People Operations & Data Specialist

Music is Universal. It’s the passionate and dedicated team at Universal Music who help make us the world’s leading music company. From A&R to finance, legal to digital, sales to marketing, Universal Music is the place to grow and develop your career within a truly commercial and innovative business that leads in everything it does.

Everyone is welcome to apply for our roles, and we are determined to ensure that no applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment because of gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion, belief, age, marital status, background, pregnancy, or caring responsibilities. We also recognise the importance of diversity of thought within our teams and are fully committed to embracing the talents of people with autism, dyslexia, ADHD, and other forms of neurocognitive variation. We will always seek to make appropriate adjustments to recruitment, workplaces, and work processes to be fully inclusive to people with different needs and working styles. If you need us to make any reasonable adjustments for you from application onwards, including alternatives to the online form or to disclose a neurocognitive condition, please email UniversalMusicCareers@umusic.com.

The People Operations and Data Specialist is responsible for ensuring all people/HR records are accurate and up to date, running data checks, answering queries in a timely manner and producing relevant reporting that drives efficiency across the team and improves decision making. This role will work alongside our Talent Acquisition and Learning & Organisational Development Operations and Data colleagues as well as be a key contributor to our People Operations, Data and Systems teams in the UK. The role will collaborate with our teams in US and Europe where relevant.

Excellent communication, collaboration, attention to detail, discretion and customer service skills are essential for this role as is a good knowledge of Workday.

A Day in the Life of a People Operations & Data Specialist

• Provide Workday support to the People Inclusion and Culture team & employees based in the UK including:
• Managing large volumes of transactions including but not limited to New Hires, Job Changes, Leaves of Absence, One Time Payments and Leavers processes.
• Being the first point of contact for queries on Workday such as navigation, transaction progress, automated reporting, holiday balances, organisation structure.
• Ensure a seamless handover of new starters from Talent Acquisition Operations.
• Check that new hire day one paperwork is complete and right to work checks are completed and recorded.
• Work with the relevant People Adviser where necessary.
• Be responsible for the Service Now ticketing system including responding in a timely manner, keeping employees up to date and collective management of the workload.
• Calculate holiday allowances for relevant employee groups.
• Draft, send out and electronically store all paperwork for contractual changes post day one.
• Work closely with the relevant People Advisor.
• Work closely with the Payroll team in the UK to ensure accurate and timely transfer of Workday data to Payroll.
• Support the Annual Compensation Review process including data audits ahead of the Advanced Compensation launch.
• Serve as subject matter expert alongside the global People Operations and Data teams.
• Support the People Leadership Team, People Advisors and People Partners by accessing data in Workday for their reporting needs.
• Support PIC and the wider business by troubleshooting and resolving functional issues and providing direct support for Workday users when needed.
• Create and maintain electronic file storage.
• Collaborate with the PIC team in the UK, global People Systems team and colleagues in Europe to drive continual process improvement and efficiencies.
• Have experience or knowledge of HR process mapping and management, reviewing processes where needed.

Data, Systems and Auditing

• Support the wider People Operations, Data and Systems functions by performing audits for data accuracy and integrity of UK data.
• Assist in identifying and addressing opportunities for internal process improvement by eliminating unnecessary procedures, automating applicable tasks, and simplifying actions whenever possible.
• Support the People Systems team with testing new system configuration when needed.
• Understand the relationship between systems like Workday, IT networks and Payroll.

About You

• Understanding of Employee Life Cycle administration and HR business processes.
• Time management, organisational and interpersonal skills, including written and verbal communication skills.
• Attention to detail as well as follow‑through ability, strong analytical/problem‑solving skills, and sound judgement.
• Ability to handle highly sensitive data with confidentiality, discretion and exercise appropriate judgement.
• Team‑oriented attitude balanced with ability to work independently with minimal supervision.
• Experience working in cross‑functional groups, across multiple countries.
• Confidence to ask why and challenge our current way of doing things.

Just So You Know…

The company presents this job description as a guide to the major areas and duties for which the jobholder is accountable. However, the business operates in an environment that demands change and the jobholder’s specific responsibilities and activities will vary and develop. Therefore, the job description should be seen as indicative and not as a permanent, definitive, and exhaustive statement.