ad hoc production/ amendments of job descriptions.
• Conduct job evaluation of new roles and liaise with Reward Centre of Excellence (CoE) for reward guidance.
• Take responsibility for drafting strategic business cases for Intention to Hire forms for role approvals.
• Work closely with the Talent Acquisition team, oversee the recruitment process, from job posting to onboarding, ensuring a seamless experience for new hires.
• Participate in interviews and ensure compliance with hiring practices.
• Be a trusted advisor to managers on employee relations issues and identify early interventions.
• Lead on Employee Relations issues such as performance and sickness absence processes.
• Coach the Advisors and Assistants to develop their knowledge, skills and experience, providing regular and in the moment developmental feedback.
• Respond to queries and provide guidance and advice in line with our policies and procedures.
• Lead on investigations and conflict resolution, ensuring fair and consistent outcomes.
• Resolve employee queries and issues, ensuring fair and consistent resolution and improve management capability of people matters through coaching practices.
• Stay updated on employment laws and regulations to ensure practices are compliant.
• Keep all relevant teams, such as Payroll, HR Systems etc. updated with any employee changes within the employee life cycle.
• Assist in the development and implementation of performance management processes, including appraisals, feedback, and development plans.
• Address performance concerns and work with managers to identify improvement opportunities.
• Utilise HR data to provide insights and analysis for managers.
• Monitor HR metrics to inform decision-making and strategy development.
• Assist the HR Business Partnering team to embed the Firm's people priorities.
• Work with HR Business Partners and Reward CoE, to execute the year end compensation processes.
• Conduct exit interviews, using exit themes to highlight key issues to HR Business Partners that will drive change to attract, retain and motivate talent.
• Proactively lead and coordinate HR projects.
• Develop, review, and update HR procedures and templates.

Skills and Experience:

• CIPD qualified (or equivalent professional body or experience) is essential.
• Proven track record in a Senior HR Advisor role, ideally within the legal sector or professional services.
• Experience of supervising and mentoring others and a genuine interest in developing others.
• Strong knowledge of employment law and HR best practices.

Person Specification:

• Flexible and effective interpersonal and communication skills with the ability to interact and influence at all levels.
• Demonstrate a proactive approach to deliver service excellence.
• The ability to deal with a variety of potentially sensitive issues as and when they arise will also be required as well as a high level of confidentiality.
• Confidence and ability to deal with situations where there is conflict.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and work under pressure with excellent attention to detail.
• Proficiency in HR software and Microsoft Office Suite.

Hybrid Working: We adopt a hybrid and flexible working approach, dependent on the requirements of the role and subject to manager approval.