People Advisor - Restaurants

Founded in 2003, Wasabi's vision is to lovingly create and serve delicious Asian food for a busy nation. Wasabi now has 42 thriving restaurants across London and major UK cities and 4 in New York. In 2019, we introduced Wasabi Home Bento, the grocery channel, launching exclusively in Sainsbury's. Building on that success, the grocery business broadened its reach to Tesco in September 2022, followed by exciting launches in Co-op and Morrisons in 2024. Wasabi grocery has seen phenomenal growth and is now a £62m RSV brand. Wasabi proudly stands as the No. 2 chilled ready-meal brand in the market, consistently attracting new customers to the category through an innovative East Asian range. Wasabi's menu is celebrated for its unique character, exceptional freshness, and bold flavours. Our diverse range is designed to delight a wide audience, delivering both comfort and excitement with every bite.

We have an ambitious 5-year growth strategy, focusing on new restaurants, franchise partnerships, and international expansion. As we prepare for our next phase of growth and innovation, we have an incredibly exciting opportunity for a People Advisor - Restaurants to join our People Team based in Park Royal.

The Role: The People Advisor – Restaurants is the first point of contact for employees and managers across our restaurant teams, providing confident, policy-grounded guidance on a wide range of people matters. The incumbent will take ownership of core people administration processes for the restaurants they support ensuring employee lifecycle documentation is accurate and updated in a timely manner. Reporting to the Senior People Business Partner - Restaurants, the People Advisor – Restaurants will build trusted relationships with managers and employees across our restaurant business, helping them navigate people processes with confidence. This role will champion our Wasabi PART behaviours and be a role model for our culture, playing a critical role in delivering a high-quality employee experience.

Key Responsibilities:

• Service Delivery & First-Line Advisory: Act as the first point of contact for all people queries, either directly or via the People inbox, providing a responsive, high-quality service to employees and managers. Deliver clear, timely, and policy-accurate advice on people matters including absence, wellbeing, performance management, benefits, and employee relations procedures. Ensure visa renewals are actioned through to completion in a timely manner, liaising with managers at relevant points in the process. Act on cyclical reports and monthly people dashboard ensuring employee and manager compliance e.g. holiday balances outstanding, working hours, absence management etc. Guide managers in making informed, fair, and consistent people decisions, helping them navigate processes with confidence. Promote consistent application of policies across the organisation, escalating complex or sensitive matters as appropriate to the Senior People Business Partner - Restaurants when required.
• Employee Relations: Manage all employee relations activity, maintaining accurate and up-to-date case records throughout. Prioritise and manage multiple cases simultaneously, proactively following up on in-progress cases to ensure timely and appropriate resolution. Support organisational change processes such as restructure, restaurant relocations or closures, assisting with documentation, communications, and employee guidance. Provide insights on casework and common themes to the broader People team to address consistent needs for information. Support managers actively and on site when necessary, particularly where policies or guidance may not be clear.
• People Administration & Data: Maintain accurate and up-to-date employee records, ensuring compliance with legislation and internal data standards. Own and deliver employee lifecycle administration including onboarding, contract variations, job changes, leaver documentation, and weekly induction sessions. Prepare and issue people documentation such as offer letters, contract amendments, and other employee communications in a timely and accurate manner. Contribute to routine reports where necessary to support People and Operations and provide data to colleagues and stakeholders as needed.
• Reward and Benefits Support: Respond to employee reward and benefits queries, helping them understand their benefit entitlements. Guide new starters through benefits enrolment and ensure all required payroll documentation is collected as part of onboarding. Support the processing of payroll and benefits changes by supplying timely documentation to the Payroll team and follow up where necessary. Investigate and resolve payroll or benefit discrepancies in partnership with the Payroll team.
• Manager Capability & People Projects: Contribute to the creation and delivery of manager toolkits, guidance materials, and resources that build people management capability across the organisation. Support Senior People Business Partner - Restaurants and team colleagues with the delivery of cyclical people activities such as performance review cycles, development initiatives, and onboarding events. Contribute to policy and 'How to' guide updates, ensuring documentation remains clear, accessible, legally compliant, and aligned with team culture. Provide policy and process advice and guidance to managers to educate and upskill them.
• Continuous Improvement: Identify recurring trends in employee queries and case types, recommending process improvements that reduce friction and improve service quality. Support system enhancements and issue resolutions, helping optimise functionality and improve the day-to-day employee experience. Assist with data quality checks, system audits, and broader compliance activities to ensure consistency and accuracy across people records. Contribute ideas and insights that support the wider People strategy and remove operational blockers.

Our Requirements: The ideal candidate for this role will be educated to A level or equivalent, preferably CIPD qualified. They should have had experience in an HR Advisor or similar role, ideally in a fast-paced hospitality or retail environment. Additionally, candidates will need to demonstrate that they:

• Have a good grounding in HR principles and legislation and comfortable interpreting policy into advice and practice.
• Are proactive with a hands-on approach.
• Are solution focused and look for ways to make things happen.
• Have excellent organisational skills with a keen eye for detail.
• Are personable and engaging and able to build strong relationships with employees and managers alike.
• Enjoy working as part of a team and happy to cover for their counterparts when required.
• Have strong Microsoft Excel, Word and PowerPoint skills.
• Have a genuine interest in people engagement and promoting great working environments.

In return we provide:

• A great working environment.
• Pension scheme.
• Target Bonus.
• Refer A Friend Scheme.
• Free Sushi or hot food (vegan options available).
• 50% discount in our Branches.
• Employee Assistant Programme Help@Hand (a service providing health and wellbeing support).
• Long Service Awards.
• Wagestream - a financial wellbeing benefit that lets you access your pay as you earn it in real time and manage savings.
• Life Assurance.
• Electric Vehicle Scheme through Octopus.
• Cycle To Work.
• Free on-site parking.
• A variety of discounts (shopping, food & drink, entertainment and health & fitness) through Perkbox.
• The opportunity to develop your skills within a growing company.

Our people make us who we are. If you're looking for an exciting challenge and this sounds like the job for you please apply today as we can't wait to hear from you.