HR Administrator | £29,000 | West London | Education | Onsite

Ashley Kate are recruiting on behalf of a well-established adult education provider based in the heart of London, just a five-minute walk from both Covent Garden and Holborn stations. With a rich and varied curriculum spanning performance, visual arts, culture, communication, and health and wellbeing, this organisation offers thousands of courses each year and serves a diverse community of learners. It's a genuinely purposeful place to work and one with a real commitment to its people.

About the team

You'll be joining a friendly and close-knit HR team of seven, supporting a mixed workforce of around 250 permanent staff and over 1,000 hourly-paid tutors working a huge range of hours. The team is busy, collaborative, and values people who get stuck in this is a hands-on role where no two days look the same.

About the role

• This is a varied generalist HR Administrator position, sitting at the heart of the team's day-to-day operations. You'll work closely with one of the HR Business Partners and provide essential support across the full employee lifecycle. The role has two core pillars:
• Payroll administration forms a significant part of your week. You'll manage starters, leavers, and changes on the HRIS, process monthly and fortnightly pay runs to tight deadlines, and ensure all data is accurate and up to date. Attention to detail here is non-negotiable you'll be handling real payroll information for a large and varied workforce.
• Recruitment and onboarding support is equally central to the role. You'll coordinate interview scheduling, manage applications, distribute paperwork to hiring managers, issue starter documentation, and run background checks including DBS and pre-employment screening.
• Beyond these two pillars, you'll be a key point of contact for the busy HR inbox, providing first-line support and escalating queries appropriately. You'll support ER meetings by taking notes and, over time, will have the opportunity to develop your ER knowledge further with guidance from the team. You'll also get involved in wider HR projects, including process improvement work currently under way.

What we're looking for

• Solid HR or payroll administration experience you'll need to hit the ground running
• Excellent attention to detail, particularly when processing payroll data and sensitive employee information
• Strong written and verbal communication skills you'll be corresponding with managers, tutors, and external parties regularly
• A proactive, self-starting approach if something needs chasing, you chase it; you don't wait to be asked
• Comfortable working at pace and managing shifting priorities without losing accuracy
• A collaborative, team-first mindset this is an open-plan environment where people walk up with questions and you're happy to help
• Experience using an HRIS system would be advantageous