Senior People Advisor in Leeds

IMA is a creative agency that builds brands people want to be part of. We are looking for a passionate, driven

Senior People Advisor to join our dynamic People team.

If you are an HR professional who wants to work within a fast-paced environment to deliver first-class, strategic people solutions across a global agency, this is the perfect place to elevate your career.

• What You’ll Get From Us
• Career Growth: A chance to develop your career within an award-winning, people-first creative agency.
• Recognition: A values-led culture where your contribution is recognised and supported.
• Autonomy & Support: Ownership and variety from day one, with the support of a collaborative team.
• Real Impact: The opportunity to lead projects across live campaigns, retail activations and brand experiences.
• Our Culture: A people-first environment where we challenge, grow, and deliver together.

The Role

As a Senior People Advisor, you will be fully embedded as a strategic people advisor working collaboratively with key stakeholders across our global offices.

This is an immersive, high-impact opportunity designed to provide effective, consistent, and first-class Employee Relations (ER) advice on a wide range of people management matters.

You will act as a critical touchpoint for talent, recruitment, and employee relations, ensuring our regional teams are supported and our company frameworks thrive.

In this role, you will get a 360-degree view of how our global agency aligns commercial needs with people development.

You will experience the full lifecycle of employee relations and talent management - from triaging complex cases and coaching managers to elevate their leadership capabilities, to leveraging data-driven insights that address business performance gaps.

It’s a space where you are encouraged to challenge conventional approaches, champion a people-led approach, and treat every challenge as a chance to drive what is right for the agency.

Key Responsibilities

• Your Daily Focus Will Include
• Stakeholder Engagement: Building proactive relationships with key global stakeholders to advise on current legislation, identify risk, and offer pragmatic solutions.
• Employee
• Relations

Management: Resolving challenging situations and facilitating employee relations matters (such as grievance, disciplinary, absence, and capability investigations) to mitigate business risk.

• Talent Development & Recruitment: Coaching and upskilling line managers on employment legislation and consistent, legally compliant recruitment practices.
• Data Analysis & Reporting: Leveraging people data, tracking trends (including leaving chats and D, E&I statistics), and providing recommendations to close performance gaps.
• Policy & Compliance: Reviewing frameworks like sickness absence, ensuring company policies remain legally compliant and fit for purpose in an agency environment.
• Team Collaboration: Actively engaging in annual People activities—such as promotions, probations, performance, talent, and salary reviews—while supporting the wider People team.
• Representing: Acting in the best interest of IMA Agency and Smollan Group Companies at all times.
• What We Are Looking For
• The Essentials (Must-Haves)
• Experience: Extensive experience working in a similar generalist Advisor role or equivalent, with a proven track record in complex case management across ER-related issues.
• The Fundamentals: Robust working knowledge across recruitment, employee relations, onboarding, reward and recognition, health and wellbeing, learning and development, and D, E&I.
• Legal & Commercial Acumen: Up-to-date knowledge of employment law required for an Advisor level, with the ability to conclude ER matters providing commercial, pragmatic advice.
• Relationship Building: Exceptional ability to gain credibility with stakeholders, influence best-practice decision-making, and coach people managers.
• Tech-Savvy: Highly competent with Google Suite, Microsoft Office, as well as modern people management systems.
• Workflow: Exceptionally organized with strong attention to detail, the capability to work on your own initiative, and the ability to meet strict deadlines.
• Attitude: A proactive completer-finisher whose approach matters with absolute confidentiality and discretion, bringing a positive, approachable, and "can-do" mindset.
• Logistics: A flexible approach with the ability to react calmly and professionally within a fast-moving, changing environment.
• The Desirables (Nice-to-Haves)
• Experience working directly within a global agency environment or managing cross-border stakeholder networks.
• A proven track record of designing and delivering upskilling sessions or training frameworks for recruitment compliance.

Our Values

• Curiosity: We explore it.
• Courage: We challenge it.
• Commitment: We run with it.

These principles shape how we work - with each other, with clients, and with the world.

We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences. If this role sounds like a good fit, we’d love to hear from you.

Informed by human behaviour. Fuelled by creativity. Connected by data, media and digital. We are IMA.

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