St John's Buildings Barristers' Chambers
Human Resources & Recruitment Assistant

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Manchester
£16,200 - £18,000 per annum (pro-rata of £27,000 - £30,000 for 37.5 hours per week)
Permanent, Part Time
Hours: Either three full days per week 9:00am – 5:30pm (1-hour unpaid lunch break), or the same hours across 4 - 5 days.
Holidays: Based on full-time equivalent 25 days per year plus Bank Holidays (rising with length of service to 30 days per year)
Benefits: contributory pension scheme, private healthcare and cash plan, group life policy, company sick pay, enhanced maternity pay
The Role
We have an opportunity for an HR & Recruitment Assistant to join the largest barristers’ chambers in the North, working closely with the Head of Human Resources to deliver an excellent service to our managers, staff and barristers. While based in Manchester, the HR department supports 70 staff and c.250 barristers across 5 sites, so the role will include occasional travel. The role is part-time and could be worked over 3 full days per week, or with those hours spread across 4 – 5 days, with the potential for overtime when needed in busy periods or to cover holiday.
We pride ourselves on having a positive and inclusive culture, with very high employee engagement scores and strong retention rates. St John’s Buildings is a lovely place to work, and the HR department play a critical role in ensuring we remain an attractive, competitive and supportive employer.
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Role
As we are a small team, this is a very generalist role with the opportunity to gain experience of a wide range of HR activities. Working closely with and under the guidance of the Head of HR your role will include:
- Supporting managers with recruitment campaigns including designing and placing adverts, sifting applications, setting up and attending interviews and other selection processes, through to pre-employment checks, preparing contracts and onboarding
- All starter and leaver administration
- Communication and administration of our employee benefits and assisting employees with queries
- Preparation of payroll change information for our payroll bureau
- Training administration for First Aid, Fire Wardens, Manual Handling and other courses
- Undertaking the training and being a First Aider and Fire Warden for the Manchester site, assisting with regular fire safety tests
- Upkeep of employee records and the HR database
- Maintaining recruitment equality statistics and helping to produce the annual analysis report
- Monitoring sickness absence and liaising with managers to ensure records are completed and our Absence Management Policy is applied
- Supporting the Head of HR and other managers in disciplinary, capability and grievance processes
- Organising occasional social events
- Being a first point of contact for advice about HR policies, terms and conditions, benefits and other employment issues


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About You
We are looking for candidates with experience of recruitment administration and ideally some general HR and payroll administration. Critically you will have the proven ability to organise and stay on top of a varied workload, have meticulous attention to detail and excellent communication skills, including the ability to produce high-quality documents and written communications. To live to our values, you’ll need to care about providing excellent services and an inclusive environment, be adaptable, friendly and approachable. A CIPD qualification will be an advantage but is not essential.
Closing Date
We encourage swift applications and will close when we have sufficient applications shortlisted for interview.
We positively encourage applications from all sections of the community and operate an equal opportunities approach
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