HR Consultant (Req 4138)

Job summary

Passionate about people? Bring your HR expertise to a role where you’ll coach leaders, resolve complex challenges and strengthen organisational capability.

The Scottish Public Pensions Agency (SPPA) administers pensions for Scottish Teachers, Police, Firefighters' and National Health Service employees on behalf of the Scottish Government. We’re responsible for protecting the financial futures of over half a million people - that’s around 1 in 10 people in Scotland. If you’re looking for meaningful work, a supportive environment and a career with purpose, you’ll find it at the SPPA. Our office is based in Tweedbank in the Scottish Borders, the train station is a short two-minute walk away and offers regular services to and from Edinburgh Waverley, making it a convenient and well-connected location for commuters. The surrounding area offers access to green space, walking routes and a strong sense of local community, supporting wellbeing both in and outside of work. Our modern office building is designed to support flexible and collaborative working, with spaces for teamwork, quiet focus and hybrid working. Colleagues benefit from a comfortable, welcoming environment that reflects our commitment to wellbeing and inclusion.

As an experienced HR Generalist, you will provide expert HR advice, coaching and consultancy to managers and employees across all aspects of HR policy, employee relations, wellbeing and the wider employee lifecycle. You will support the HR Manager to deliver high-quality, accessible HR services that meet current and future organisational needs. You will contribute to the delivery of the People Strategy through effective people management, resourcing and workforce planning.

This is a high-impact role operating across the full HR lifecycle, with responsibility for managing complex casework and supporting continuous improvement. You will also play a key part in building manager capability and ensuring organisational compliance with policy and legislation.

Job description

• Manage a full range of complex employee relations casework and resourcing activity across the HR lifecycle, providing expert advice and escalating where appropriate.
• Provide professional HR guidance and coaching to managers and employees on policy, procedure, and employment legislation, supporting effective decision-making and risk management.
• Lead the investigation, management and resolution of casework, ensuring compliance with policy, legislation and best practice, and maintaining accurate records.
• Build strong relationships with key stakeholders (e.g. HR colleagues, Legal, Occupational Health, Trade Unions), seeking advice and sharing best practice to inform outcomes.
• Manage and support the development of HR Advisors, providing guidance, delegation and acting as an escalation point to ensure service continuity and quality.
• Work proactively with managers to support early intervention, workforce planning and resourcing activity, using data and insight to inform solutions.
• Contribute to the development and continuous improvement of HR processes, policies and people management practices, aligned to organisational needs.
• Analyse and utilise HR management information to support decision-making and design initiatives that build management capability (e.g. training on performance, wellbeing and employee relations).

Person specification

Qualifications

You must have a CIPD qualification at a minimum of foundation level.

Success Profile

Success profiles are specific to each job and they include the mix of skills, experience and behaviours candidates will be assessed on.

Experience

• (Lead Criteria) You must have experience of managing complex people focussed casework in an HR function.
• You must be digitally proficient with the ability to source, analyse and use data to provide advice and solutions.

Technical / Professional Skills:

• People policies and Employment Law - You must be knowledgeable about key HR policies, processes, and legislation, and how to research, interpret and apply these when providing advice to customers and managing casework and processes. You must be able to assess issues and risks and escalate when required.

You can find out more about the framework here - CIPD Profession Map

Behaviours:

• Communicating and Influencing - Level 3
• Managing a Quality Service - Level 3
• Working Together - Level 3
  

You can find out more about the behaviours here: Candidate Guide

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Managing a Quality Service
• Working Together

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• People policies and Employment Law

Benefits

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

Stage one (CV review):

An initial review will be conducted using the CV and Supporting Statement on the below Lead Criteria:

Experience: You must have experience of managing complex people focussed casework in an HR function.

Candidates who pass the initial review will have their applications fully assessed against all remaining criteria in the Success Profile, including the behaviours detailed above.

Stage two (interview and assessment): If successful at application review, you will be invited for assessment, which will consist of an in-person interview and presentation at the SPPA office in Tweedbank, where we will test all criteria listed above.

Sifting will commence from 24 August 2026

Assessments are scheduled for w/c 7 September 2026, however this may be subject to change.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools can be used to support your application, but all statements and examples provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, and presented as your own) applications will be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.

Please see our candidate guidance for more information on acceptable and unacceptable uses of AI in recruitment.

Recruitment Principles

As a government organisation, we adhere to the Civil Service Commission Recruitment Principles and we investigate any complaints received in relation to recruitment cases.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Karolyn Gracie
• Email : Karolyn.Gracie@gov.scot

Recruitment team

• Email : ScottishGovernmentrecruitment@gov.scot

Further information

https://fa-evxn-saasfaukgovprod1.fa.ocs.oraclecloud.com/hcmUI/CandidateExperience/en/sites/CX_1001/job/4138/?utm_medium=jobboard&utm_source=CivilServiceJobs