I gained my Chartered MCIPD (Level 7) qualification in 1990 whilst working part-time so have been a member of the CIPD for over 30 years, and now looking towards Chartered Fellowship status.

Throughout my career which includes both standalone roles and working within teams, I have been responsible for either setting up or monitoring systems and processes to enable effective HR management and administration.  These include setting up employee filing systems, both manual and electronic, and making sure that the processes are in place to cover the whole employee life cycle from initial recruitment, promotion, performance management, through to redundancy and dismissal.

I have been involved in and overseen recruitment activity for all staff functions ensuring that we recruited and retained quality staff.  This involved drafting job descriptions, job advertisements, dealing with agencies and recruitment media, then initial shortlisting through to final appointment.  During the time I worked at Go Train (where I set up the HR Department) staff numbers increased from 60 to over 200.  I have also been responsible for ensuring that all appropriate documentation is completed from right to work checks, and DBS if required.

I have a good working knowledge of UK employment law and have held responsibility for producing employment contracts, ensuring that these are legally compliant and amending as necessary.  I have also held responsibility for drafting, and consulting with staff groups and trade unions on employment policies.  In my current role I am overseeing the re-drafting of the Flexible Working Policy, the Maternity Policy and the Disciplinary and Capability Policies.  In previous roles I have also produced the Staff Handbook from scratch, ensuring that we had a range of policies and procedures in place whilst ensuring these were fit for purpose reflecting legislative requirements. 

In my current and previous roles, I have been responsible for negotiating on terms and conditions, particularly where roles may be hard to fill, making sure that we fulfill the needs of the business and meet operational requirements, but keep in line with our own salary structures.  This has involved looking at increases following probationary periods, ensuring that objectives are set appropriately to allow for reward yet keeping in mind the current terms and conditions.

I excel at building good working relationships with both my team and line managers.  I always work in a collaborative manner and have recently held a workshop with my team members and our Service Delivery team to look at how we can improve on our response to HR queries.  The workshop was very successful, and we are now delivering more than our agreed SLA (75%) to a figure last week of 95%.  In my previous role, which was a maternity cover, I had to quickly develop collaborative working relationships with the Regional and Associate Directors which involved covering a wide geographical area.

In my previous role, I led on a major organizational change project which involved Housing Management and Lettings.  This meant presenting at the initial consultation meeting to reveal the proposed new structure, holding a period of consultation (45 days) during which time I held one to one consultations with the line managers, through to the final restructure involving TUPE transfer, redundancies and new recruitment.  The new structure was implemented, and I received a monetary award in recognition of my hard work and successful implementation.  

In my current and previous roles, I have dealt with trade unions, I worked closely with our Trade Union UNITE during the consultation and on the introduction of or changes to any new policies.  We held meetings monthly to make them aware of any upcoming restructures, business changes and policies. In my most recent role I dealt with our trade union representatives with regards to complex ER issues and in consultation on policies. Whilst working at GSK, I worked with two unions to negotiate annual pay increases for blue collar staff.

I currently use our HRIS system, but I have also used I Trent.  Whilst at HCPC I was responsible for contributing to delivering a major project on HR software (Core HR) for my team.  This was implemented on time and in full, whilst ensuring that we continued to deliver business as usual. This required careful resource planning as we were a small team of four people.

In my role at HCPC I was responsible for preparing and monitoring the annual budget for the Partners Department (c£400,000) and carrying out forecasting and re-forecasting in line with our budget deadlines. I also presented the budget at our annual budget setting day to the senior management team.

 I have a knowledge and understanding of payroll practices. I currently work very closely with our Payroll Department to ensure that we are processing any changes in a timely manner, recovering any overpayments to staff, and that all payroll processes, e.g. maternity, paternity, shared parental leave and new starters are captured in time for payroll cut off.  I am responsible monthly for all payroll reconciliations, which includes meticulous data checking, often for up to 100 entries. In my previous role I signed off on all final payroll activity for Housing Management. 

I use all Microsoft Office applications in my current role including Word, Excel and Outlook.  I have been responsible in the past for using databases, although this is now managed in our HRIS system.

I have used I Trent, Core HR and manual systems relating to HR Software.   I have also developed an understanding of Logicalware, an online ticketing system for HR queries and support the HR Assistants (a team of four) in the use of Logicalware.  I also line managed this team. 

I organize and plan my work effectively to make sure that I am meeting the appropriate deadlines.  I make sure that all paperwork and processes are in place for payroll cut off and that this is processed in a timely manner. In my previous role, I made sure that all deadlines were adhered to for payroll processing, and that any documentation was submitted for various monthly meetings, e.g. ER case management, Policy Steering Group and Budget Control Group.  Whilst at HCPC  I made sure that I submitted all reports for Council deadlines, including reports on turnover, statistics, numbers and diversity.  I also made sure  that I heldregular one to ones, performance appraisals, team meetings, which involved co-ordination with 12 direct reports. 

I have excellent verbal and written skills and have supported from an HR perspective in many complex ER cases up to and including dismissal.  These have included dealing with cases involving harassment and bullying, sexual discrimination and making adjustments for individuals with protected characteristics. I have also successfully defended a tribunal claim which involved allegations of age and race discrimination.  I will always adopt a consultative approach, and deal with both my client groups and my team in a professional manner.  During my current tenure, I have frequently had positive feedback on my interactions with staff and management, with some individuals commenting that they have never experienced such a high degree of empathic HR support.

I am aware of my personal style and that of others and having had the benefit of attending management training courses including Insights, Leadership Edge, Flawless Consulting and Wentworth, courses that are based around emotional intelligence and working effectively with stakeholders and teams. As such I have a good understanding of how to interact with others.

I have developed investigative skills through carrying out complex employee relations cases which involves careful listening and questioning to ensure that I extract the relevant information for consideration. 

I understand the importance of maintaining confidentiality and in a previous role had to handle the redundancy of a colleague who sat within the same office.  I also handled a major grievance relating to a senior manager within the organization around alleged bullying and harassment, which meant having to maintain confidentiality in a particularly sensitive situation. 

I am aware of the laws around Data Protection,  and have recently been working with my HR team to ensure that we are complying with the GDPR. This has meant reviewing various policies around referencing, retention of employee records and general considerations around how we hold and store employee data. 

I am a clear concise communicator and in my past and current role I have drafted many communications including emails, contracts, and letters to staff at all levels within the organization, relating to the application of policies e.g. flexible working, probationary periods, changes in contract terms and conditions and advising on pay increases in line with pay scales and job evaluation criteria.

I always approach my work with a positive attitude and apply negotiating, influencing and persuasion skills that I have both learned and developed.  In my previous role, I persuaded the four Regional Directors to have HR present at the consultation launch, despite their reluctance to do so.  I explained that staff would want to be aware of the implications for their roles in the new structure.  After the presentation, the Regional Directors thanked me and acknowledged that having an HR presence was integral and beneficial to the consultation process.

In my most recent role I have been looking at the issue of overpayments, and how to get line managers to take responsibility for the overpayment of salary and benefits, of particular significance for a charity.