People Adviser – Kings Cross, London

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.

About the role

The People Adviser role is pivotal in providing expert HR advice and guidance, managing employee relations, absence and parental leave processes, and supporting occupational health and wellbeing in line with UK employment law.

A Day in the Life of a People Adviser

• Employee Relations: Serve as the primary contact for employee queries related to HR policies, employment contracts, benefits, and procedures in the relevant client groups. Work with their Line Manager and Employment Legal Team to provide guidance on employee relations matters. Support on grievances and disciplinaries including notetaking. Work with the Line Manager to lead on probation reviews, visa expiries and any relevant employment status checks. Assist in coaching managers on addressing employee relations issues, including performance management, absence management, and best HR practices. Assist in the development of Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs) and track progress to ensure successful resolution of performance issues. Work as an Adviser group to gather interview data from employee lifecycle surveys, collating trends and making proposals for retention programmes or actions within the PIC Data report.
• Absence Management: Manage employee absence queries, ensuring compliance with our company policy. Work with managers to ensure they are managing and monitoring sickness absence including implementing absence management plans, monitoring sick pay, return-to-work interviews, and other interventions to support employee wellbeing. Ensure managers are accurately recording absence in Workday and preparing reports on absence trends and patterns on individuals or teams.
• Occupational Health and Wellbeing: Liaise with the Health & Safety team and Occupational Health providers to arrange employee referrals for health assessments and hearing tests, ensuring appropriate support and/or reasonable adjustments are offered for medical issues, mental health concerns and/or disability. Advise managers and employees on reasonable adjustments for employees with long-term health conditions, disabilities or following illness/injury. Liaise with Benefits Analyst to ensure that all necessary information is gathered for Insurers where relevant. Work with the Adviser group to coordinate employee wellbeing initiatives to support physical and mental health in the workplace.
• Family Matters Policies: Maintain up-to-date knowledge of UK family & carers policies. Manage queries related to parental leave, including maternity, paternity, shared parental leave and adoption leave. Ensure employees are aware of their entitlements for Statutory Maternity Pay (SMP), Statutory Paternity Pay (SPP), and Shared Parental Leave Pay (ShPP). Guide employees and managers through the parental leave process.
• Flexible Working: Manage flexible working applications including issuing paperwork, arranging and leading meetings, monitoring trial periods and arranging reviews.
• Onboarding: Participate in facilitating day 1 and week 1 onboarding training alongside Learning and Organisational Development.
• HR Policies and Communication: Maintain up-to-date knowledge of HR policies and procedures. Ensure that designated areas of the PIC Sharepoint are kept up to date.
• Compensation and Benefits: Provide accurate information to employees and managers on compensation packages, pension schemes, and company benefits. Assist the Line Manager and Reward team with salary benchmarking and annual salary review administration.
• Change Management: Support organisational changes, such as restructures, as instructed by the Line Manager. Assist in driving employee engagement and fostering a positive organisational culture during periods of change.
• Data Management and Reporting: Work with People Operations to ensure HR data is accurately maintained in HR systems. Raise tickets in a timely manner to enable the People Operations Specialist to maintain accurate HR data. Produce reports on key HR metrics, providing insights to the People Leadership Team.
• General: Responsible for PIC Partners Uniport entries including coding to the right department's cost centre and sending it through for approval. Participate in or lead project work and activity as directed by the Line Manager or relevant Senior Leader in PIC.

About You

• Skills/Abilities: Excellent communication (spoken and written), negotiation, and relationship-building skills. Strong analytical and problem-solving skills. Ability to manage multiple priorities and meet deadlines in a fast-paced environment. High level of emotional intelligence and empathy. Integrity, discretion, and ability to maintain confidentiality. Pro-active approach to work. Ability to adapt to change and work in a fast-moving environment. Team player mentality.