Interim People & Culture Advisor

People & Culture Advisor - Contract Role

Location: Hybrid, Knutsford, England, United Kingdom

Employment Type: Contract

Role Overview

This is a hands-on interim role with a strong and deliberate emphasis on Employee Relations (ER). People & Culture Advisors are trusted advisers who influence, challenge and build effective relationships at all levels across the business. They work independently managing a high-volume of ER caseloads, supporting and coaching managers, and ensuring cases are progressed promptly, fairly and consistently. Alongside ER delivery, they own the end-to-end onboarding experience and design practical, innovative people processes that improve service quality, efficiency and employee experience.

The ideal candidate must be able to operate confidently from day one, exercise sound judgement, identify and escalate material risk, and work collaboratively with the Senior People & Culture Operations Manager and Senior People & Culture Business Partners. The ability to balance empathy and employee experience with commercial awareness, consistency and risk management is key. Someone proactive, curious and improvement-focused, with the ability to turn ideas into workable, sustainable processes will thrive in this environment.

Key Responsibilities

Onboarding & Induction

• Creating a competitive, consistent and welcoming onboarding experience that reflects Prime's culture and gives new starters the clarity, tools, relationships and support needed to succeed quickly.
• Partnering with line managers, VPs, Business Heads, Recruitment, IT and Employee Experience to ensure contracts, data, equipment, system access, induction plans and role expectations are ready at the right time.
• Gathering feedback and using onboarding data and early employee experience insights to continually improve the journey across locations and employee groups.

Employee Relations

• Day-to-day ownership of a considerable, high-volume portfolio of ER cases, independently progressing matters from initial assessment through to resolution.
• Managing complex and sensitive disciplinary, grievance, performance, capability, conduct, attendance and long-term sickness cases, as well as appeals and flexible working matters.
• Leading or supporting fair and thorough investigations, including scoping allegations, preparing questions, interviewing witnesses, evaluating evidence and producing clear, balanced investigation reports and recommendations.
• Advising and coaching managers through informal and formal processes, enabling them to lead confidently, holding effective conversations and making fair, evidence-based decisions.
• Providing clear, commercially aware advice grounded in UK employment law, ACAS guidance, company policy and establishing good practice; identify legal, employee-relations and reputational risk early.
• Constructively challenging inconsistent, unsupported or high-risk management decisions and escalating material risk or proposed dismissals to the appropriate senior P&C lead before action is taken.
• Identifying themes and recurring root causes from casework and recommend preventative manager guidance, training or process improvements.

Company Policies and Compliance

• Reviewing and improving policies, manager guidance, templates and toolkits so that they are clear, legally compliant and operationally workable.
• Keeping up to date with relevant UK employment law and good practice, sharing changes and practical implications with the wider P&C team.
• Identifying gaps in policy understanding or compliance and developing targeted communications, education or manager support to address them.
• Maintaining confidentiality, data protection standards and accurate records across all activity.

Performance Management

• Coaching and supporting managers to address performance concerns early, setting clear expectations and using informal support appropriately before escalation.
• Developing robust performance improvement plans with measurable expectations, suitable support, evidence requirements and proportionate review periods.
• Supporting formal performance and capability processes where required, maintaining procedural fairness, consistency and accurate documentation.
• Contributing to company performance-review activity and helping managers set meaningful objectives in order to deliver constructive feedback.

Payroll Support

• Ensuring employee changes and onboarding information provided to Payroll are complete, accurate, approved and submitted by agreed cut-off dates.
• Working with Payroll and P&C colleagues to resolve data issues and improve the accuracy and efficiency of hand-offs.

Statutory Request & Employee Support

• Providing confident, up-to-date guidance on family leave and pay, flexible working, time off and other statutory employment rights.
• Managing requests from receipt to outcome, gathering relevant information, facilitating meetings and supporting fair, timely and well-documented decisions.
• Recognising when individual circumstances require careful risk assessment, reasonable adjustments or specialist escalation.

Compensation & Benefits

• Advising employees and managers on the application of compensation and benefits processes and supporting accurate, consistent employee communications.
• Signposting available benefits and wellbeing resources appropriately, particularly where they may support an employee during an ER matter or return to work.

Process Improvement & Generalist Delivery

• Assessing existing P&C processes and design practical, innovative improvements that reduce manual activity, strengthen controls and improve manager and employee experience.
• Creating clear process maps, standard operating procedures, templates, checklists and manager self-service guidance, reducing dependency on individual knowledge.
• Using HR systems and appropriate automation to simplify workflows, improve visibility and generate meaningful data on service delivery and case trends.
• Delivering accurate employee-lifecycle activity, including contractual changes, family leave, probation, absence and offboarding, where needed to support team capacity.
• Working across P&C, Recruitment, Payroll, IT and the business to resolve operational gaps and ensure a seamless service.
• Providing a clear handover of live cases, risks, actions, improved processes and supporting documentation at the end of the assignment.

Required Skills & Knowledge

• CIPD Level 5 or above, or equivalent demonstrable professional experience, is desirable.
• 3-5 years of experience in a People/HR Advisor or similar generalist role
• Strong working knowledge of UK employment law, ACAS guidance and fair procedure; international or US experience is advantageous but not essential.
• Experience working in a fast-paced agency environment
• High-level of confidentiality, organization, attention to detail and sound judgement
• Ability to produce high-quality investigation reports, outcome documentation and defensible case records.
• Experience supporting the full employee lifecycle
• Excellent questioning, investigation, analysis and written communication skills, with close attention to evidence and detail.
• Proficiency in MS365 including Word, PPT, Excel, Outlook and Teams
• Familiarity with HRIS/HR systems (familiarity with HiBob a plus!)

Benefits

This is a contract position. A generous and competitive benefits package would be available should this turn into a full-time position.