Senior People Advisor

Role: Senior People Advisor

Location: Warrington (we offer Hybrid working supported by a Smart Working Policy)

Full Time or Part Time: Full Time

Directorate: Corporate Services (People & Culture Team)

Company Overview:

Ardent is the UK's leading provider of land, consent management and stakeholder engagement services to support major infrastructure and regeneration projects from concept to delivery.

We are Project Managers, Chartered Surveyors, Transport Planners and Land Referencers, based in London, Birmingham, Warrington, Leeds, Glasgow and Dublin and supporting projects throughout the UK and Ireland.

Established in 1992 to provide a 'one stop shop' for land and property matters for major infrastructure projects, our client portfolio includes some of the biggest players across our four core sectors of transport, renewables, utilities and regeneration.

We are passionate about delivering life-improving change for communities and future generations and we are proud to play a key role in facilitating and delivering the UK and Ireland's net zero agenda, improving connectivity, enabling the repurposing of high streets and town centres and delivering new homes for the people who need them most.

We are problem-solvers, can-doers and solution-drivers working collaboratively with our clients to provide proactive and strategic advice to identify and mitigate risks, deliver efficiencies and, ultimately, achieve deliverable consents and build projects that positively impact people's lives and the world that we live in.

Directorate Overview: (People & Culture)

As a growing business, with currently 170+ employees, we are looking for a

Senior People Advisor to join our People & Culture Team. With people at the heart of our business, our People & Culture Team are focused on delivering our people strategy, based on the following:

• Our Purpose, Vision & Values
• Our People Journey
• Employee Engagement
• Talent Development
• Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
• Organisation Design

Key Accountabilities & Job Overview:

The Senior People Advisor will be responsible for managing the day to day operations within a busy People & Culture Team, delivering an end to end people service to the business, across new and existing locations. Day to day tasks to include:

• Work collaboratively with our People Leaders to help drive and implement changes, ensuring smooth implementation to achieve the right outcomes for our people and the business.
• A strong delivery background, focused on a people centric culture.
• Help design & deliver workshops on People & Culture related work - best practice, supporting our people, People Leaders and Line Managers through upskilling and advice.
• Supporting or leading People related projects.
• Managing performance, conduct, capability, attendance, and people policy and process.
• Proactively addressing retention, skills development, engagement, wellbeing initiatives and supporting with embedding of the company culture and values.
• Production of regular reports, for monitoring and improvement purposes, review and analysis of the data. Proactively review data to suggest improvements and inform decisions.
• Support with driving transformational change, to aid the growth of the business. Develop new and improved processes and ways of working.
• Supporting with the recruitment & selection process.
• Build and develop positive relationships with all levels across the business, operating in an advisory and best practice capacity, proactively proposing solutions.
• Development and implementation of people policies in line with up to date legislation, aligned to our culture.

Up to date knowledge, research of trends and areas of focus within the people space. Proactively highlighting the benefits and helping drive and prioritise within the People & Culture Team and across the business.

Knowledge, Experience & Skills Required:

The ideal candidate for this Senior People Advisor role will have demonstrable experience and have held similar positions in other consultancy or professional service businesses. You will demonstrate an eagerness to learn and develop in a varied role that will require you to adapt and manage your workload in a changing environment.

• Up to date knowledge of employment law and practical experience.
• A strong delivery background, ability to manage a changing workload and multiple projects.
• Strong Word, Excel and PowerPoint skills.
• Strong communication and influencing skills.
• Strong attention to detail, able to spot errors and make corrections.
• Experience of working with HR systems, previous experience of implementing new systems and mapping out end to end people process would be a benefit.
• Previous Line Management/People Leader experience.
• Experience of Reward/Compensation & Benefit structures would be a benefit.
• Ideally CIPD qualified or studying towards.

Behavioral Skills Required (Based on our Values):

• Thirst for Knowledge (We embrace opportunities to learn and improve for personal and professional growth) - Demonstrate a strong commitment to the development of yourself, and your people, for your role in a growth company and future role. Coach and mentor others (or actively engage with your Coach) to have a deep understanding of their knowledge and experience. Actively supporting with areas of development and career goals, extending beyond a technical remit and actively developing your business knowledge on an on-going basis.
• Own It (We do what we say we will. We own our individual actions, are accountable for them and take pride in adding value) - Act like it matters, take pride and caring about the outcome of people in your team, or who you work with, and your clients objectives.
• Be the Difference (Focus energy to make things happen. Be beyond process. Stand up, Stand out) - Be confident in your decisions and implementing them, taking into account the wider structure and objectives of the business, working with or alongside peers across the business. Be more than any other competent person in your role.
• Enjoy the Journey (Have fun, be engaged and be proud to be Ardent) - Translating goals and visions of the business into meaningful objectives for your team in a positive and engaging manner (delivering excellence in your own objectives), demonstrating your commitment to Ardent and the wellbeing and development of your team and colleagues. Understand the needs of your people and colleagues to have, purpose/fulfilment, personal growth, engagement, team culture and fair pay.
• Adapt (We drive change and innovation to deliver growth and new opportunities in an ever-changing world) - As a growth company Ardent is all about change. You must be a change maker. Demonstrate ability to drive and/or implement change to enable Ardent to continue to excel. Listen to your team and people you work with to actively search for opportunities to create change. Exhibit a resilient attitude, communicate key information in a clear and engaging way to influence others.

Ardent is an equal opportunities employer that is committed to inclusion and diversity. We positively encourage applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of race, colour, religion or belief, age, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, disability status or other legally protected characteristics.

With people at the core of our business, we offer employees an unrivalled career opportunity rather than simply a job. In a fast growing organisation, we train, develop and support our staff to grow and achieve their career goals. This is supported by a number of initiatives to look after the wellbeing of our employees whilst allowing employees to work flexibility and maintain a positive work life balance.

We offer an attractive benefits package to include :-

• Hybrid working
• Healthcare plan
• Career progression
• Coaching
• Cycle to Work
• Electric Car Scheme
• Enhanced maternity and paternity pay

For more information, please see our services page on our website at

Interested? Get in touch

Should you be interested in hearing more about the position or wish to send your cv in to or contact Stuart Thomas