HR officer

Closing date for applications: 19 September 2025

Salary: £30,000 (+bonus +benefits)

Location: The role will be based at our London office, Carmelite House, with a blend of in-office (3 days) and homeworking (2 days) per week.

Take the next step in your HR career by joining a collaborative team at the heart of a publishing powerhouse, supporting the divisions that bring award-winning books to life.

Hachette UK is a creative powerhouse and the UK's second largest book publishing group. Our mission is to make it easy for everyone to discover new worlds of ideas, learning, entertainment and opportunity. We're made up of 11 autonomous publishing divisions and over 60 imprints with a rich and diverse history and an incredible range of authors. We're also the market leader in e-books and publish a range of bestsellers in audio format, the fastest growing part of our business. It's an exciting time to join our business because the publishing market continues to grow and thrive. The UK remains the largest exporter of physical books in the world and book adaptations for film and TV are the foundation of the UK's creative industries.


What you'll be doing

As HR officer for Hachette UK, you will work closely with the HR business partners, HR & reward officer and HR assistants to drive and deliver the HR team's aims and objectives. You will support all of the publishing divisions, including adult trade, non-trade as well as group functions. You will be responsible for supporting a wide range of HR projects that meet business objectives and will work closely with employees and managers in providing guidance and advice on any informal and formal employee relations issues. We’re looking for a proactive and curious HR officer who is able to multi-task and enjoys working in a collaborative team!


Who we are looking for

Personal attributes/skills

• Ability to balance the needs of the business with the needs of the employee
• Commercially minded
• Ability to multi-task and maintain composure in a demanding environment
• Ability to prioritise and handle ever changing and conflicting workload priorities
• Ability to think innovatively and generate ideas and solutions offering a range of options
• Ability to deal with sensitive issues and to maintain confidentiality at all times
• High level of initiative and autonomy, with the ability to work independently and as part of a team
• The ability to build positive relationships with staff at all levels
• Excellent communication skills including the ability to communicate in a logical way, to listen and to clearly present information to others
• Excellent attention to detail
• Accurate and exacting standards
• High level of resilience with the ability to read people and adapt approach accordingly
• A self-starter
• Team player with a positive, ‘can do’ attitude
• Takes pride in providing first-class customer service to managers across our business
• Tactful, diplomatic and approachable

Experience/knowledge

• Good experience in HR within large business environments is an advantage
• Proven experience of having managed parental leave, sickness absence and informal employee relations cases from start to finish
• Understanding of human resources practice and a good grasp of employment law
• High level of competency in the use of MS Office packages

What we offer

Our staff are our greatest asset, and our benefits reflect this:

• 28 annual leave days per year, increases to 29 days after 2 years' service and goes up to 30 days after 5 years' (+ bank holidays)
• Private medical insurance
• Dental insurance
• Generous pension schemes
• Rent deposit loans
• 2 community days per year
• Summer hours (finishing at 1pm on Fridays during the summer months)
• Retail discounts through Hachette rewards
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Eye care vouchers
• Wide-ranging training library
• Development programmes (including mentoring)
• Up to 70% off book purchases
• A charity bookshelf
• 12 Staff-led employee networks that are voluntary, including Gender Balance, Thrive, Pride, All Together, Wellbeing and religious networks
• Season ticket loans
• And much more!

Our commitment

The Book Trade Charity offers financial support to people looking to enter the book trade but who may struggle to afford the costs of attending interviews and undertaking junior roles. For more information visit www.booktradeentrysupport.org

Hachette employs people on the basis of their abilities. We aim to attract and develop talent from a base as broad as the world of readers we want to reach, with a wide and representative range of age, faith, disability, race, gender, sexuality and socio-economic, regional and cultural backgrounds. If you are shortlisted and need us to make any adjustments to help you attend for interview, please let us know.

Please state in your application that you found this role through Creative Access.