Human Resources Manager (Maternity Cover, 12-month fixed-term contract)

Job Purpose

To provide comprehensive, proactive, and consistent Human Resources generalist support to the designated client group and the wider Firm, in addition to managing and developing the Human Resources team in conjunction with the Head of Human Resources.

Duties and Responsibilities

Firm-wide & HR Team Support

• Ensure the effective and efficient delivery of first line HR support to the Firm;
• Be an escalation point and provide guidance to the HR Advisors, Recruitment Coordinator and HR Administrator on a day-to-day basis;
• Support the HR Advisors on ER issues within their client groups, coaching and guiding them through processes.
• Support the Head of HR with more complex ER issues.
• Maintain HR standard documents and staff manual, ensuring that they continue to meet changing legislative and business requirements.
• Complete salary surveys with the support of the HR Advisors to assist the Head of HR in benchmarking.
• Point of contact for the Firm’s UKVISA account.
• Own the HR team’s contribution to the regular all staff D-Brief comms.

Internal Client Departments

• Work closely and meet regularly with Heads of Department and line managers to support them in the successful delivery of their services.
• Advise Heads of Department, line managers, and other employees within the Firm on employee relations issues, seeking guidance from the Head of HR where appropriate.
• Monitor absence issues within client group, send self-certs, save GP notes, and completed self-certs on file, run monthly sickness reports, hold sickness absence meetings, and refer to occupational health as required. Notify HR Systems to log absence on HR database.
• Leavers – upon receipt of resignation email/letter, sending formal leaver letters, arranging, and conducting exit interviews, providing generic feedback reports on these as appropriate, updating the Joiners/Leavers spreadsheet as needed, responding to reference requests from new employers, and notifying Payroll and HR Systems to update HR database.
• Monitoring of probation periods – diarising when probations are coming up, sending reminders to the individual and their line manager, following up to ensure these take place, issuing confirmation in post/change of notice variation letters and liaise with Heads of Department regarding any salary increase that may be due under their contract.
• Liaising with client group over any extended leave e.g. maternity, paternity, adoption. Explaining entitlement under the policies, advising Facilities as required from a H&S perspective, updating line managers and Heads of Department, and Joiners/Leavers. Instructing Payroll as required and advising HR Systems to update the database.
• Appraisals – log all appraisals for client group as they are returned, maintain a record of outstanding appraisals across client groups, review returned appraisals for any training needs which are identified and produce a report of these as required.
• Gifts – administration of all employees gifts the client group, such as gifts for those on maternity leave and bereavement gifts as appropriate.
• References – provision of mortgage, tenancy, and employment references on request.
• Together with the Recruitment Coordinator and hiring managers, assist in the production of comprehensive job descriptions and conduct interviews as required. Send out offer paperwork and coordinate with the HR team and line managers/Head of Department regarding join date and induction of new joiners.
• Work with the Partners and managers to ensure appropriate learning and development opportunities are available for the assigned client group, in support of business objectives.

HR Systems and Management Information

• Oversee the effective provision of HR systems and management information with ad hoc support from the HR Administrator, Compliance and IT teams as needed.
• Account management of the HR systems providers.
• Responsible for managing HR updates on the Firm’s intranet.
• Oversee the quality and integrity of HR management information provided to the business.
• Work with the HR Advisors to ensure published D&I and Gender Pay Gap information is accurate and appropriate.
• Produce and maintain turnover statistics for the Firm.

Trainee Recruitment & Development

• Work closely with the Training Principal in the successful delivery of the Firm’s Training Contract.
• Key point of contact, both internally and externally, for all queries relating to Training Contracts.
• Manage all aspects of the Firm’s branding/advertising in relation to the Vacation Scheme and Training Contract provision, with support from the Recruitment Coordinator and Marketing & Business Development Team.
• Organise and run the Firm’s Summer Vacation Scheme including: preparation, advertising and recruitment, onboarding, delivery, and feedback; ensuring that high performing candidates are filtered into the Training Contract recruitment process.
• Organise and manage the Firm’s Training Contract recruitment process including: preparation and logistics, advertising, shortlisting, arranging psychometric tests, delivering assessment centres, coordinating final interviews and offers, with the support of the Recruitment Coordinator. Ensure quality feedback is given to unsuccessful candidates and that Heads of Department are kept up to date in relation to internal applicants.
• Continue to develop the Training Contract assessment process, identifying opportunities for improvement and reflecting on the link between performance data during the application process and performance data in the role.
• Plan and facilitate the Trainee Induction Programme and source learning and development opportunities ensuring that Trainees are well equipped to be successful in their role.
• Manage the Trainee Solicitor seat rotation process, liaising with the Training Principal and key internal stakeholders to ensure business needs are met, as well as meeting trainee expectations and providing advice regarding seat choices.
• Manage the Trainee Solicitor qualification process to meet business needs and trainee aspirations, including dealing with all SRA requirements.
• Monitor current and future trainee performance, from their start date to qualification, and proactively deal with any performance issues.
• Manage the appraisal process for Trainees in conjunction with Supervising Partners;
• Maintain a programme of liaison with future trainees.
• Manage (in liaison with the course provider and Trainees) the PSC course and support Trainees in the successful completion of the SQE2 as required.

Professional Qualifications & Accreditations

• Manage the Firm’s practising certificate renewal process – SRA, CILEx, and any others as appropriate.
• Be the point of contact for Paralegals pursuing the CILEx route to qualification, providing guidance to individuals and Head of Department as appropriate.
• Maintain the mySRA online account, ensuring accurate information is held.
• Manage the bi-annual SRA diversity reporting process.
• Maintain the Firm’s compliance accreditations from an HR perspective, taking part in audits and updating policies/procedures as required to remain compliant.

Person Specification

Essential skills

• A-levels or equivalent and ideally degree educated
• CIPD Level 7 qualified (or working towards);
• Experience of working in a legal environment; ideally with Trainees and Vacation Schemes
• Experience of developing and delivering assessment centres;
• Excellent computer skills (competent in Outlook, Excel, and Word);
• In depth knowledge of HR best practice & understanding of HR strategy;
• Commercially aware with a focus on delivering results; client service delivery;
• Identifying areas that require improvement and designing solutions that suit the business needs;
• Strong consultancy, communication, influencing, and interpersonal skills combined with drive and personal integrity;
• Have a critical eye for detail and have the ability to follow processes and procedures;
• Good time management skills with the ability to prioritise workload, to have a flexible approach to ensure all deadlines are met and to ensure that all work is of the highest possible standard;
• Must be able to work as part of a team and possess excellent communication skills both written and verbal;
• Must be interested in HR and the service it is able to provide;
• The successful candidate will be a self-starter, highly organised, able to take on a demanding administrative workload and not be flustered by it.