HR specialist with five years' experience across recruitment, employee relations and onboarding in a 650-person distribution business. Gives hiring managers strong shortlists in days rather than weeks, and handles grievances and absence cases calmly and by the book. Recently cut time-to-hire by 11 days and lifted first-year retention from 71% to 83%.
Experience
HR Specialist · Kestrel Distribution Group, Reading
2022 – Present
Cut average time-to-hire for warehouse and office roles from 34 to 23 days with structured phone screens and fixed weekly interview slots.
Handle 40+ employee-relations cases a year, from grievances to disciplinaries, with no tribunal claims in three years.
Redesigned the first-90-days onboarding plan with line managers; first-year retention rose from 71% to 83%.
Brought short-term absence down 18% by introducing return-to-work interviews and training 25 line managers to run them.
Moved 650 employee records from spreadsheets to BambooHR using a data-cleansing checklist, with no data-protection incidents.
grievance and disciplinary procedures, absence management, UK employment law, ACAS Code of Practice
Systems
BambooHR, Sage HR, Excel (pivot tables, XLOOKUP)
Certificates
CIPD Level 5 Associate Diploma in People Management · CIPD2023
Mental Health First Aider · MHFA England2024
Languages
English — Native
French — Basic (A2)
Additional information
Member of the company wellbeing group; organises quarterly mental-health awareness sessions.
Three summary options
Start from the one closest to where you are now.
Entry level
Business graduate moving into HR after a year as an HR administrator in a 300-person retailer. Handled contracts, onboarding packs and right-to-work checks for 150 new starters with no audit findings. Now looking for an HR advisor role with more employee-relations work.
Senior generalist
HR business partner with ten years in manufacturing and CIPD Level 7. Supported three restructures covering 400 roles with no successful tribunal claims, and built the manager training that halved grievance escalations. Trusted to coach directors through difficult conversations and workforce planning.
Recruitment focus
In-house recruiter with six years filling technical and operational roles. Owns the full cycle from job design to offer, runs 15–20 live vacancies at once, and cut agency spend by £85,000 a year by building a talent pool and a staff referral scheme.
Keywords to include
Use the ones that are true for you, inside real sentences.
Employee relations
Recruitment
Onboarding
Absence management
Grievance and disciplinary
UK employment law
HRIS
CIPD
Policy development
Stakeholder management
What recruiters look for
Tips for this role, with the kind of numbers that count.
Turn HR processes into numbers
People work is measurable: time-to-hire, cost per hire, offer-acceptance rate, first-year retention, absence rates and cases closed. "Cut time-to-hire from 34 to 23 days" tells a hiring manager far more than "supported the recruitment process".
Describe case work without names
Employee-relations experience is a core screen for HR roles, but confidentiality matters just as much. Give volume and outcome, such as "40+ cases a year, no tribunal claims", and never include details that could identify an employee.
Put your CIPD level up front
UK HR adverts often name a CIPD level or accept "working towards". Put your level and status in the headline or near the top, and if you are still studying, give the year you expect to finish.
Name the HR systems you've used
List HRIS, payroll and applicant-tracking tools by name, for example BambooHR, Sage HR or Workday, and say what you did with them: a records migration, monthly absence reports or a new approval workflow.
Link HR work to the business
Leaders care about staffing a new site on time, lowering agency costs or covering peak-season shifts. One sentence that connects your work to a commercial result, such as £85,000 saved on agencies, makes an HR CV stand out.
Write like you write policies
Hiring managers read an HR CV as a sample of how you will write policies and letters. Use plain, precise wording, skip phrases such as "people-first synergy", and check every date and figure twice before sending.
Make this CV yours
Answer one question at a time; the assistant fills each section and never invents numbers.
Should I list CIPD membership and the CIPD qualification separately?
Yes. The qualification, for example the Level 5 Associate Diploma, belongs under certificates with the year. Your membership grade, such as Associate Member, can sit in a details line near your name. Recruiters search for both, so mentioning "CIPD" once is not enough.
How do I write about redundancies or dismissals I handled?
Focus on process and outcome, not people. Say how many roles were affected, how you ran consultation and what happened next, for example "supported consultation for 35 roles; 12 redeployed, no successful claims". Keep it factual and leave out anything confidential or emotional.
Can I move into HR from another career?
Yes. Many HR specialists start in operations, retail management or administration. Highlight what transfers: interviewing, rota planning, handling complaints, training staff and keeping accurate records. A CIPD Level 3 or Level 5 course plus an HR administrator role is a common route in.
