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 a