HR Advisor

Full-time, fixed-term contract until 31st March 2027.

Closing date: 23:59 7th December 2025

Due to the complexity of the Skilled Worker Visa route and eligibility criteria, applicants requiring sponsorship are recommended to check their eligibility on the Home Office website. We cannot provide advice to candidates at the application stage and will only discuss visa routes with candidates who are invited to interview.

We are seeking an experienced HR Adviser to cover family leave and join us at the University to work alongside an HR Partner to provide generalist HR advisory support to managers and staff in specific areas of the University. You will provide effective and professional advice and guidance in relation to managing and responding to a range of employee relations and resourcing issues. It will be important for you to quickly establish effective working relationships with managers across the areas you support and for you to adopt a pragmatic and solutions focused approach, enabling and influencing managers.

You will work closely with our HR Services team to support the more complex recruitment and resourcing processes and you will have the opportunity to be involved in project work across the wider HR team.

You will have:

• Proven experience working as an HR Adviser or in a similar role, providing pro-active and effective professional HR advice and guidance on a range of employee relations issues, although experience does not necessarily need to be in the Higher Education sector.
• The ability to manage casework independently and to proactively identify issues, analyse situations and drive solutions that meet individual and organisational goals.
• Confident, able to work independently to deadlines and with a busy workload and committed to developing your HR career.

The University has a varied and supportive HR team, of which the Advisory team is made up of 6 HR Advisers and 5 HR Partners.

Interviews will be held: Wednesday, 17 December 2025.

We welcome applications from both external and internal candidates. As part of the University’s ongoing commitment to professional development, this role can be considered on a seconded basis for existing staff members. Internal candidates should discuss this with their line manager prior to applying.

Contact Name: Helen Swynford-Lain
Contact Job Title: HR Partner
Contact Email Address: h.m.swynford-lain@reading.ac.uk

Alternative Contact Name: Nicola Johnson
Alternative Contact Job Title: Assistant Director of HR
Alternative Contact Email Address: n.j.johnson@reading.ac.uk

The University is committed to having a diverse and inclusive workforce, supports the gender equality Athena SWAN Charter and the Race Equality Charter, and champions LGBT+ equality. We are a Disability Confident Employer (Level 2). Applications for job-share, part-time and flexible working arrangements are welcomed and will be considered in line with business needs.

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