Hi,
I work in HR since 2019 and o have worked in different areas of HR such as Employee Relations.
Currently I work as HR Advisor but I do general advice on T& C of contracts of rrsident doctors in my Trust not so much on Employee Relations per se. I just finished my CIPD Level 5 diploma course, and I was wondering how can I become a HR Advisor in Employee Relations as I don't have the experience in hearing or handling any cases as requested in most of the jobs from I can see. What would you advise me to do to get the experience needed to apply for jobs in future?
Thanks
Daniele
I currently work in a senior role in HR in the NHS. If you are currently working as an HR Advisor (Band 5-6) you really should already be handling casework, so I assume you're actually working in an HR Administrator (Band 3-4) role covering the general inbox and phone line, answering basic queries and forwarding more complex ones to the team's advisors.
Having completed your Level 5 (congratulations!) you are certainly qualified to be getting more involved in casework and, given that most NHS Trusts do not have enough people to handle all of their cases, I imagine the team manager would be happy to have a new pair of hands to take on some of the work.
Without changing job, you are unlikely to be able to take on specific case handling duties yourself, but you can certainly get involved in things like scheduling hearings, note taking in investigation meetings and panel meetings, compiling and distributing investigation reports etc. This will give you more exposure to how case handling is done (both well and... not so well) to allow you the necessary learning that, when a vacancy arises for a more senior role with a focus on ER case management, you'll be ideally positioned to make the step up.
Hi Robey,
Thank you very for answering my question. I am a band 5 MedicalHR Advisor in my Trust but I am not involved in handling difficult cases, hearing or anything that ER Advisors they do. My role involves only advisory on the T&Cs of residential doctors contracts and re ruti g them into tgeir roles. This is why I am trying to find a route from what I do in Employees Relations. What I do is so specific for the NHS that I am unsure how I can transfer my skillls and qualifications in thie ER type of role not doing the actual job tgey do.
My role involves only advisory on the T&Cs of residential doctors contracts and re ruti g them into tgeir roles.
That does sound a bit like you're rather overpaid for the job you're doing. No reflection on you or your skills, but a bit odd that they'd leave you so under-employed and, yes, a bit hyperspecific. Do you report into the HR Operations side of things, or to the Recruitment & Resourcing side? I'm kind of guessing it's the latter from what you've said.
When I was looking after HR Operations in my Trust, we used to have staff from Resourcing join us for shadowing days on a fairly regular basis and, currently, three members of the Ops team used to be in Resourcing and moved across when a vacancy came up, having previously done shadowing. And I know at least one other who did a day's shadowing used it to help find themselves an ops job in another Trust.
With your CIPD 5 under your belt, now would seem like a good time to ask for the same kind of opportunity for you. Contact the Ops manager to see if it's something they would support and, if so, ask your manager if you can have a day or two in Ops to get some insight into their work. Obviously, a move into ops will need there to be a vacancy to move into, but with a little experience shadowing, your CIPD and your very valuable knowledge of medical TCS (don't under-rate that; it's super useful as most ops staff only deal with AfC 95% of the time) you should be a good candidate. You might have to drop down a Band to make the shift at first, into an Assistant role. But you might be lucky to move directly into an ER Advisor role.
My role involves only advisory on the T&Cs of residential doctors contracts and re ruti g them into tgeir roles.
That does sound a bit like you're rather overpaid for the job you're doing. No reflection on you or your skills, but a bit odd that they'd leave you so under-employed and, yes, a bit hyperspecific. Do you report into the HR Operations side of things, or to the Recruitment & Resourcing side? I'm kind of guessing it's the latter from what you've said.
When I was looking after HR Operations in my Trust, we used to have staff from Resourcing join us for shadowing days on a fairly regular basis and, currently, three members of the Ops team used to be in Resourcing and moved across when a vacancy came up, having previously done shadowing. And I know at least one other who did a day's shadowing used it to help find themselves an ops job in another Trust.
With your CIPD 5 under your belt, now would seem like a good time to ask for the same kind of opportunity for you. Contact the Ops manager to see if it's something they would support and, if so, ask your manager if you can have a day or two in Ops to get some insight into their work. Obviously, a move into ops will need there to be a vacancy to move into, but with a little experience shadowing, your CIPD and your very valuable knowledge of medical TCS (don't under-rate that; it's super useful as most ops staff only deal with AfC 95% of the time) you should be a good candidate. You might have to drop down a Band to make the shift at first, into an Assistant role. But you might be lucky to move directly into an ER Advisor role.
