People Support (HR) Advisor

People Support (HR) Advisor

Secondment, Full Time

£26,090 to £30,693 per annum

Location: Chelmsford

Closing Date: 11th July 2025

Please note this vacancy is available as a fixed term contract opportunity for up to 12 months

This position has been classed as an anywhere worker role but has an expectation that the successful candidate will attend the office, in Chelmsford 1-2 days per week, with the remaining time for remote working if desired, in line with the organisation's needs.

The Role

People Services are committed to providing a high level of customer services for our employee and managers, through a variety of digital channels. The People Support Advisor will be the first point of contact for all HR related queries. They will be responsible for providing customer focused and professional advice, support and guidance to managers and employees across the whole of ECC. This role provides a great opportunity for someone wanting to build on the experience working within an HR setting in a large and complex organisation.

The Opportunity

People Services sits within the People & Organisation Development function at Essex County Council (ECC). People Services delivers a high standard of service to both ECC employees and to external customers, with our employees and customers at the heart of what we do. We have high expectations of our teams and aspire to be high performing in all aspects of our delivery. We provide a comprehensive, quality service which supports the delivery of our ambitious corporate people plan. We are on a journey to underpin our services with robust technology, and we strive to create an uncompromising culture to deliver service excellence that delights our customer. People Services seeks to continuously improve and to stay ahead of the curve, leading the way in the public sector and delivering services which offer innovation, value for public spend and above all else a customer centric approach. 

The People Support Adviser (PSA) will be the first point of contact for the business for HR related queries. They will be responsible for managing stakeholder expectations, providing a customer focused and professional advice, support and guidance service, for people related queries across all channels: online, telephone and face to face. You will provide support and resolutions quickly and efficiently

Accountabilities

• Be the first point of contact for our customer queries via phone, web chat and email providing high quality HR advice and guidance ensuring request are escalated or filtered accordingly.
• Provide pragmatic and professional expertise and advice on specific topics, e.g., family friendly policies (maternity, paternity, etc), flexible working requests, managing absence, performance, resolution, onboarding processes, Occupational Health referrals.
• Improving manager and business confidence and capability by coaching through workplace issues.
• Provide consistent and up to date advice on employment legislation and developing issues within the organisation.
• Contribute to the increase in self-service of HR queries, by coaching employees and managers of online self-service support, and identifying areas for improvement to People Casework Manager.
• Strong team working motivation and ability to build effective working relationships across People and Organisation Development including with People Business Partners, People Consultants and other teams in People Services
• Support organisational change and initiatives that may involve consultation and result in redundancy or TUPE
• Specific individual and shared targets and objectives are defined annually within the performance management framework.

The Experience You Will Bring

• Skills, Knowledge and Experience
• CIPD membership and a minimum of level 5 CIPD qualification or to be achieved within 2 years of taking up the post
• Experience of working in a busy, fast paced team providing professional support to customers
• Proficient IT skills, MS Word and MS Excel are essential. Hands on experience with IT programmes and HR systems
• Highly motivated with excellent attention to detail, a result orientated approach and continually seeking to improve.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills with experience of dealing with customer queries and a track record of providing exceptional customer service.
• A high level of interpersonal skills to deal with extremely confidential and sensitive issues, providing support with empathy and professionalism. Ability to develop strong working relationships and to influence a wide range of stakeholders including colleagues and customers.
• Ability to work independently, organise and work accurately to tight deadlines
• A basic knowledge of HR policies and employment legislation and experience in providing coaching, support and building confidence