HR Assistant Southampton, England
Job description
Who are we?
South Western Railway (SWR) operates over 1,500 services each weekday across the network and employs more than 5,000 people. We provide easy and convenient mobility, connecting people and communities in South West London, southern counties of England and the Isle of Wight.
Join our team and help us continue to improve quality of life by bringing people together to get the most out of life.
SWR is part of FirstGroup, the largest rail operator in the UK and second largest bus operator in the UK outside London. FirstGroup operates services throughout the UK and Ireland, with over 30,000 employees providing services that make travel smoother and life easier. FirstGroup works hard to reduce its impact on the environment, introducing cleaner and more environmentally responsible methods of transport.
About the Job:
To provide comprehensive support and guidance in accordance with Company policy and procedures, conditions of service, collective agreements and management information. You will be responsible for completing contractual and compliance paperwork and facilitating processes between the HR Team and Payroll at all stages of the employee life cycle.
Your main responsibilities will be:
- Complete starters, leavers and internal transfer staff change processes using the HR system and ensuring that the relevant staff changes correspondence is sent out accordingly. This will include accountability for processing information on redeployment, retirement, ill health, secondment, fixed term contracts and career breaks and death in service.
- Accountability for answering a range of employee lifecycle queries submitted by post, email and phone including annual and extended leave entitlements, attendance management, changes to terms and conditions of employment and lifestyle event changes.
- Accountability for issuing resignation and retirement acceptance paperwork and the recovery of leaver Company ID and travel passes.
- Ensure that employee records and associated filing is kept up to date.
- Ensure that management teams adhere to statutory ‘right to work' and eligibility checking requirements as and when required.
- Responsible for Company Attendance Procedure weekly reporting and to provide guidance and support with any escalated formal attendance related case management. This will also include responsibility for processing ‘100% attendance' and AWOL queries in accordance with Company procedure. Provide support to HR Business Partners with maternity, paternity, adoption, parental and flexible working related processes.
- Monitor employee dates for returning from extended leave (e.g. maternity, adoption, paternity, parental leave and career breaks) with responsibility for completing the relevant staff change process.
- Monitor and maintain fixed term contract, secondment and casual working expiry dates
- Ensure that management teams adhere to the ‘Authority to Recruit' process when submitting their recruitment needs including checking the relevant level of authority, headcount budgets, cost centres, job titles, work patterns and any employment related enhancements).
- Responsibility for processing pension related documentation including requests for pension estimates, submitting preserved benefits and payment of benefit forms to the pension provider and maintaining pension scheme rules.
- Ensure that leaver processes are completed including the checking of employee records for GDPR purposes prior to archiving.
- Act as signatory for responding to reference requests for ex-employees whereby there are formally agreed arrangements in place for the providing of information.
- Assisting the HR Services team in maintaining the shared email inbox, answering first contact queries in a timely fashion and escalating any complex issues to the relevant team member or manager for resolution.
- Perform ad-hoc or project related tasks as and when required by the HR Services Management Team.
You'll need:
- Proven experience of working in a fast paced and challenging office environment.
- Previous experience of working in a HR team would be an advantage.
- Possess a flexible approach in ensuring customer needs are met.
- Preparedness to travel across the South Western Railway network to attend meetings as and when required.
- Demonstrate strong time management, communication and interpersonal skills.
- Conscientious with an attention to detail particularly in relation to producing formal documentation in a variety of context.
- Strong time management skills with a proven ability to prioritise workload and meet targets.
- Must demonstrate a willingness to learn new systems, skills and behaviours and to acquire job related formal qualifications as and when required.
- Experience in appropriate IT packages including Microsoft Word, Excell and PowerPoint.
- Familiarity with talent management systems or HR databases would be desirable but not essential.
- Qualified or part qualified training in people management or development would be an advantage.
About the Location:
Overline House is conveniently situated overlooking Southampton Central Station and is easily accessible by public transport. The station is very local to West Quay, a hub for retailers and restaurants, and provides an excellent link between London, Coastal areas and the Isle of Wight.
Working Pattern:
Working an average of 37 hours per week over 5 days.
Please note this is a fixed-term contract until 27/04/2024
The Reward:
In return we offer a competitive salary and a variety of valuable benefits including free duty and leisure travel on SWR services for employee, free standard class leisure travel for spouse/partner and dependants (criteria dependant) , 75% discount on many other train operating companies, a range of retail benefits and an excellent pension scheme.
Please note applicants who require a visa, must have at least 6 months remaining at the time of their appointment.
We all belong at SWR. FirstGroup's vision is to provide an inclusive environment for all colleagues, across its group of businesses, ensuring all candidates have an equal opportunity to access meaningful employment.
We value our differences such as age, gender, LGBTQIA+, ethnicity, religion, and disability. We maintain a zero tolerance towards any form of prejudice towards our colleagues, customers, and future talent.
We celebrate and encourage diversity of thought, progressive ways of working and seeing all our colleagues grow and thrive.
We review all roles and job descriptions to ensure they are accessible and, where possible, we support and provide flexible working options; we recommend that you refer to each vacancy description for further details.
If you require additional support to complete your application due to a disability or neurodivergent condition, for example, dyslexia, dyspraxia, or autism, please follow the links below. We encourage you to share any additional needs you may require so we can provide a fair and equal process for all who apply.
https://exceptionalindividuals.com/neurodiversity/
https://www.healthassured.org/blog/neurodiversity/
