People Assistant - 12 month Contract

Location: Holborn, London

Working pattern:  Full time, Hybrid working (12-month contract)

Be the heartbeat of our People Team!

We are looking for a driven individual, with strong interpersonal and problem-solving skills to join our forward-thinking People Team. This is an opportunity to play a pivotal role in creating a seamless and supportive HR experience for our talented teams at Grayling. If you’re proactive and eager to jumpstart your career in HR, we’d love to hear from you! This will be for the duration of a 12-month FTC, potentially with a view to extend or go permanent.

What’s in it for you?

You’ll become an instrumental part of the day-to-day running of our People Team, the engine room of Grayling’s vibrant agency culture. From ensuring smooth HR operations to enhancing our processes, your work will directly support our commitment to empowering our people and delivering excellence for our clients. One day a week, you’ll also bring your expertise to Citigate Dewe Rogerson (CDR), our sister agency located in the same office, giving you the chance to collaborate across two leading communications agencies and broaden your HR experience.

We’re looking for someone who can:

• Collaborate effortlessly. An excellent communicator and a natural team player.
• Think outside the box. Your creative mindset and curiosity drive you to find innovative solutions.
• Take the reins, with a proactive approach, you can anticipate needs and tackle challenges head-on.

No specific educational background is required; we value enthusiasm, a willingness to learn, and the ability to leverage technology to streamline processes.

Your day-to-day impact

As a HR champion, you’ll:

• Be the first point of contact for the People Team, monitoring the inbox, flagging queries, and ensuring swift resolutions.
• Keep HiBob, our HRIS, as the single source of truth, maintaining accurate data and meticulously organised documents.
• Own the onboarding journey: prepare contracts, conduct right-to-work checks, coordinate inductions, and manage benefits and payroll processes.
• Guide employees through offboarding with care: from updating HiBob to capturing key insights from exit interviews.
• Partner with managers to track probation periods, ensuring timely follow-ups and documentation.
• Assist in the seamless delivery of training initiatives and professional development programs.
• Collaborate with the People Advisor to ensure smooth payroll processes, manage promotions and salary reviews, and address employee relations queries with confidence and professionalism.
• Stay ahead of legislative changes, championing compliance and best practices.
• Help shape the employee experience by reviewing and updating our employee handbook, ensuring our policies reflect our commitment to excellence.
• Dive into HR projects, bringing fresh ideas and energy to everything from process improvements to ad hoc initiatives.

What makes you our ideal candidate?

• A razor-sharp eye for detail and top-notch organisational skills.
• A positive, can-do attitude that shines through in everything you do.
• Good written and verbal communication
• Confidentiality and discretion you can count on.
• The confidence to build strong relationships with stakeholders at all levels.
• A knack for juggling priorities and adapting to shifting demands.
• Tech-savviness, with intermediate or advanced skills in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
• Bonus points if you have prior experience in HR operations, employee relations, or working with HR systems like HiBob!

Why Grayling?

At Grayling, we’re more than an agency; we’re a community committed to being brave, collaborative and curious! Join us, and you’ll have the chance to shape the future of our People Team, all while growing your HR expertise in a supportive and fast-paced environment.

Ready to apply?

If this sounds like a great opportunity for you, please apply through our website and submit your CV.

In no more than 500 words, please tell us why you’re passionate about pursuing a career in Human Resources and why you’d love to work for Grayling and CDR.

If successful, you will be invited to attend a first stage interview with two of our team members.

Our promises to you

• Flexible working arrangements, including hybrid working (where you can work two days a week from home)
• 25 days’ holiday, increasing by one day every year up to 30 days.
• Duvet morning on your birthday 
• Gifted time off over Christmas 
• Flexible benefits allowance where you are in complete control of what you receive. It could be anything from dental to gym membership, wellbeing initiatives, training, discount deals or simply a contribution to everyday bills and subscriptions (think Netflix, Amazon, Spotify etc!)
• Free breakfasts & weekly drinks in the office
• Regular team socials and early finish Fridays. 
• Personal development opportunities, through our Grayling Advantage Academy (with courses ranging from writing, resilience, creativity and more) 
• New business and employee referral bonuses.
• Cycle to work scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme offering a 24/7 confidential advice line
• Life assurance

Get to know us

Grayling is the UK’s best-connected communications agency. With nine offices across the UK and 22 globally, we create advantage for our clients through insight-led campaigns that deliver tangible results.

We’re a friendly bunch and life at Grayling will offer you a whole host of benefits including 4pm Friday finishes, hybrid working, regular training workshops and regular socials.

We believe diversity is strength. Our commitment at Grayling is to combine our employees’ unique backgrounds, perspectives and experiences to build a more diverse and inclusive organization that represents all of us and the businesses we work with. We undertake blind recruiting to review all our job applications as we believe that each candidate should be assessed based on their skills and experience, and not on bias parameters such as gender, ethnicity or age.