Senior HR Officer (Maternity Cover) in Bracknell

Location: Bracknell, Head Office (willingness to travel - UK&I)

Role Overview

As a Senior HR Officer at NEP UK & Ireland, you will deliver a proactive, high-quality HR service across the full employee lifecycle, with a focus on HR advisory, employee relations, manager capability and development initiatives. You will act as a trusted advisor to line managers, providing practical, risk-aware guidance while ensuring a consistent and compliant approach to people practices. Alongside this, you will take ownership of key HR processes and contribute to a positive employee experience across the organisation. A key aspect of the role is maintaining a strong, visible HR presence across NEP UK & Ireland. This includes regular face-to-face engagement with teams through visits to regional offices and periodic time on-site at operational locations, building relationships, strengthening commercial understanding and ensuring HR remains closely aligned to business needs.

Key Responsibilities

• Employee Lifecycle Ownership
  • Take ownership of the end-to-end employee lifecycle, ensuring a seamless and high-quality experience from recruitment through to offboarding.
  • Oversee onboarding processes to ensure effective integration and engagement of new hires.
  • Manage probation processes, providing guidance to managers and ensuring timely reviews.
  • Manage leavers and exit processes.
• Recruitment & Talent Support
  • Own end-to-end recruitment activity, including ClearCompany workflow management, ensuring a consistent and high-quality hiring process.
  • Partner with hiring managers to define requirements and support effective selection decisions.
  • Own recruitment performance, actively managing key KPIs including time to hire and process efficiency, in line with NEP’s 2026 focus areas.
  • Support the HRBP by providing recruitment reporting and workforce metrics, using data to identify trends and opportunities for improvement.
  • Ensure compliance with right to work requirements and onboarding processes.
• Policy, Compliance & Data
  • Ensure compliance with company policies, procedures and employment legislation, promoting best practice across the business.
  • Support the implementation, review and communication of HR policies and procedures.
  • Identify opportunities to improve HR processes, driving efficiency and consistency across the function.
  • Take ownership of the Employment Hero (EH) system and HERO, ensuring accurate, up-to-date and compliant HR records are maintained across all systems.
  • Lead the month-end data validation process, carrying out thorough checks within EH and HERO to ensure accuracy of employee data, payroll inputs and reporting outputs.
  • Take responsibility for the ongoing maintenance and integrity of HR data, including managing updates, audits and system accuracy.
  • Own the management of holiday balances, ensuring accuracy, resolving discrepancies and supporting managers and employees with queries.
  • Leverage Visier (data analytics tool) to produce meaningful HR data insights and reporting to support decision-making.
  • Ensure that individual employee files are accurately maintained.
• HR Advisory & Employee Relations
  • Act as a first-line HR advisor, providing guidance on disciplinary, grievance, absence, performance and family leave matters.
  • Manage low to medium risk ER cases end-to-end, escalating complex issues to the HRBP where appropriate.
  • Ensure consistent application of HR policies and employment legislation.
  • Coach and support line managers to build confidence and capability in people management.
  • Ensure all payroll changes are captured, validated and communicated accurately and in line with monthly deadlines.
  • Develop knowledge and capability in Sage payroll processes, supporting with inputting changes including new starters, freelancers/temporary workers, and contractual updates.
  • Take ownership of monthly benefits administration processes, including pension contributions and benefit updates (e.g. PMI, dental, life assurance, income protection), ensuring accuracy and timely submission.
  • Manage benefit enrolments and lifecycle changes, liaising with providers and internal stakeholders (including Finance) to support accurate reporting and reconciliation.
  • Maintain and regularly update NEP UK & Ireland benefit information on NEP Anywhere, ensuring clear and timely communication of any changes.
• Training & Development
  • Support the design and implementation of learning and development initiatives.
  • Continue to coordinate training sessions and development programs for employees.
  • Monitor and maintain training records and ensure that refresher training is arranged proactively.
  • Track and report on employee training and development activities.
  • Support managers in identifying training opportunities for their teams.
• Employee Engagement & Culture
  • Support engagement initiatives and recognition programmes.
  • Contribute to building a positive and inclusive workplace culture.
  • Act as a visible and approachable HR presence across the business.

What we’re looking for

Experience & Qualifications

• Proven experience in an HR generalist or HR Advisor-level role, with increasing ownership of HR processes.
• Good experience managing employee relations cases.
• Experience supporting and advising line managers on people-related matters.
• Exposure to HR systems (e.g. Employment Hero or similar HRIS) and payroll processes.
• CIPD Level 5 (or working towards) preferred.

Skills, Capabilities & Behaviours

• Strong knowledge of UK employment law and HR best practice.
• Ability to coach, influence and support managers effectively.
• Strong organisational skills and attention to detail, particularly with HR data and systems.
• Confidence handling sensitive and complex situations with sound judgement.
• Developing capability in HR systems, Microsoft tools and data analysis, with an ability to interpret workforce metrics.
• Strong communication and relationship-building skills.
• Proactive, adaptable and solutions-focused, with a willingness to learn and grow.
• High level of professionalism, discretion and accountability.
• Ability to work independently while contributing to a collaborative team.

What’s in it for you?

A great opportunity to step into a more advisory HR role, gaining hands-on experience across the full employee lifecycle and building confidence in supporting managers. You’ll develop your employee relations and coaching skills while working closely with an experienced HR Business Partner within a fast-paced, collaborative environment.

Development & Training

You’ll benefit from a blend of on-the-job learning and structured development, including hands-on experience managing employee relations cases and supporting managers. You’ll have access to a multitude of learning opportunities via NEP’s internal learning platforms. In addition, you’ll receive ongoing coaching and mentoring from the HR Business Partner, with opportunities to support and deliver in-house training to further build your capability.

More Details

Location: Gemini House, Bracknell with requirement to travel to other NEP UK&I sites as needed.

Working Hours: 9am – 5.30pm, Monday – Friday.