HR Assistant

The HR Assistant keeps the personnel records of a small advisory practice accurate and in order. Westhafen Consulting seeks a permanent, full-time HR Assistant for its Berlin office, working on a hybrid arrangement.

The work
The firm is small, and its records are read by people who rely on them: authors, the office manager, the auditors. Your work supports the Berlin office and keeps employment files complete and current.

1. Maintain employment files for Berlin: contracts, amendments, holiday records and signed correspondence, kept complete and in the correct order.
2. Prepare first drafts of routine personnel correspondence and internal notices for review and sign-off before they are issued.
3. Keep the holiday and absence record, checking entries against the file before they are confirmed.
4. Organise induction paperwork for new colleagues, and the handover of files when a colleague leaves.
5. Handle correspondence with German authorities, insurers and payroll providers, escalating questions that need a decision.
6. Keep applications and interview notes in order, and confirm appointments with candidates in writing.

A typical week
Most weeks begin with the file: entries from the week before are checked and brought up to date. Draft correspondence goes to the office manager for comment, and the comments come back with corrections that you make in the document itself. Appointments with candidates and with the payroll provider are confirmed in writing, with the confirmations filed the same day. By Friday the week's documents are signed and filed, and anything still open is listed for the following Monday.

What you bring

• Careful writing in German and English, with sentences that say one thing plainly.
• Attention to detail in records and dates, and the habit of checking an entry before confirming it.
• Reliable deadlines: correspondence issued when it was promised, and files closed at the end of the week.
• Discretion with personnel information, including illness, leave and performance.
• Comfort with spreadsheets and document tools, and the patience to keep a folder system consistent.
• German at working level for correspondence with authorities and providers.

Useful but not required

• Studies in law, economics, business administration or a related field.
• Internship or part-time experience in an office, a personnel department or a law firm.
• Familiarity with German employment paperwork, such as contracts and social insurance registration.

What the firm provides

• A permanent, full-time position based at the Berlin office, on a hybrid arrangement.
• A named author and the office manager to learn from, with written comments on your drafts.
• Time set aside for focused work, so that documents are prepared without interruption.
• A small office where the personnel file is kept properly, and where your work on it is used.

Working at Westhafen Consulting
Westhafen Consulting is a private advisory practice with offices in Berlin and New York. It advises chairs, chief executives and board committees on decisions that are hard to reverse, and delivers its advice as signed written memoranda kept as short as the question allows. The document is the record, and the personnel file is held to the same standard: complete, in order, and available when it is needed.
The office is small enough that the HR Assistant knows where each document sits and who signed it. Questions about a file are answered in writing, and changes are made in the document rather than described in conversation.