People Services Assistant

Who are we?

South Western Railway (SWR) operates over 1,500 services each weekday across the network and employs more than 5,000 people. We provide easy and convenient mobility, connecting people and communities in South West London, southern counties of England, and the Isle of Wight.

Join our team and help us continue to bring people together to get the most out of life.

About the job

To provide comprehensive support and guidance in accordance with Company policy and procedures, conditions of service, collective agreements and management information. Responsible for completing contractual and compliance paperwork and facilitating processes between the People Services Team and Payroll at all stages of the employee life cycle. 

Your main responsibilities will be:

• Complete starters, leavers and internal transfer staff change processes using the HR system and ensuring that the relevant staff changes correspondence is sent out accordingly.  This will include accountability for processing information on redeployment, retirement, ill health, secondment, fixed term contracts and career breaks and death in service.
• Accountability for answering a range of employee lifecycle queries submitted by post, email and phone including annual and extended leave entitlements, attendance management, changes to terms and conditions of employment and lifestyle event changes.
• Accountability for issuing resignation and retirement acceptance paperwork and the recovery of leaver Company ID and travel passes.
•  Ensure that employee records and associated filing is kept up to date.
• Ensure that management teams adhere to statutory ‘right to work' and eligibility checking requirements as and when required.
• Responsible for Company Attendance Procedure weekly reporting and to provide guidance and support with any escalated formal attendance related case management.  This will also include responsibility for processing ‘100% attendance' and AWOL queries in accordance with Company procedure.  Provide support to People Business Partners with maternity, paternity, adoption, parental and flexible working related processes.
• Monitor employee dates for returning from extended leave (e.g. maternity, adoption, paternity, parental leave and career breaks) with responsibility for completing the relevant staff change process.
• Monitor and maintain fixed term contract, secondment and casual working expiry dates
•  Ensure that management teams adhere to the ‘Authority to Recruit' process when submitting their recruitment needs including checking the relevant level of authority, headcount budgets, cost centres, job titles, work patterns and any employment related enhancements).
• Responsibility for processing pension related documentation including requests for pension estimates, submitting preserved benefits and payment of benefit forms to the pension provider and maintaining pension scheme rules.
• Ensure that leaver processes are completed including the checking of employee records for GDPR purposes prior to archiving.
• Act as signatory for responding to reference requests for ex-employees whereby there are formally agreed arrangements in place for the providing of information.
• Take ownership for processing subject access requests in accordance with the relevant Company policy and procedure. 
•  Assisting the People Services team in maintaining the shared email inbox, answering first contact queries in a timely fashion and escalating any complex issues to the relevant team member or manager for resolution. 
• Provide minute taking support to Managers as required, when conducting formal meetings and to ensure adherence to Company and statutory people management procedures.
• Perform ad-hoc or project related tasks as and when required by the People Services Management Team.

General Safety Requirements

• Take responsibility for the safety of yourself, colleagues and anyone else who could be affected by what you do, or don't do;
• Follow the rules and procedures that are applicable to your role;
• Never walk by an unsafe condition or an unsafe act without either taking action or reporting it to somebody who can take action;
• ell your safety representative, line manager or a member of the Safety team if you have an idea for how we can improve safety.

General Environmental Requirements

• Always follow the environmental rules and procedures related to your role;
• Help us to improve our environmental performance by making sure waste is minimised and resources are used efficiently (turning off PC's and monitors at the end of each day, using the recycling facilities provided etc);
• Never walk by something that could cause an environmental incident or lead to an inefficient use of resources. If you see something wrong take action or report it to the somebody who can take action;

Talk to your line manager or member of the Sustainability team if you have an idea for how we can improve our environmental performance.

You'll need to be:

• Proven experience of working in a fast paced and challenging office environment.
• Previous experience of working in a people & culture team would be an advantage.
• Possess a flexible approach in ensuring customer needs are met.
• Preparedness to travel across the South Western Railway network to attend meetings as and when required.
• Strong time management skills with a proven ability to prioritise workload and meet targets
• Conscientious with an attention to detail particularly in relation to producing formal documentation in a variety of context.
• Must demonstrate a willingness to learn new systems, skills and behaviours and to acquire job related formal qualifications as and when required.
• Experience in appropriate IT packages including Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
• A working knowledge of Outlook would be an advantage.
• Qualified or part qualified training in people management or development would be an advantage.
• Familiarity with talent management systems or HR databases would be desirable but not essential.
• Applicants who require a visa must have 6 months remaining at the time of their appointment

About the location

You will predominantly be based in Southampton.

Overline House is conveniently situated overlooking Southampton Central Station and is easily accessible by public transport. The station is very local to West Quay, a hub for retailers and restaurants, and provides an excellent link between London, Coastal areas and the Isle of Wight.

Working pattern

You will be working an average of 37 hours per week, typically, Monday - Friday, office hours.

The Reward

In return we offer a competitive salary and a variety of valuable benefits, including:

• Free duty and leisure travel on SWR services for employees
• Free leisure travel for spouse/partner and dependants (criteria dependent)
• 75% discount on many other train operating companies
• Full training and support with development
• Excellent pension scheme

We all belong at SWR. Our vision is to provide an inclusive environment for all colleagues, ensuring all candidates have an equal opportunity to access meaningful employment.

We value our differences such as age, gender, LGBTQIA+, ethnicity, religion, and disability. We maintain a zero tolerance towards any form of prejudice towards our colleagues, customers, and future talent.

We celebrate and encourage diversity of thought, progressive ways of working and seeing all our colleagues grow and thrive.

If you require additional support to complete your application due to a disability or neurodivergent condition, for example, dyslexia, dyspraxia, or autism, please follow the links below.  We encourage you to share any additional needs you may require so we can provide a fair and equal process for all who apply.

https://exceptionalindividuals.com/neurodiversity/

https://www.healthassured.org/blog/neurodiversity