HR Officer in Chesterfield

Salary details: £32,061 to 34,434 per annum

Job term: x1 permanent and x1 fixed term until 31 December 2026 (maternity cover)

Appointment type: full time

Hours: 37 hours per week

Location: Town Hall, with opportunity for some hybrid working

Department: Human Resources

Candidates must possess the necessary right to work authorisation to enable them to work for Chesterfield Borough Council. Regrettably, we are unable to provide sponsorship or assume sponsorship of an employment visa at this juncture.

Join Chesterfield Borough Council as an HR officer and help deliver a professional, efficient and customer-focused HR service to managers and employees across the organisation. Working as part of our HR operations team, you’ll provide first-line advice on a range of people management issues and support consistent, timely and compliant HR processes across the full employee lifecycle – from recruitment through to exit.

About the role:

• Manage a varied workload, supporting managers with day‑to‑day HR queries and casework activity.
• Help ensure HR policies are applied consistently, produce accurate documentation and audit‑ready records, and elevate complex or high‑risk matters to the HR operations manager or HR business partners when needed.
• Contribute to continuous improvement by helping us streamline processes, improve data quality and strengthen the overall service experience for our customers.

In this role, you’ll focus on the following priorities:

• Provide clear, consistent first‑line advice and guidance to managers on HR policies and employment legislation (e.g. conduct, grievance, sickness absence and performance).
• Manage a range of HR casework activities, including preparing documentation, note‑taking, organising meetings/hearings, maintaining accurate audit‑ready records and monitoring progress to agreed timescales.
• Support the recruitment and onboarding process, including drafting adverts, coordinating shortlisting/interviews, advising on equality considerations and reasonable adjustments, and completing pre‑employment checks and offer documentation.
• Process employment changes accurately and on time, ensuring HR system data integrity and compliance with payroll cut‑offs, pay policies and approval frameworks.
• Support HR reporting and continuous improvement by completing data quality checks, producing routine reports and contributing to audits, policy reviews and manager training.

About you:

You’ll be a proactive, solutions‑oriented HR professional who is confident working in a fast‑moving operational environment. You’ll combine strong attention to detail with good judgement, communicating clearly with colleagues at all levels and building trusted relationships with managers, employees, payroll and trade union representatives. You’ll also be able to demonstrate:

• Experience in a generalist HR role, advising and supporting managers and handling multiple cases or activities at the same time.
• Experience coordinating end‑to‑end recruitment activity, including advertising, shortlisting, arranging interviews and issuing offer documentation.
• Good working knowledge of HR policies, employment law and data protection (GDPR), with confidence using HR systems and Microsoft Office to produce letters, reports and management information.

Why join us?

This is a great opportunity to broaden your generalist HR experience in a supportive team, with a varied workload and the chance to make a real difference to day‑to‑day employee experience. You’ll work with colleagues across the council, helping managers navigate people matters confidently and ensuring HR processes run smoothly, fairly and consistently. As an employee of Chesterfield Borough Council, you will have access to a variety of employee benefits including hybrid working, competitive leave entitlement, the local government pension scheme and access to a range of staff discounts and flexible benefits schemes.

Closing date: 24 May 2026