People Services Support Desk Executive

Hybrid - Milton Keynes, England, United Kingdom

At Grant Thornton we do things differently - looking to the future, driving ambitious growth and pioneering positive change in our industry. Providing audit, tax and advisory services, we empower clients through strategic insight, curiosity, and genuine partnership. And we empower our people with real opportunity, an inclusive culture and work life balance.

Grant Thornton UK LLP is part of a global network of independent audit, tax and advisory firms, made up of some 58,000 people in over 135 countries. We're a team of independent thinkers who put quality, inclusion and integrity first. All around the world we bring a different experience to our clients. A better experience. One that delivers the expertise they need in a way that goes beyond. Personal, proactive, and agile.

The Support Desk Executive provides in-depth, knowledge-led support to the business on people processes and contractual changes. Sitting above the administration tier, the role applies sound judgement to policy, contractual and process questions underpinned by knowledge of Grant Thornton UK LLP structures, systems and ways of working. It acts as a trusted point of guidance for people managers, employees and helps maintain accuracy and consistency across people data and transactions.

We’re happy to talk flexible working and consider reduced hours and job shares, we’ll support you to balance your work and life.

A look into the role:

• Advisory and guidance: Act as a knowledgeable first point of contact for people managers, employees and stakeholders, resolving people queries directly where possible and applying judgement rather than simply signposting.
• Policy interpretation and application: Read across the firm’s people policies and apply them to real situations, including the grey areas where more than one policy is in play or the answer is not immediately obvious.
• One touchpoint guidance: Resolve queries fully at first contact wherever possible, reducing the need to hand off or elevate and giving people managers and our people a clear, complete answer.
• Contractual guidance: Advise on the practical effect of contractual terms for example notice periods, working patterns and changes to terms and explain what can and cannot be changed and how.
• People manager guidance: Support people managers, helping them understand processes and their responsibilities, and guiding them through tasks they complete themselves.
• Holiday, leaver and pay queries: Handle queries on holiday entitlement and balances, the leaver process and pay-related questions, recognising where a query has a contractual or compliance dimension that needs care.
• Moments that matter: Provide informed support across the firm’s employee experience and wellbeing touchpoints, applying the same accuracy and consistency expected elsewhere in the role.

Systems, data and process:

• Apply technical knowledge of the firm’s people systems to keep data accurate, investigate where transactions have gone wrong, and help the wider team work more effectively.
• Understand how data connects: Recognise how people data flows through systems and the impact when something changes.
• Investigate and fix issues: Identify and resolve transactions that haven’t worked as expected, getting to the root cause.
• Take an end-to-end view: Understand how processes fit together so you can diagnose issues in context rather than in isolation.
• Reporting and integrations: Produce and interpret reporting, and understand how data integrates between systems, including the impact when something changes upstream.
• Optimisation and the feedback loop: Identify opportunities to improve and simplify processes and feed these back through the process feedback loop so the team continually improves.

Knowing you’re right for us:

• Strong working knowledge of HR policy, contractual terms and people processes.
• Experience advising managers and employees on people queries.
• Confident user of Workday, with the ability to investigate and correct transactions.
• High attention to detail and a focus on data quality.
• Clear written and verbal communication.
• Ability to manage a varied workload and prioritise effectively.

It would be great if you had some of the following skills, but don’t worry if you don’t tick every box, we’ll help you develop along the way:

• CIPD qualification, or working towards one.
• Experience of reporting, integrations or process improvement.
• Experience working across a multi-location or shared services team.

Knowing we’re right for you:

Embracing uniqueness, the culture at Grant Thornton thrives on the contributions of all our people, we never settle for what is easy, we look beyond to deliver the right thing, for everyone. Building an inclusive culture, where we value difference and respect our colleagues helps our people to perform at the best of their ability and realise their potential.

Our open and accessible culture means you’ll interact with leaders who are interested in you and everything you bring to our firm. The things that set you apart, we value them. That’s why we give you the freedom to bring your whole self to work and pursue your passions inside and outside of work.

Beyond the job:

Life is more than work. The things you do, and the people you’re with outside of work matter, that’s why we’re happy to look at flexible working options for all our roles, and we’ll always do our best to keep your work and life in balance.

The impact you can make here will go far beyond your day job. From secondments, to fundraising for local charities, or investing in entrepreneurs in the developing world, you’ll be giving back to society.

It’s that drive to do the right thing that runs through our every move, grounded in our firm’s values – purposefully driven, actively curious and candid but kind. We’re looking for people who want to contribute, spark fresh ideas and go beyond expectations. People who want to be able to proudly do what’s right, for the firm, our clients, our people and themselves.

Grant Thornton UK is a leading advisory firm that combines global expertise with local insights, delivering tailored assurance, tax, and advisory services to drive sustainable growth.