East Midlands Railway
HR Services Assistant

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HR Services Assistant, HR Services, Location: Derby - Head Office
Contract Type: Permanent
Salary: circa £31,903
Closing Date: Tuesday 06 October 2026
Interview Date: To be confirmed
Reference: HRSA-20262
We are proud to be One Team at East Midlands Railway (EMR). We are passionate about keeping people safe, delighting our customers, doing the right thing and putting customers at the heart of our sustainable railway for the East Midlands. With over 2,600 employees, our people are the reason we are so successful, and our employees make a crucial contribution to this.
Ten times accredited as a Top Employer and Gold accredited for Inclusive Employers Standards, we value our people and are dedicated to making sure that everybody feels empowered to bring their authentic self to work.
At EMR we want to proactively embrace diversity across our workforce and recognise that we are under-represented in some areas. We’re therefore taking positive steps to promote a positive and inclusive culture and we welcome applications from everyone to help us better represent our communities.
We have an exciting opportunity to join our award-winning HR team as a HR Services Assistant.
Reporting to the HR Manager, this role is responsible for the end-to-end delivery of HR transactional services for our management teams and colleagues, adopting a continuous improvement philosophy to drive quality and efficiency. The role will provide a professional service focusing on HR processes in accordance with statutory requirements and Company policies and procedures while being the main interface between Payroll and East Midlands Railway.
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Responsibilities include:
- Become the go-to expert on our terms and conditions of employment, providing first-line advice to colleagues.
- Act as the first point of contact for HR system data, supporting subject access requests and ensuring GDPR compliance.
- Work closely with the Transport UK payroll team to ensure accurate, timely pay, manage exceptions, resolve queries, and support pay awards.
- Identify and drive process improvements across HR Services, sharing best practice with the wider team.
- Liaise with third-party providers to administer employee benefits.
We are looking for:
- Demonstrable experience in a HR Services setting
- CIPD level 3 or equivalent experience
- An individual with a ‘can do’ attitude and willingness to be flexible
- Strong organisational skills and attention to detail
- Strong written and verbal communication skills
- An analytical and logical thinker who enjoys process, detail, and continuous improvement
- Confident manipulating data in excel
- Well developed use of IT systems including email, Word, Excel and ideally Microsoft forms


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Shortlisted candidates will be invited to a first round of video interviews, with further shortlisted candidates progressing to face-to-face interviews.
As well as a competitive salary, we’ll also offer you:
- 32 days annual leave (including bank holidays), rising to 34 days after 2 years of service
- Free travel on East Midlands Railway and other train companies operated by Transport UK
- 75% discount on other national rail train companies, including for partners and dependants
- Discounted friends and family tickets on the EMR network
- Various personal development and progression opportunities
- Excellent pension scheme
This position is based in our Derby Head office, but we've adopted a flexible hybrid working model that creates the opportunity to work in your own way at home but also provides great spaces for in-person collaboration.
We are open-minded to applications from people who wish to have flexible working. Many of our staff work flexibly in many ways. Please talk to us at interview about the flexibility you need. We can’t promise to give you exactly what you want, but we do promise not to judge you for asking.
Ready to take on this exciting opportunity? Submit your online application form and upload your CV. As we operate a blind screening process, please remove all personal information including your name from your CV.
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