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We currently have an exciting new vacancy for a People Assistant to join our busy People team.

Do you want to join the UK’s biggest and best zoo as a People Assistant? We have ambitious goals, exciting plans, and there’s always lots going on here and we want you to be with us on our exciting journey.

The People Assistant will be involved in supporting and assisting the People Officers in the delivery of a varied and wide-ranging set of HR processes and objectives covering all aspects of the employee life cycle. You will act as a first point of contact for the People team, providing generalist guidance and support to line managers and colleagues around a range of HR policies and processes, escalating where appropriate.

We’re looking for someone who is passionate about delivering outstanding support and guidance to the whole organisation and take pride in their work within a very busy team.

The People Assistant will provide support to the People Officers with key processes through the employee life cycle, including:

• End to end recruitment process, including drafting and posting adverts, arranging, and supporting with interviews and onboarding
• Advising employees on family friendly policies, including maternity, paternity, adoption and flexible working, carrying out meetings, processing paperwork and issuing relevant letters
• Carrying out exit interviews, providing feedback to People Officers and line managers as required
• Absence management of short and long-term sickness cases, through monitoring levels of and reasons for absence, carrying out first stage absence review meetings and referring complex cases to People Officers
• Assisting the People Officers with employee relations case work, including preparation of packs, arranging, drafting invite letters, and taking notes in meetings for grievance, disciplinary and capability meetings
• Assisting with logging and tracking of Occupational Health paperwork and appointments
• Updating trackers and HR systems to maintain accurate data, adhering to GDPR legislation
• Contributing to the production of People Team metrics and reports for stakeholders including Managers, Directors & Trustees

The Package

• Permanent contract
• Hybrid working
• Full time 40 hours (Will consider part time hours between 32 – 40 hours per week)
• A salary of £26,487.02 per annum (based on working 40 hours per week)
• 33 days annual leave including bank holidays (based on working 5 days per week)
• Staff pass so you can visit the zoo during your time off, plus multiple complimentary tickets for your friends and family
• Cycle to work scheme
• Healthcare plan and employee assistance programme
• Discounted gym membership
• Discounts on cinema tickets, restaurants, high street shops and more via Perks
• Pension scheme with generous employer contributions up to 9%

We are looking for someone who has:

• Experience of working in a busy, high volume HR environment
• Knowledge and experience of various aspects of the employee life cycle, including recruitment, sickness absence, family friendly policies and processes such as maternity, paternity, adoption and flexible working
• Strong organisational skills with excellent attention to detail and accuracy
• Have excellent customer service skills, listening skills and a degree of empathy
• Ability to build and maintain effective working relationships with key stakeholders
• Good literacy and numeracy skills, and confident using Microsoft Office packages, including Word, Excel, Outlook and Teams

Although not essential, the following would be desirable:

• CIPD Level 3 in People Practice, or willingness to work towards
• Experience of dealing with employee relations and performance management matters
  

Please be aware we reserve the right to close our vacancies earlier than the listed date if we have received a high level of applications. We recommend that if you do wish to be considered that you complete the application as promptly as possible as interviews will be taking place whilst the advert is live.

What makes Chester Zoo a great place to work?

Well, where do we start? Here goes…

We’re a huge team of conservationists, scientists, educators, animal welfare experts, marketeers, visitor experience professionals, environmental policy influencers; the list goes on. Each and every one of us is on a mission to make Chester Zoo the best in the world, and our planet a better place.

As the UK’s biggest and best zoo, we have ambitious goals, exciting plans, and there’s always lots going on here. We’re an inclusive and diverse organisation, made up of nearly 500 permanent and 500 seasonal team members, and we know how important it is to invest in our colleagues to help boost their career development. We have ambitious goals, and we want you to be with us on our exciting journey.

Our working environment could not be more different from a typical office – where else can you see critically endangered orangutans from your office window, or stroll among rare giraffes and tigers on your lunch break?