The Organisation
Harrow School is one of the world's most famous schools. Founded in 1572 by a local yeoman farmer, John Lyon, under a Royal Charter granted by Queen Elizabeth I, it is located on a 324-acre estate encompassing much of Harrow on the Hill in north-west London. Around 830 boys aged 13 to 18, who come from all over Britain and across the world, live in the School's 12 boarding Houses, and there are about 120 teaching staff and over 500 non-teaching staff.
All members of staff work to a single, uniting purpose: to prepare boys with diverse backgrounds and abilities for a life of learning, leadership, service and personal fulfilment.
The HR Department provides the full range of HR services across the School for both teaching and non-teaching staff. It consists of a team of nine HR specialists, one Payroll Manager and one HR Co-ordinator who supports Harrow School Enterprises Limited (HSEL), which is the trading company of Harrow School.
THE ROLE
The HR Operations Manager is crucial to Harrow's safeguarding and HR procedures. With the assistance of a small team, you will complete stringent pre-employment checks, immaculately maintain the Single Central Register of trusted employees, and ensure that all HR lifecycle processes are delivered effectively and in line with legislation and the School's policies and procedures. As first point of contact for staff, you and your team will provide an excellent, pro-active and customer-driven administrative HR service. You will have the opportunity to embed positive changes into everyday working practices that will ultimately support HR colleagues, managers and employees across the School.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND DUTIES
This job description reflects the core activities of the role and is subject to change as the department and the post holder develop. The School expects that the post-holder will recognise this and will adopt a flexible approach to work. In addition, the post-holder will be expected to undertake such other duties within the scope of the role as may be required by the line manager.
Overview
Your experience of numerous areas of HR operations including recruitment, onboarding, data, and terms and conditions will enable you to develop and deliver a range of HR transactional services and add value across the School. With experience of working in a busy, deadline driven environment, your flexible approach will be evident as you manage the team and give hands-on assistance with the department's tasks. Your impeccable attention to detail and flair for using data to inform decisions will earn you the reputation as a reliable custodian of the School's vital safeguarding procedures. You will build strong, positive relationships with your team and colleagues across the School and enjoy being at the centre of our vibrant School community.
Team management
Manage and work alongside a small team to deliver the full range of routine and transactional HR administration services across the employee life cycle. This includes carrying out pre-employment checks, drawing up and issuing offer letters and a range of contracts of employment, standard letters and documents, and reference requests.
Work with, support and develop the transactional team to ensure they provide an excellent standard of service at all times, reviewing and making improvements as the needs of the School, IT systems and/or legislative frameworks change.
Develop and appraise the transactional team, addressing any performance and development needs as they arise.
Safeguarding/safer recruitment checks
Be responsible for the accurate and timely updating of the School's Single Central Record (SCR) in line with School policies and procedures and current legislation.
Ensure that the HR team completes all safeguarding and safer recruitment checks accurately and on time, supporting and working alongside the administrators in their work.
Co-ordinate and liaise with the Head Master's PA and Executive Assistant to ensure all recruitment and safeguarding checks for teaching staff are carried out in time for the start of the term or academic year and provide support when needed.
Co-ordinate (and carry out when necessary) checks for boarding House residents and Governors. Co-ordinate the routine and ad hoc external SCR checks (currently conducted by members of the HR team, Director of Operations and Governors).
Report to the Compliance Committee on the maintenance of the SCR.
HR administration and advice
Manage all transactional day-to-day aspects of the HR office, including the preparation of job offers and contracts of employment.
Assist with the preparation and distribution of annual salary review letters.
Provide advice and guidance to employees and managers on terms and conditions of employment and HR policies and procedures, referring upwards as appropriate.
Provide ad hoc administration support to the wider HR team. This may include arranging meetings, booking rooms, maintaining aspects of the HR intranet page, processing invoices, providing accurate and timely management information as needed.
Support recruitment and training activities as requested.
HR system administration and payroll co-ordination
Co-ordinate all data input by the transactional HR team.
Conduct regular audits and data cleansing to ensure data is accurate and up to date, and conduct quality assurance, routine reporting etc.
Ensure all new starters are set up in good time for payroll processing and that all changes to terms and conditions are logged.
Provide accurate and meaningful statistics and management information, using the HR and payroll systems as required.
Maximise the potential of the HR database and other systems by working to develop their day-to-day usefulness, creating time-saving, accurate and simple systems and workflows where possible and appropriate. Assist with the development of a self-service environment where HR, line managers and employees can access and update their information and data quickly and efficiently.
Answer payroll queries and give guidance on payroll issues.
Project work
Support HR project work as required.
The post-holder's responsibility for promoting and safeguarding the welfare of children and young persons for whom s/he is responsible or with whom s/he comes into contact will be to adhere to and ensure compliance with the School's Safeguarding and Child Protection policies and procedures at all times. If in the course of carrying out the duties of the post the post-holder becomes aware of any actual or potential risks to the safety or welfare of children in the School, s/he must report any concerns to his/her line manager or the School's Designated Safeguarding Lead.
This position is subject to an enhanced check with the Disclosure and Barring Service in the event of a successful application. Copies of the School's Code of Practice and Policy on the Recruitment of Ex-Offenders is available from the HR team. It is an offence to apply for the role if you are barred from engaging in regulated activity relevant to children.
PERSON SPECIFICATION
QUALIFICATIONS, EDUCATION AND TRAINING
ESSENTIAL
Good standard of education including GCSE English and Mathematics
DESIRABLE
Qualified to degree level in HR or a relevant subject area
Level 3 qualified or working towards a Level 5 CIPD qualification
KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE
ESSENTIAL
Senior-level experience in HR administration in a busy customer-facing environment
Experience of conducting enhanced safeguarding checks and maintaining a Single Central Register
Experience of managing a small team so that they can achieve their personal and professional potential
Excellent working knowledge of HR information systems, data management and reporting, including basic data-analysis skills
Experience of implementing processes and procedures to improve office efficiencies
Intermediate to advanced user of Microsoft Office applications, specifically Word and Excel
DESIRABLE
Experience of working in an education environment
SKILLS AND ABILITIES
ESSENTIAL
Ability to optimise your own workload and that of the team, so that processes are streamlined and efficient
Ability to build strong, mutually respectful working relationships with colleages at all levels of seniority
Ability to communicate authoritatively and positively to secure collaboration from managers in following procedures
Excellent written and numerical skills
Ability to work to a high degree of accuracy and attention to detail so that information produced is reliable
Ability to prioritise in a deadline-driven environment and remain calm under pressure
A logical and innovative approach to problem solving
Comfortable with databases and reporting tools in order to produce accurate and timely reports
Takes pride in creating and maintaining tracker spreadsheets and tools to provide up-to-the-minute, accurate information for managers on progress of pre-employment checks
PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES
Self-motivated, flexible and a proactive team member
A nurturing, enabling manager who supports line reports in achieving job satisfaction and potential
Takes pride in providing a high-quality and pro-active HR service that is admired throughout the School
Takes ownership of tasks and completes them accurately and efficiently
Professional and confident communicator, over the telephone, face to face and in writing
Committed to continuous professional development
SCHOOL VALUES AND BEHAVIOURS
All staff are expected to conduct themselves in line with the School's values, which are Courage, Honour, Humility and Fellowship. While the School's values set out what matters most to us, the behaviour described below is intended as a shared set of expectations to refer to, and standards to aspire to, in our dealings with others. They are the practical application of our values.
Please apply with CV and Cover Letter, stating your earliest availabiiity.