HR Recruitment & Services Officer

Job summary

Working closely with the Recruitment team and the wider HR Services team, you will coordinate and deliver end‑to‑end recruitment and onboarding processes across Forestry England. The role will provide high‑quality recruitment advice, coordination and administration, from vacancy approval through to appointment and effective onboarding.

Alongside recruitment and onboarding, the postholder will support defined employee lifecycle changes, such as contract variations and other people changes, ensuring accuracy, compliance and a positive customer experience.

You will act as a key point of contact for hiring managers and new starters, providing timely, professional advice and guidance, and contributing to continuous improvement of recruitment, onboarding and people change processes. Forestry England supports teams across England, so occasional travel may be required.

Job description

Key Responsibilities & Accountabilities

Recruitment and Onboarding – Advice & Guidance

• Respond promptly and professionally to recruitment and onboarding enquiries, providing advice using relevant policies, tools and resources and creating an excellent recruitment experience for both managers and applicants.
• Work closely with the HR Programme Manager, HR Services Team and wider HR colleagues to deliver consistent and effective recruitment outcomes.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with hiring managers and senior stakeholders.
• Proactively support recruitment for critical or hard to fill roles, making recommendations to managers to identify practical solutions.
• Act as the first point of contact for new starters, supporting a positive and engaging onboarding experience.

Recruitment Administration and Processes

• Provide end to end administrative support for recruitment activity, including vacancy approvals, applicant management and offer processes using the applicant tracking system (FERN).
• Generate, issue and track contracts of employment and onboarding documentation for all new starters.
• Liaise with internal teams to ensure pre‑employment checks are completed accurately and in a timely manner.
• Maintain accurate recruitment records and ensure all documentation is complete, compliant and auditable.

Employee Change and HR Transactions

• Support the administration of employee lifecycle changes, such as promotions and other contractual variations, including the production and issuing of revised contracts and letters.
• Accurately process new starters and contract changes into the HR and Payroll system (iTrent).
• Work with HR colleagues to ensure changes are processed accurately and in line with policy and employment legislation.
• Manage sensitive employee information securely, ensuring GDPR compliance at all times.

Data, Systems and Service Quality

• Ensure recruitment, onboarding and employee change data is recorded accurately within HR systems.
• Produce basic people data or information as required to support service delivery and decision making.
• Identify opportunities to improve recruitment, onboarding and employee change processes and customer experience.

And any other task reasonably requested by your line manager.

Person specification

Essential professional and technical experience

• Experience of working in a customer‑focused recruitment and/or HR environment providing a high-level of service to the wider organisation.
• Strong understanding of recruitment and onboarding procedures and practices.
• Experience of using recruitment or HR information systems.
• Ability to plan, organise and deliver work accurately with excellent attention to detail.
• Experience of working collaboratively within a multi‑functional team, managing multiple priorities and competing deadlines.
• Ability to build effective working relationships with managers and stakeholders.
• Competent and confident IT user with experience of MS Office applications.

Desirable professional and technical experience

• Working knowledge of Applicant Tracking Systems/vX.
• Experience of administering employee contract changes.
• Experience of producing or interpreting people data or management information.
• Knowledge of public sector or large-scale organisational recruitment processes.

Qualifications

Essential

• GCSE Grade C/4 in Maths and English or Functional Skills equivalent

Desirable

• Foundation Certificate in Human Resources Practice (CIPD)
• Associate member of CIPD

Behaviours

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

• Working Together
• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £30,105, Forestry Commission contributes £8,721 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• 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.

You will be asked to write a 200 word statement on your relevant experience and career history, along with a personal statement of no more than 500 words. You will be assessed on both during sifting. More details about how to apply are listed on the application form.

You will be assessed on experience, technical skill and behaviour-based questions during your interview.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

• Working Together
• Managing a Quality Service
• Delivering at Pace

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a 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.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).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 : fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk
• Email : fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk

Further information

Our recruitment process is underpinned by the principle of appointment on the basis of fair and open competition and appointment on merit, as outlined in the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles.If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with these principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should in the first instance contact FCE by email: englandhr.services@forestryengland.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can contact the Civil Service Commission, which regulates all Civil Service recruitment.

Attachments

HR Recruitment and Services Officer JD FINAL Opens in new window (pdf, 142kB)