Consultant - People, Enquiries & Advice

We’re a forward-looking People Department that supports our organisation’s Strategy through support for our volunteers (2300) and employees (1200) - whether as individuals or as managers. Our organisation can seem complex since its workforce is deployed all across mainland
- and island-Scotland, in all sorts of workplaces (from cottages to castles, mansions to mountains, gardens to great estates, tearooms, shops, offices - and everything in between), but our work aims to be fair and consistent no matter where and who our people are. We strive to make people processes simple and accessible so that our people can just “get on with the job” but be robust enough to give meaningful management information to help with strategic and tactical development and decision-making. We enjoy connecting with each other for our work and for social activity: we take our work very seriously, but we like to have fun too.

**JOB PURPOSE**

This job has three linked purposes:
It delivers specialist advice with confidence that enables managers and individuals to resolve more complex and non-routine/cyclical people issues (in effect, ‘casework’ advice on matters of performance, behaviour, attendance, and family-friendly).

It supports the development, delivery, and promotion of self-service products for managers/individuals to self-serve to address most day-to-day enquiries relating to people (volunteer + employee) life cycle matters or _ad hoc_ issues.

It supports the delivery and development of a first contact/front-line ‘service desk’ for people management enquiries which cannot/have not been addressed through self-service products, triaging and distributing enquiries to the relevant sections/individuals within the wider People Department.

**What we want you to be responsible and accountable for**
- Supporting the development, delivery, and promotion of self-service products for managers/individuals to self-serve to address most day-to-day enquiries relating to people (volunteer + employee) life cycle matters or _ad hoc_ issues. This will include, for example: Static online self-serve products such as the A-Z, FAQs, links to other (external) useful materials.

Interactive online self-directed learning products.
Learning products (“toolbox talks”) and supporting materials that can be downloaded and used by managers/teams/individuals to increase their capability to self-serve.
- Supporting the delivery and development of a first contact/front-line ‘service desk’ for people management enquiries which cannot/have not been addressed through self-service products, that triages and distributes enquiries to the relevant sections/individuals within the wider People Department. This will include, for example.Creation of ‘scripts’ for team-members to use when responding to general queries.

Face-to-face/telephone interactions to: re-direct to self-serve, _or
- respond using scripts and FAQs, _or
- direct to the relevant section/individual in the wider team.
Logging and analysis of incoming queries to identify ‘hot-spots’ (whether by topic or organizational unit) to help the Lead Consultant shape products and/or inform wider organizational development/effectiveness.
- Delivering specialist advice that enables managers and individuals to resolve more complex and non-routine/cyclical people issues (in effect, ‘casework’ advice on matters of performance, behaviour, attendance, and family-friendly). This will include, for example: Assessing organisational risk of situations and potential solutions.

Guiding individuals and manager to the most appropriate options for resolution - including local and informal resolution ahead of any formal processes.
Managing any formalised cases with rigour and pace towards a business-acceptable outcome and ensuring all case administration is documented and up to date at any given time.
Logging and analysing of cases to identify ‘hot-spots’ (whether by topic or organizational unit) to help the Lead Consultant shape products and/or inform wider organizational development/effectiveness.
- Ensuring work undertaken is logged, tracked and reportable on a routine and _ad hoc_ basis, to demonstrate that SLAs are being met for enquiries and support, cases are progressed to appropriate closure, and that development of the People Enquiries & Advice service is continually evolving and improving.

**REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS, SKILLS, EXPERIENCE & KNOWLEDGE**

**Essential**:

- Recognised qualification (degree level) in people management, _or_ equivalent knowledge of employment (or volunteer) legislation, theory, and practice
- Significant practitioner experience of operating in a consultancy and multi-site “service-desk” context, supporting enquiries and advice against the full range of People matters.
- Significant practitioner experience of assessing and risk-assessing complex casework, and delivery of advice and support to managers/individuals to ensure business-acceptable reso