HR Advisor (maternity cover)
Team: HR Employee Relations Team
Job Family: CBG11 - Advising
Salary: £41,042 - £44,296 per annum pro rata
Hours: 37 hours per week
Location: You will be expected to attend a CBC office location as often as needed to carry out your role, which will be no less than once per month.
Contract Type: Hybrid - Fixed Term Maternity Cover (estimated end date April 2027)
Closing Date: 16th January 2026
Interview Date: 29th or 30th January 2026 - in person at the Council’s main office: Priory House Monks Walk Chicksands Shefford
About the role
HR advisory work in Central Bedfordshire Council offers an extraordinary range of experiences for an ambitious professional who is looking to build on their employee relations experience. The current opportunity to join a settled team has arisen due to maternity leave starting in March 2026.
You’ll be advising and coaching managers to resolve issues across a wide range of different services and occupations in a unionised environment. The Council is also undergoing significant change as it embeds a One-Council approach and seeks to deliver an ambitious financial plan, and you’ll be contributing to the implementation of this change.
You’ll be part of a small, busy but supportive team and we can guarantee you the broadest range of disciplinary, grievance, capability and change management experience to complement your CV.
You’ll need to have some prior employee relations advisory experience (preferably but not essentially in the public sector), with good influencing and communication skills and sound practical knowledge of employment law, preferably underpinned by an HR qualification.
We offer the opportunity to work from home or from our offices but the nature of this role means that there will need to be frequent attendance on Council premises.
Please note that this role is a maternity leave cover position and is offered on a fixed-term basis. The contract will conclude when the substantive post holder returns to work, appropriate notice will be provided.
Our Offer
We have a number of rewards and benefits available to our staff, to view these please visit our Rewards and Benefits page
Our aspiration is to be a truly flexible employer. We welcome discussion on location, hours and working pattern as part of the application process.
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You will be expected to demonstrate how you meet the key accountabilities and competencies in this Recruitment Pack.
Our Competency Framework and Qualification Guidance are to be read in conjunction with our Recruitment Pack.
For an informal discussion about this position, please contact: Philip Howard at philip.howard@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk or call 0300 300 6232
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To maintain a fair and consistent approach for applicants, it is Central Bedfordshire Council's policy to only consider applications made via our online application system and we therefore thank you for not submitting your application offline.
Our National Careers Service team offer a free monthly workshop covering CV writing and how to complete the statement sections of the Central Bedfordshire Council online application form. This MS Teams workshop is open to anyone from the UK and lasts around 1.5 hours. Please book your place here.
More information about this service can be found here: Support getting into work or learning | Central Bedfordshire Council