HR Assistant

HR Assistant

As HR Assistant within the Innovate UK HR Team, you will play a key role in delivering a welcoming, efficient and reliable HR service to our colleagues.

*Please note this advert will close on the 31st of March 2026 at 23.59pm.

Watch our video “Why Join Innovate UK?” here.

Title:                  HR Assistant

Band:                UKRI Band C (UKRI Ts & Cs)

Salary:              £30,895 gross per annum

Reports to:     HR Business Partner 

Location:        Swindon (Hybrid working)

Contract:        Fixed Term Until (28/02/2027)

Employees applying for any opportunity which may mean being away from your substantive role for a temporary period of time, please refer to the Recruitment Policy for further information in the first instance.  If you are made an offer, please ensure you liaise with your Line Manager and the designated HR Team as soon as possible in order that implications of any move are clear and understood, prior to a move taking place.

Innovate UK recognises the importance of work-life balance and we will be happy to discuss any requests for flexible working arrangements.

Job Purpose:

As HR Assistant within the Innovate UK HR Team, you will play a key role in delivering a welcoming, efficient and reliable HR service to our colleagues. You will be a first point of contact for a wide range of customer queries and will provide essential HR administrative support across several business units

We particularly welcome female applicants as women are under-represented within Innovate UK in this type of role.

Key Responsibilities and Accountabilities:

• Proactively own and manage the HR Team’s group inboxes with other HR Assistants responding to a broad range of queries and flagging issues to the relevant parties where required.
• Effectively resolve queries where possible, without escalation
• Taking ownership of day-to-day HR administration for a number of business units
• Acting as a confident and proactive first point of contact, in-person and via telephone and email for both employees and external partners.
• Drafting contract variation letters for employees and tracking receipt of signed/returned documents
• Maintaining the Workday HR system; undertaking audits to ensure employee details are correct, making any necessary amendments to employee records and ensuring associated paperwork is uploaded to the employee record
• Reviewing administrative processes and implementing changes for improvement
• Ownership of the starter and leaver processes including scheduling meetings, tracking return of paperwork and updating HR system/personnel files
• Completing reference requests in a timely fashion
• Acknowledging basic employee resignations using the standards templates
• Producing periodic and ad-hoc reports as required
• Providing general administrative assistance; managing records, filing, scanning, archiving, document production and scheduling as necessary
• Supporting the training of new team members
• Escalating any employee issues to the relevant HR Adviser/Business Partner
• Undertaking ad-hoc projects as directed by HR Adviser/Business Partner

This is not an exhaustive list and you might be encouraged to undertake any other duties across the wider directorate, commensurate with the Band and level of responsibility of this post, for which the post holder has the key experience and/or training.

Shortlisting criteria

(S) – Assessed at shortlisting

(I) – Assessed at interview

(S&I) – Assessed at both shortlisting and interview

Person Specification:

Experience & Qualifications:

Essential –

• Educated to A-level or with equivalent experience (S)
• Strong experience acting as a first point of contact for a busy team, demonstrating a confident approach to managing queries and redirecting stakeholders (S&I)
• Experience of handling high volumes of email and telephone communication effectively (I)
• Demonstrable experience of providing administrative support in a high-volume environment (S&I)
• Confirmed experience of working with multiple partners, providing proactive customer/stakeholder support, and handling multiple deadlines concurrently (I)
• Experience of diary coordination preferably via MS Outlook (I)
• Experience in data entry and reconciliation, including the responsibility for maintaining records for audit purposes (S&I)
• Experience of working in a confidential environment (S)
• Proven hands-on ability to work within a change and process-led environment (S&I)

Competencies:

All team members demonstrate compatibility with and capability against our Core Competencies such as:

Thinking and Problem Solving – Stakeholder management – Communication skills – Influencing – Self-awareness/self-management – Strategic awareness – Working with others– Project management

Some of the above competencies will be assessed at interview stage, in addition to the criteria’s listed in the person specification.

Travel Requirements:

Swindon-based: There may be the occasional requirement for national travel.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

Innovate UK is a diverse workforce of people. We believe that encouraging these differences and drawing the best from them will build a productive environment in which everyone feels valued, where talents are fully utilised and in which organisational goals are met. Underpinning this is a belief that it is a fundamental right for everyone to be treated equally, with fairness, respect and dignity. We will act directly and use our influence to ensure that this right is promoted and upheld; we encourage applications from all those who meet the criteria set-out in our role profiles.

Equal Opportunities:

We are an equal opportunities employer, committed to employing any person who meets the criteria for our roles. When undertaking recruitment we may require applicants to undertake certain tests or assessments, some of which will be online and others may be in-person. If you have a disability, heath condition or specific learning difficulty such as dyslexia then you may be entitled to support with undertaking this type of assessment exercise. Where you feel that reasonable adjustments are required to support you, we ask that you advise your recruitment point of contact in a timely fashion, providing further information. In confidence, Innovate UK will then review your application for adjustments and provide support as required.

UK Research and Innovation:

Innovate UK is partner organisation within UK Research and Innovation. If successful in securing the position, your employer will be UK Research and Innovation. More information can be found online http://www.ukri.org/.

Employee Benefits:

We offer a benefits package crafted to provide an excellent work/life balance. This includes 30 days’ annual leave, 10.5 public and privilege days, flexible working hours, an exceptional defined benefit pension scheme, and access to a variety of support networks and discount schemes.

Benefits of working at UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)

Flexible Working:

We understand the importance of work-life balance, and are happy to discuss the possibility of flexible working with applicants.

Pre-employment Screening:

To enable us to hire the very best people we will conduct a comprehensive pre-employment check on successful applicants as part of the recruitment process.

The role holder will be required to have the appropriate level of security screening/vetting required for the role.  UKRI reserves the right to run or re-run security clearance as required during the course of employment.

UKRI supports research in areas that include animal health, agriculture and food security, and bioscience for health which includes research on animals, genetic modification and stem cell research. Whilst you may not have direct involvement in this type of research, you should consider how this aligns with your personal values or beliefs. To enable us to hire the very best people we will conduct a full and comprehensive pre-employment check as a crucial part of the recruitment process on all individuals that are offered a position with UKRI. This will include a security check and an extreme organisations affiliation check.