HR Advisor Full Time

Closing date:  23:59 4th May 2026

Full time, Permanent 

Interview date  – 18th May 2026

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. There is further information about this on the UK Visas and Immigration Website UK Visas and Immigration Website.

We are seeking an experienced HR Adviser on a permanent basis join us at the University 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.

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.

Working alongside an HR Partner and as part of a collaborative team, you will work closely with our broader HR Services team to support the more complex recruitment and resourcing processes. You will have the opportunity to be involved in project work across the wider HR team, as well as delivering HR related training to line managers and staff.

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 to line managers on a range of employment legislation and people matters (such as absence, performance, disciplinary, grievance, recruitment), although experience does not necessarily need to be in the Higher Education sector.
• Proven experience of dealing with complex employee relations matters; and demonstrable up to date and in depth knowledge of UK employment legislation.
• The ability to manage casework independently and to proactively identify issues, analyse situations and drive solutions that meet individual and organisational goals.
• Confident communicator with good interpersonal skills. Able to demonstrate ability to liaise effectively with a variety of stakeholders.
• Strong organisational skills; able to work independently to deadlines with a busy workload, and committed to developing your HR career.

There will be a scenario for candidates to advise on as part of the interview. Candidates will be given 20 minutes prior to the interview to prepare their response to present to the Panel. There will then be a 40 minute interview.

Contact Name: Cathy Smith

Contact Job Title: HR Partner

Contact Email address: cathy.smith@reading.ac.uk

Alternative Contact Name: Ellie Hobbs

Alternative Contact Job Title: HR Partner

Alternative Contact Email address: e.m.hobbs@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.