Job Description

What does great HR mean to you? Is it about striking the right balance between supporting your business and challenging it? Keeping things simple and human, and striving to make a difference in all aspects of working life? If so, this could be the opportunity for you.

We are looking for an HR Advisor to join our team in Frating, Colchester. This role is offered as a 12 month fixed term contract, and will support our Distribution and Finance Services Division.

Reporting to the HR Business Partner, you’ll work with managers and employees across Distribution & Finance Services, getting to know the business areas in depth so that you can offer thoughtful, practical HR advice. You’ll also support managers to build their confidence in handling people matters and applying HR policies and practices effectively.

This is a busy and varied role supporting the full employee life cycle. Acting as a first point of contact for managers, you’ll get stuck into everything from talent management, reward and employee relations through to coaching and guiding our managers and employees through topics such as wellness.

You’ll play a key role at each stage of someone’s time with us – from welcoming them on their first day, partnering with the Learning & Development team to support people to learn and grow, helping people plan their family leave, and supporting career progression.

You’ll play an important role throughout the employee journey, from welcoming new starters through onboarding to guiding them through family leave and helping managers to support career progression.

In this role, you’ll support a community of over 400 colleagues, so we’re looking for an HR Advisor who enjoys working in a busy, varied environment. You’ll bring a proactive approach, strong attention to detail and the confidence to balance day to day support with the needs of the wider business.

What you’ll bring

Essential criteria:

• Experience of working in a generalist HR role, including working directly with managers.
• Exposure to a range of HR matters, such as disciplinaries, grievance, absence management, parental leave and other sensitive employee relations areas.
• Sound knowledge of employment law and HR best practice.
• Experience of working with unions.
• Familiarity with HRIS.
• Ability to build strong working relationships across different business areas.
• A proactive approach and motivation to continue developing in your HR career.
• Ability to organise your work effectively and manage competing priorities.

Preferred criteria:

• If you are CIPD qualified this would be a plus.

Application instructions

Please apply with your CV and Cover Letter outlining why you are the right candidate for the role by 23:59 on Thursday 16th July 2026.

AI

Here at Penguin, we believe in the power of authenticity and human creativity. When you apply for a position, we want to encourage you to showcase your unique voice. Throughout our recruitment process, please share your own thoughts, experiences, and skills. This helps us get a true sense of who you are and what you might bring to our team.

We celebrate creativity and diverse perspectives, so please be yourself! While we recognise AI tools can be helpful, we recommend using them thoughtfully to ensure your responses reflect you.

Disability Confident

As a Disability Confident Committed organisation, we offer interviews to candidates with a disability who meet the essential criteria for the role, and opt-in on their application form. The essential criteria for this role are listed as part of the ‘What you’ll bring’ section.

There may be times when the volume of applications means we cannot take all eligible candidates to interview. We encourage you to tell us about any reasonable adjustments you may need by emailing PRHCareersUK@penguinrandomhouse.co.uk. Remember, you only need to share what you are comfortable with, for us to support your request.

Salary

c.£35,000 depending on how your skills and experience align to the role, plus bonus and benefits.

Hybrid working

While our offices across the UK are places to connect, collaborate and celebrate with colleagues, we recognise that flexibility around where you work is just as important. For this role we expect that you’ll work from our Frating office 3 days per week, with occasional travel to our London office (Embassy Gardens).

Additional Information

Disclosure requirements pertaining to the collection of your personal data:

Responsible for processing the information provided in your application is the company specified in the job advertisement, with its registered office as indicated. The company processes your data for the purpose of establishing an employment relationship on the basis of Art. 6 (1) b GDPR / Section 26 (1) sentence 1 BDSG.

The retention period for your data is determined by the statutory time limits applicable in the respective country, beginning upon completion of the recruitment process. You can find these here

You can contact the company’s Data Protection Officer at the above-mentioned postal address.

Further information on data protection and your rights can be found here

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