Practical Action
P and C Associate
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About the role
This is a part-time position working 20 hours per week. We offer flexibility in how these hours are worked to support work-life balance, although our preference is that the hours are spread across three, four or five days to ensure consistent support for the People & Culture function and the wider organisation.
As a People & Culture Associate, you will play a key role in delivering a professional, responsive and customer-focused People & Culture service across the UK, while supporting colleagues across our global offices. Working in the UK People & Culture team, you will provide high-quality administrative and first-line advisory support throughout the entire employee lifecycle, from recruitment and onboarding through to payroll, employee relations and offboarding.
This is a varied role that combines HR administration, recruitment coordination, payroll processing and HR systems management. You will act as the first point of contact for routine People & Culture enquiries, ensuring employees and managers receive timely advice and support while maintaining the highest standards of confidentiality, accuracy and compliance.
You will be responsible for:
- Maintaining HR records and systems
- Coordinating recruitment and onboarding activities
- Supporting employee relations processes
- Processing monthly payroll with our outsourced provider
- Administering contractual changes
- Supporting visa and compliance requirements
- Producing people data and management reports
You will also contribute to continuous improvement initiatives and a range of People & Culture projects that enhance the employee experience and support organisational objectives.
This role would suit an organised, proactive and detail-oriented HR professional who enjoys working across a broad range of People & Culture activities, thrives in a fast-paced environment, and is committed to delivering an excellent service to colleagues across the organisation.
About you
You will be an organised, proactive and customer-focused HR professional with experience of working in a busy HR or People & Culture environment. You will be confident managing a varied workload, and you will have experience across HR administration, recruitment and payroll, with the ability to provide first-line advice and guidance to managers and employees.
You will have:
- Excellent attention to detail and be highly numerate
- Good spreadsheet and Microsoft Office skills
- The ability to manage data accurately, maintain confidential employee records and support payroll processes with confidence
- Comfort in working with HR systems and handling sensitive information with discretion
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You will have excellent communication and interpersonal skills, you will build positive working relationships across the organisation and deliver a professional, responsive service to colleagues at all levels. You will be able to prioritise competing demands, work independently using your initiative, and maintain high standards of accuracy in a fast-paced environment.
Ideally, you will hold a CIPD Level 3 Certificate in Human Resource Practice (or equivalent experience).
Why join us?
The opportunity to work for an organisation that is taking practical action against poverty and the environmental crises to start the big changes the world urgently needs. A friendly and supportive culture, working with values driven and highly engaged colleagues, work life balance and flexible working – these are just some of the reasons we think Practical Action is a great place to work.
In the UK, our open plan offices are located in the centre of Rugby and near to Rugby train station but we also offer free parking.
In addition, we offer the following benefits:
- Full time roles are contracted at 35 hours per week.
- Hybrid working policy, where flexible working hours are enabled as well as remote working.
- 27 days holiday rising with continuous service, in addition to public holidays
- Pension scheme – employer contributes 10.5% of salary and the employee contributes 5%.
- Enhanced family friendly policies, including maternity, adoption, paternity, and shared parental leave.
- Life assurance (3 x annual salary).
- Cycle to Work scheme
- Employee Assistance Programme – access to our Wellbeing platform
- Learning and Development Opportunities
- Sit / Stand desks available in our modern offices.
About us
We are a global community taking practical action against poverty and today’s environmental crises. Across Africa, Asia and Latin America we partner with people experiencing these challenges, especially those who are unheard and excluded. Our approach is to identify what works on a local level, then adapt and amplify it across different regions, countries and continents. All of Practical Action’s work is focused on two connected areas for action – livelihoods and climate resilience – and we’re working to deliver three big, global changes:
- Big change on food – to sustain people and planet
- Big change on energy – clean and accessible for everyone
- Big change on climate risk – safer lives, stronger livelihoods
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Our Values
- People Centred: Striving to create an equal, fair, accessible, dignified and respectful environment for everyone we work with – from colleagues and communities, to supporters, suppliers and stakeholders.
- Impact Driven: Existing to make a positive difference, so everything we do is driven by our energy to create lasting value for the people and communities we serve.
- Transparent and Trustworthy: Acting with integrity, honesty, and strong ethics, building mutual trust with everyone we work with to achieve the highest standards.
- Innovative: Championing learning, curiosity and fresh thinking, bringing local knowledge to create global impact.
- Resilient Changemakers: Working for sustainable development, meeting challenges head-on, and evolving through the lessons learnt.
Additional information
We treat all applications for employment fairly regardless of gender, race, religion, ethnicity, nationality, caste, tribe, belief, age, marital status, pregnancy, caring responsibilities, sexual orientation, or disability.
Practical Action is committed to safeguarding and protecting children and vulnerable adults and as such candidates will be subject to pre-employment checks including criminal checks and terrorist financing.
To ensure that Practical Action meets its obligations of safer recruitment, appointment to posts within Practical Action will be subject to a satisfactory criminal check. Criminal checks will be conducted for all roles.
The successful applicant must already have the right to both live and work in the country that they are applying for and should be willing and able to travel.
Salary Range: Circa £33,000 pro rata depending on experience
Closing date for applications: Sunday 19th July 2026
Interviews: Will hopefully be held W/C 27th July 2026
How to apply:
If you want to work for an organisation with significant people ambitions, then we would like to hear from you. Please submit a copy of your CV and a supporting statement that answers the following three questions, to recruitment@practicalaction.org.uk:
- Describe your experience in providing HR generalist support?
- Describe your experience supporting payroll and HR Systems?
- Describe a situation where you had to prioritise multiple deadlines while maintaining excellent customer service?
Please visit the practical action careers page for more information.
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