Recruitment Administrator

We are seeking a proactive and highly organised HR & Recruitment Officer with proven experience using PeopleXD

This role plays a vital part in delivering an efficient and professional HR service, supporting the full employee lifecycle while ensuring a smooth and positive recruitment and onboarding experience for both managers and candidates.

Working as a key member of the HR team, you will act as a first point of contact for HR and recruitment enquiries, managing queries through shared inboxes and providing practical guidance to recruiting managers throughout the hiring process. You will support recruitment activity from planning and attraction through to selection, offer, screening and onboarding, ensuring candidates and hiring managers are kept informed and supported throughout.

You will coordinate recruitment administration through the PeopleXD system, monitor applications, prepare shortlisting and interview packs, and arrange interviews in a timely and efficient manner. The role also involves producing contracts of employment, maintaining accurate personnel records, supporting HR inductions for new starters, and generating HR documentation and reports to a high professional standard.

In addition, you will contribute to wider HR operations including managing employee lifecycle processes such as contractual changes, leave requests, and payroll-related actions, while supporting the monitoring of fixed-term contracts and visitor access agreements.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as the first point of contact for HR and recruitment enquiries.

• Manage the HR and recruitment inbox, responding to queries and directing issues as appropriate.

• Support recruiting managers throughout the recruitment process, from attraction through to onboarding.

• Monitor and manage applications through the PeopleXD system.

• Communicate effectively with candidates and hiring managers throughout recruitment campaigns.

• Prepare shortlisting packs, interview documentation, and coordinate interview arrangements.

• Draft and issue employment contracts and onboarding documentation.

• Set up new employees within the HR system and maintain accurate electronic personnel files.

• Produce HR documentation and correspondence to a high standard.

• Support visitor access agreements and monitor end-of-fixed-term contracts.

About the Role (Senior Responsibilities)

At the more senior levels the role expands to take ownership of the full recruitment lifecycle, ensuring consistent, high-quality recruitment activity across the department’s multiple units. You will work closely with hiring managers to understand workforce requirements and design effective job advertisements and role descriptions that attract high-quality candidates while complying with university policies and best practice. This includes creating and editing detailed role descriptions, developing generic job profiles in collaboration with the reward team, and using search engine optimisation techniques and analytics to improve candidate attraction and job advertisement performance.

You will also act as a recruitment process expert, ensuring that recruitment processes remain compliant, efficient and fit for purpose. This includes preparing insightful reports and recruitment metrics to inform strategy, monitoring the success of job postings, and recommending improvements to candidate sourcing approaches. You may also contribute to the development of new recruitment tools, support departmental HR projects, and potentially supervise a small team.

At the most senior level, the role includes supervising and developing HR staff to deliver a full and professional HR service, confidently advising managers and employees on HR policies and procedures, and supporting managers in areas such as change management and employee relations cases. You will oversee recruitment and onboarding processes across the department, ensure compliance with university guidance, contribute to departmental HR policy development, and provide regular reports to stakeholders on staffing, legislation updates, and HR developments. The role may also involve representing the department in divisional working groups and deputising for the HR Manager when required.