Employee Relations Manager

at  Brainkind

MAIN PURPOSE:

To lead an organisation-wide employee relations (ER) support service that delivers excellent employee experience in a timely, high quality and customer-focused way.
To use your employee relations expertise to lead the ER team and to coach and develop people managers to create and deliver an ER cultural change that promotes early intervention and minimises the number of formal processes.
To collaborate with people managers, People &OD Business Partners and the Central People functions to develop and deliver employee relations policies and procedures, ER training and ongoing coaching across the whole organisation, with the aim of continually improving employee relations and minimising risk and issues.

MAIN TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• To lead a team of ER specialists to ensure that ER case management support is delivered across the organisation, ensuring process compliance and in line with agreed procedural timelines.
• To provide advice and guidance to the ER team and to focus personally on the management and resolution of more complex and/or high-risk ER issues.
• To manage the upskilling of all people managers on disciplinary and grievance procedures and their roles and responsibilities.
• To provide clear ongoing guidance to managers on their role and responsibilities within a process.
• To work in accordance with employment law and people policies and procedures.
• To contribute to the development of related people policies and procedures that support the strategic objectives of the organisation and comply with employment law and best practice.
• To report on case volumes, case status and trends via various reports and update People &OD Business Partners on cases within their regions.
• Where ETs arise, to draft defence against claims, prepare witness statements and collate bundles and other preparation prior to the hearing.
• To support People &OD Business Partners with restructuring projects, redundancies and TUPE situations where required.
• To ensure that all relevant ER policies and procedures are legally compliant and that any changes are communicated to key stakeholders in advance of any legislative changes.
• To seek to improve processes to ensure that you and your team work effectively and efficiently at all times to minimise the timeframes for all ER cases.

About you

• Educated to degree/comparable NVQ level or equivalent
• CIPD qualification (level 7) or working towards
• Proven experience in managing an ER team
• Up to date and in depth knowledge of employment legislation and HR best practice and ability to practically implement
• Ability to identify risks appropriately and to mitigate where possible whilst taking a pragmatic approach
• Significant experience of advising on a wide range of HR matters including all ER issues from disciplinaries and grievances to attendance management
• Substantial experience in dealing with complex case management through to resolution and in employment tribunal case preparation
• Experience in dealing with restructures, redundancy and TUPE situations
• Excellent negotiating and influencing skills