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Job summary

Main area
Human Resources
Grade
NHS AfC: Band 2
Contract
7 months (Fixed term/secondment until 31st December 2025)
Hours
  • Part time
  • Flexible working
20 hours per week
Job ref
432-HR269-25
Employer
East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust
Employer type
NHS
Site
IP City Centre
Town
Ipswich
Salary
£24,169 per annum, pro rata
Salary period
Yearly
Closing
28/05/2025 23:59

Employer heading

East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust logo

HR Employee Helpline Agent

NHS AfC: Band 2

We are one of the largest NHS organisation in England. Our scale provides exciting opportunities for development, innovation, research, education and training.

Talk to us about our range of flexible working opportunities, apprenticeships and staff benefits

Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is at the heart of all we do; and it forms part of the ESNEFT’s core activities. The Trust operates and relies on everyone treating each other with dignity and respect, to receive equitable and fair treatment in the implementation of Policies, Procedures and in its Practices, to foster positive work relationships, and finally to act with integrity as a professional within ESNEFT as well as a representative of the NHS as a whole.  The EDI Agenda reflects the Trust values such as Optimistic, Appreciative and Kind. In line with the NHS Long Term Plan, People Plan, People Promise and a Model Employer intrinsic in the Equality Diversity and Inclusion Agenda, we consistently strive to improve, to take the learning into Action for a better ESNEFT.

If you are passionate about patient care and want to develop your skills and knowledge then we are keen to hear from you.

 

Job overview

We are continuing to improve our service and are seeking to recruit highly motivated and enthusiastic HR Employee Helpline Agents. This is a varied and enjoyable role, where you will be providing initial advice and supporting staff across 2 acute hospital sites and several community facilities with HR queries and sickness absence.

Your working hours will be Mon-Fri 6am-10am. You will be required to work a minimum of 4 days in the office and the remainder at home.

You will provide a proactive and responsive first point of contact to staff contacting the Helpdesk.

You will respond to calls providing accurate and timely advice to staff and managers and on all types of absences and HR queries. You will provide clerical support to the HR Team, including work processing, photocopying, filing and general administration duties.

You will have excellent communication and interpersonal skills and have proven administrative and IT skills. You will be able to provide a high level of customer service, showing empathy and understanding in dealing with queries.

You will have general admin experience, including experience of working in a high volume environment and relevant NVQ 2 or equivalent. 

Main duties of the job

You will respond to calls providing accurate and timely advice to staff and managers on all types of absences in accordance with internal processes and standard operating procedures. 

You will be required to answer general HR queries, provide advice, guidance and support to staff and managers and where appropriate, direct both staff and manager to the correct function or resource in order to resolve their query.

 

Working for our organisation

We are ESNEFT and we provide hospital and community health services to almost one million people across east Suffolk and north Essex. Our dedicated staff deliver care from acute hospitals in Colchester and Ipswich, community hospitals, surgeries, community clinics and in patients’ own homes. 

We are one of the largest NHS organisations in England, employing more than 12,000 staff. 

We pride ourselves on supporting our staff. We offer a wide range of training and development opportunities, as well as flexible working options. 

Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offer a variety of services. 

Our philosophy is that Time Matters to everyone. Across the Trust, we concentrate on improving the things we do and removing those which cause time delays for our staff and patients. 

We are investing in our commitment to Time Matters with a partnership with leading electronic patient record (EPR) supplier Epic. This digital transformation will bring what’s widely regarded as the world’s best EPR system to ESNEFT, transforming life in hospital for staff and patients. 

Find out about living and working here - www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkPu7HphU8A 

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

  • Key responsibilities:

    • Provide accurate and timely routine advice to managers and staff on all types of absences in accordance with internal processes and standard operating procedures.
    • Appropriately escalate more complex queries to the shift supervisor/operational manager for resolution.
    • Provide a proactive and responsive first point of contact to staff contacting the Employee HR Helpdesk.
    • Record absence on Health roster.
    • Provide a high level of customer service, showing empathy and understanding.
    • Use a range of systems e.g. ESR look up, Intranet, Microsoft Office suite and other HR Systems.
    • For wider HR matters, answer general queries and where appropriate, signpost staff and managers to the correct function within HR or forward the query on their behalf.

For full details of the responsibilities and duties of this role please see the attached job description.

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria
  • GCSE grade 5/C or equivalent in English and Maths
Desirable criteria
  • NVQ level 2 in administration/secretarial or equivalent

Experience

Essential criteria
  • Previous administrative role
  • Use of Microsoft Office
  • Experience in a customer support role
Desirable criteria
  • Experience within relevant work area

Knowledge and Skills

Essential criteria
  • Confidentiality and Data Protection
  • Customer Service
  • Excellent communication skills
  • Standard Keyboard skills
Desirable criteria
  • NHS Knowledge of relevant work area
  • Advanced keyboard skills

Employer certification / accreditation badges

No smoking policyMenopause Friendly EmployerPositive about disabled peopleAge positiveArmed Forces Covenant Gold AwardMindful employer.  Being positive about mental health.NHS Pastoral CareDisability confident committedStonewall equality policy. Equality and justice for lesbians, gay men, bisexual and trans people.Step into healthHappy to Talk Flexible Working

Documents to download

Apply online now

Further details / informal visits contact

Name
Satin Jhita
Job title
HR Employee Helpdesk Supervisor
Email address
[email protected]
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