HR Officer

Job summary

We’re looking for a HR Officer to join our HR Delivery team at UKHO.

As an HR Officer, you’ll work within a collaborative and multi-skilled team—including HR Assistants, HR Advisors, our Talent Acquisition Specialist, and subject matter experts across the People function—to deliver a high-quality, enabling service to UKHO to enable it to meet its strategic objectives and its vision for 2034.

You’ll play a key role in supporting recruitment and onboarding, employee lifecycle administration, wellbeing and employee relations, and HR systems and data management. As part of the team and through our team inbox, you’ll often be the first port of call for line managers, providing advice, guidance, and administrative support across a wide range of HR matters, while also contributing to wider People initiatives and continuous improvement projects.

Permanent civil servants from other government departments who are successful will normally be appointed on a loan basis, subject to agreement with their home department.

Hybrid working

This job role can be worked on a hybrid basis, which is an informal, non-contractual and voluntary arrangement, blending a balance between working at the Taunton office with working from home. It is anticipated that the successful candidate would work from the Taunton office 2-3 days a week dependant on business need. This will need to include a Tuesday, which is the designated day for the team to collaborate in the office.

Job description

• Monitor shared HR inboxes and respond to a wide range of queries from employees, managers, applicants, and external contacts. Requests may include but aren’t limited to, policy advice, wellbeing support, job descriptions, reference letters, and purchase orders. Complex or high-risk queries are escalated to the appropriate subject matter expert to ensure resolution.
• Provide first stage advice to managers on policies and procedures and assist with completing standard HR documentation.
• Support lower-risk employee relations and lifecycle cases such as absence management and flexible working.
• Provide support with recruitment activities (permanent and contingent labour), including advert launches, campaign case management and onboarding.
• Ensure HR systems and digital records are accurate and up to date, working closely with colleagues within the team. Liaise with payroll on pay-related issues and manage lifecycle changes like contract amendments and parental leave. Run routine reports and carry out GDPR-compliant data checks.
• Carry out general HR administration including electronic filing, meeting coordination, and note-taking for employee relations cases. Support the delivery of regular HR meetings and maintain key documentation. Assist with purchases and logistics for the HR and People team.
• Contribute to wider UKHO and People Strategy initiatives, including business improvement and wellbeing activities. Coordinate key HR processes such as workforce planning, trade union meetings, and job evaluations. Provide surge demand support for HR specialists during busy periods.
• Engage in continuous professional development through training, reading, and staying informed on employment law and HR trends. Maintain a personal development plan and take ownership of your learning. Apply external insights to improve employee relations and wellbeing support.

Person specification

• Experience of working in a HR Officer or Senior HR Assistant role in a busy and complex environment.
• Experience of recruitment and resourcing (temporary or permanent) administration and co-ordination.
• Experience of independently case managing ‘first stage’ employee relations and employee lifecycle cases such as, but not limited to, attendance management, flexible working requests, onboarding and job evaluation.
• Experience of providing advice about civil service recruitment principles and their application.
• Experience of providing advice and guidance to managers of varying levels of seniority.
• Experience of updating and using HR systems.
• Good working knowledge of Microsoft Office, including Word, PowerPoint and Excel.

Behaviours

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

• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace
• Working Together
• Making Effective Decisions

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £32,965, UK Hydrographic Office contributes £9,549 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

At the UK Hydrographic Office, it's very important to us that our people feel valued.

We offer a huge range of benefits such as training and development, well-being support, flexible/ homeworking, a fantastic state of the art building, high spec equipment, and so much more.

See our attached Candidate Information Pack for more details.

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 and Experience.

How to Apply:

Please attach your anonymised CV demonstrating your relevant experience to the role (see below) by clicking "Apply Now" at the bottom of this page. You will also be asked to submit a supporting statement of up to 500 words demonstrating your experience in relation to the role. Please see below for more information.

Timeline:

• Advert Closes for applications: 18th October 2026
• Shortlisting: week commencing 26th October 2026
• Interviews: week commencing 9th November 2026

We will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates change. You will be provided with sufficient notice of the confirmed dates.

Lead Criteria:

We have identified a lead criterion for this role, which we may use to differentiate between applications in the following scenarios:

• To conduct an initial-sift in a high volume of applicants (over 20 applications).

• To establish a merit-order in the event of a tie

The lead criteria for this role are identified below.

Sift/Shortlist Criteria:

All applications are processed anonymously. You will be short-listed against the following criteria:

Experience:

• Experience of working in a HR Officer or Senior HR Assistant role in a busy and complex environment. (lead criteria)
• Experience of recruitment and resourcing (temporary or permanent) administration and co-ordination.
• Experience of independently case managing ‘first stage’ employee relations and employee lifecycle cases such as, but not limited to, attendance management, flexible working requests, onboarding and job evaluation.

The above criteria will be assessed against your CV and supporting statement.

Interview Criteria:

You will be interviewed against the following criteria:

Experience:

• Experience of recruitment and resourcing (temporary or permanent) administration and co-ordination.

Civil Service Behaviours (EO level):

• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace
• Working Together (lead criteria)
• Making Effective Decisions

See here for further information: Success Profiles - Civil Service Behaviours (publishing.service.gov.uk)

The lead criteria will be used as a tie-break if needed.

Process:

• Single Stage Interview via TEAMS. You will be contacted to book a suitable slot if you are shortlisted (see our Candidate Pack for further information)
• Interview will be with a panel of no more than 2 people and will last approx. 45 mins

Onboarding Checks:

In the event you are offered a role with us, you will be required to go through Basic Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) checks which will include Employment and Right to Work Checks. Please see our attached Candidate Pack for further details and Terms.

Please note, we are unable to offer visa sponsorship.

Residency Requirements:

BPSS – non reserved
This is a Ministry of Defence non-reserved post and is open to UK, British Commonwealth, and European Economic Area nationals. Successful applicants will be required to pass the Basic Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) and will therefore need to provide evidence if they have resided outside of the UK for a period of 6 months or longer within the last 3 years. This is not a bar to employment, but a successful applicant will be required to provide sufficient evidence to allow the UKHO to conduct meaningful background checks. Please contact the recruitment team on the email address below if you have any concerns regarding this.

Eligibility

Due to the secure nature of our work, there may be eligibility restrictions if you hold dual nationality or are not a British Citizen. We will consider each application on a case-by-case basis. We will ask you in our application form to confirm your place of birth and details of any dual or previous nationalities.

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check.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.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

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

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.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 : recruitment.queries@ukho.gov.uk
• Email : recruitment.queries@ukho.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : recruitment.queries@ukho.gov.uk

Further information

Further Information

The Department’s recruitment processes are underpinned by the requirement of selection for appointment based on merit, open and fair competition as outlined in the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles, details of which can be found at http://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should in the first instance contact recruitment.queries@ukho.gov.uk If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can further contact the Civil Service Commission at: civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk or view more details at http://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk

Attachments

UKHO Candidate Information Pack Opens in new window (pdf, 5693kB)Additional Pay Information Opens in new window (pdf, 163kB)