Employee Relations Advisor

at  One YMCA

Please make sure you follow the instructions at the end of this advert with regard to your covering letter
Do you enjoy Employee Relations casework? Do you have the ability to work with managers and staff to stop small problems from becoming bigger? We are a close-knit, friendly and informal HR team, where we support each other and keep learning.
We’re keen to hear from you, not a computer, so please don’t use AI to write your application!
Understanding of the housing sector would be desirable but is not essential.
WORK-LIFE BALANCE AND TRAVEL: You’ll be able to work remotely, but you’ll travel regularly to our sites across Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire, once or twice a week and as needed. You’ll need your own vehicle (we will reimburse work mileage). You won’t be constantly on the road – a lot of your work can be done over Teams, but you’ll want to get to know your managers face-to-face.
ABOUT THE ROLE: We need you to ensure all people managers are equipped with the knowledge and skills to manage employee relations in their teams and maintain a positive working environment in which their staff can flourish. Casework will include absence management, performance management, disciplinary and grievance issues, misconduct investigations, bullying and harassment, unlawful discrimination, redundancies, work-life balance requests and all aspects of family leave. You’ll also support formal meetings as note-taker and adviser.
Owing to our positive culture, we don’t have a large volume of serious ER issues, so you’ll have plenty of time to coach, support and train managers on all aspects of employee relations, through a variety of 1-1 meetings, informal training sessions (over Teams or in person) and briefings. You’ll meet regularly with managers to develop a thorough understanding of their business areas, and help them to identify and resolve emergent issues before they become more serious.
About you: We do need you to have mastery of the basics, so it’s essential you bring the following: 1) A thorough and sophisticated understanding of how to advise on absence management, performance management, disciplinary & grievance issues and family leave. 2) Evidence of continuous professional development to demonstrate that you manage the gaps in your experience. 3) Either CIPD Level 5, or the ability to show that you have an equivalent level of understanding (which is equally acceptable).
At One YMCA we are an inclusive organisation and actively promote equality of opportunity for all with the right mix of talent, skills, and potential. We do not discriminate on the basis of Age, Disability, Gender Reassignment, Marriage/Civil Partnership, Pregnancy/Maternity, Race, Religion/Belief, Sex and/or Sexual Orientation. We encourage applications from all backgrounds, communities, and industries, and are committed to having a team that is made up of diverse skills, experiences, and abilities.
HOW TO APPLY: You MUST write a short covering letter, not using AI - you don’t need to spend very long on this, but it must clearly address the following areas: 1) Why our organisation and role seem right for you. 2) Your experience of casework relevant to this role – see the job description and please provide enough detail. 3) Your experience supporting, guiding, coaching and training managers (NB - you don’t need formal coaching/training experience).
We will be interviewing on a rolling basis so please don’t delay applying. Start date ideally from January 2025.
This is a Full Time role.
Hours per week: 37.5
Working Pattern: M-F
One YMCA and its subsidiaries, the Early Childhood Partnership (ECP) and Signpost are on an exciting journey to double our impact by 2025. We are over half way through an exciting new strategy launched in the first hour of the new decade, via email where all staff and volunteers were invited to put themselves forward to apply and attend an intensive, three-day Kickstarter Event.
By the end of these three days, there was a brilliantly multi-faceted set of themes and ideas, which formed the starting point for the rest of the Mission 25 process to build on. The aim of Mission 25 is to give every staff member and volunteer the opportunity to play their part in shaping the strategy to do “more and better, together” so that we double our impact by 2025. We deliver a vast array of services across Herts, Beds and Bucks that reach over 135,000 individuals annually.

These include:

• Provision of over 700 units of accommodation for homeless people
• Move on accommodation for individuals moving onto independent living
• Housing and practical/emotional support for young asylum seekers
• Community HUBs hosting a range of activities and meeting space hire
• Childcare provision in Hertfordshire
• Family support through a network of children’s and family centres covering Hertfordshire and Bedford
• Therapeutic and non-therapeutic support for male and female victims of domestic abuse and their children
• Independent sexual violence services across Bedfordshire, Luton and Hertfordshire
• Domestic abuse perpetrator reform programmes across Bedfordshire
• Youth services offering emotional wellbeing support and youth club opportunities for 11-19 year olds alongside our National Airplay programme funded by the RAF Benevolent Fund
• A community gym where everyone can enjoy the benefits of physical exercise Our values remain at the forefront of how we operate as a charity, and it is important to us that all staff and volunteers can fully buy in to our ethos.

Please refer the Job description for details