NHS HR and finance jobs: supporting information for corporate roles (with examples)

Updated · By the Tick the Spec team

NHS HR and finance roles range from Band 3 assistants to Band 8 business partners and above, and many people apply from the private sector or local government. The person specification usually asks for a relevant qualification or progress towards one (CIPD for HR; AAT, ACCA, CIMA or CIPFA for finance), experience of the processes the role covers, accuracy, confidentiality, customer service to managers and staff, and IT skills, especially spreadsheets and the relevant systems. Your supporting information should show each with specific examples, and translate any private-sector experience into what matters in the NHS.

What HR person specifications often ask for

  • Qualifications: CIPD at the relevant level (often Level 3 for advisers' assistants, Level 5 or 7 for advisers and business partners), or working towards it.
  • Experience: recruitment administration, employee relations casework, sickness absence, policy advice to managers, workforce data.
  • Knowledge: employment law in outline, Agenda for Change terms and conditions (or willingness to learn), equality and inclusion.
  • Skills: advising managers clearly, handling sensitive conversations, accurate record keeping, ESR or other HR systems, Excel.

What finance person specifications often ask for

  • Qualifications: AAT for finance assistants and officers; a CCAB qualification (ACCA, CIMA, CIPFA, ACA) or part-qualified for accountants and above.
  • Experience: ledgers, reconciliations, month-end, budget monitoring, management reporting, payroll or procurement depending on the role.
  • Knowledge: financial controls, NHS financial regime in outline for senior posts, VAT basics in some roles.
  • Skills: advanced Excel, explaining financial information to non-finance managers, accuracy under deadline.

Step by step

  1. State qualifications clearly, including exams passed and expected completion dates.
  2. Pick examples that mirror the job description: casework, month-end, budget meetings.
  3. Show accuracy and controls: an error you found, a reconciliation you fixed, a process you tightened.
  4. Show you can explain: NHS managers are often clinicians; the ability to make HR or finance clear and practical is highly valued.
  5. Show confidentiality and fairness, especially in HR.
  6. Translate your sector: "clients" become managers and staff; "profit" becomes value for money and patient services.

Worked examples (fictional)

These are invented. The applicants, employers and figures are fictional.

HR: Kemi, an HR administrator at a logistics company, applying for a Band 5 HR Adviser post. Criterion: "Experience of advising managers on attendance and employee relations cases".

I support managers across three depots with about 600 staff on sickness absence and conduct cases. A depot manager wanted to move straight to a final warning for an employee with repeated short-term absences. I reviewed the record, which showed some absences were linked to a disability the employee had disclosed. I explained our policy stages and the duty to consider reasonable adjustments, arranged an occupational health referral, and drafted the meeting invitation. The adjustments agreed, a change of shift pattern, reduced the employee's absence significantly over the following six months, and the manager has since asked me to coach two new supervisors on the policy. I am studying for CIPD Level 5 and expect to complete it next summer.

Finance: Ravi, an AAT-qualified assistant accountant in a housing association, applying for a Band 6 Management Accountant post. Criterion: "Experience of producing budget reports and advising budget holders".

I produce monthly budget reports for eight budget holders, covering about £12 million of spend. Each month I meet them to explain variances and agree forecasts. When the repairs budget showed a large underspend mid-year, I traced it to invoices held in a supplier dispute, which would have caused a year-end overspend. I flagged this to the head of finance and the budget holder, adjusted the forecast, and set up a monthly accruals check so disputes are visible earlier. I am studying CIMA and have passed the certificate and operational levels.

Common mistakes

  • Listing systems and tasks instead of examples.
  • Not explaining qualification status precisely.
  • Jargon that a mixed panel will not follow.
  • Ignoring the public-sector context: value for money, fairness, transparency.
  • Breaching confidentiality in HR examples: keep them anonymous.

Tick the Spec's free shortlisting sheet maps your CV to each criterion in the job pack, which helps when you are moving from another sector. For pay bands and levels, see our guides to Band 4, Band 6 and Band 8a roles.

Sources

All guides