Social Work England is the specialist body that regulates social workers in their vital role. Every day, social workers support millions of people to improve their chances in life. We believe in the power of collaboration and share a common goal with those we regulate – to protect the public, enable positive change, and ultimately improve people’s lives.
The people and development operations lead ensures our day to day people and people development operational activities run effectively and efficiently. They are a trusted source of advice and guidance on employee relations and people development matters and ensuring we have robust and compliant procedures and processes in place, with a focus on continuous improvement; using data and reporting to inform decisions and identify risk.

What you will do

• Provide support, advice and guidance on employee relations, including performance management, conduct and conflict resolution. This involves autonomous handling of casework, advising and supporting managers in line with our policies and procedures; highlighting and escalating complex and high risk cases where necessary.
• Provide advice and guidance to leaders and managers on learning and development programs and learning interventions to support organisational objectives and operational delivery.
• Design and deliver engaging learning solutions, making appropriate decisions in relation to delivery method (e.g. pathways, learning platform, workshops, etc), and ensuring alignment with organisational needs.
• Support the delivery of our people strategy and people plan, through effective management of our people and development day to day operations; reviewing, developing and implementing people and development policies and processes, ensuring they reflect our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion, and are legally compliant and proportionate.
• Build strong relationships with our business partners, collaborating to gain insight across the business to continually improve our service and identify opportunities for improvement. Provide constructive challenge to stakeholders.
• Be the primary point of contact, for all employee relations queries and learning and development requests. Build strong professional relationships with our managers and leaders, as their specialist source of advice and guidance.
• Oversee our ‘core’ people development offer, evaluating and analysing feedback and identify areas for improvement. Be the point of escalation for our people and development officers, providing guidance and enabling decisions at the appropriate level, in line with policy, procedure, best practice and legislative requirements.
• Manage our wellbeing processes, including occupational health and workplace adjustments to ensure the health and wellbeing of our people
• Provide guidance and direction to the team on routine people metrics, providing accurate reporting, which informs decisions, measures performance and progress of our people plan. Use continuous review of our reporting and systems to identify opportunities to automate processes and recommend improvements.
• Manage, support and coach direct reports and others in the team in a way that inspires, develops, motivates, and engages them.
• Delegate work across the team as appropriate, managing capacity and workloads.

Your skills, knowledge and experience

• Minimum CIPD level 5 or equivalent experience, with practical working experience in application in both employee relations and people development.
• Proven experience and ability to work confidently and autonomously in managing a employee relations caseload in both informal and formal processes, with the ability to mediate disputes and find resolutions that meet the needs of our people and our organisation.
• Up to date understanding of UK employment law and best practice in employee relations and people development. Evidenced experience of applying legislation in an organisational context when providing advice and guidance.
• Proven experience of understanding, designing and delivering learning and development initiatives to support organisational objectives
• Proactively identify and manage risks in relation to employee relations, data trends and people policy. Ability to clearly articulate risk levels and recommendations for mitigation.
• The ability to effectively communicate with stakeholders, including colleagues, managers, leaders and external stakeholders.
• The ability to manage a range of responsibilities and competing priorities, prioritising work effectively. 
• Good working knowledge of human resource and learning systems and platforms
• Ability and experience in analysing people data and reporting
• Ability to work independently and as part of a team, collaborating effectively across the organisation
• Experience of managing people, effective delegation and managing performance. Proven track record of coaching and motivating to achieve people and development operational objectives.

Details

• Job type: Fixed-term contract until 31 March 2026
• Working pattern: Full-time, working 37 hours per week.
• Salary: £43,391 per year, rising to £45,738 per year after successful completion of a 6-month probationary period.
• Location: Sheffield/hybrid remote.
• Benefits: flexible working, contributory pension, life insurance and upcoming benefits portal.

Application
During the application process, you’ll be asked to provide answers to three questions from the job description. These answers will be what your application is scored on, please answer in as much detail as possible using examples where necessary.
Job Types: Full-time, Fixed term contract
Contract length: 8 months
Pay: £43,391.00-£45,738.00 per year

Benefits:

• Free flu jabs
• Life insurance
• On-site gym

Schedule:

• Monday to Friday
• No weekends

Work Location: Hybrid remote in Sheffield S1 2A

• Provide support, advice and guidance on employee relations, including performance management, conduct and conflict resolution. This involves autonomous handling of casework, advising and supporting managers in line with our policies and procedures; highlighting and escalating complex and high risk cases where necessary.
• Provide advice and guidance to leaders and managers on learning and development programs and learning interventions to support organisational objectives and operational delivery.
• Design and deliver engaging learning solutions, making appropriate decisions in relation to delivery method (e.g. pathways, learning platform, workshops, etc), and ensuring alignment with organisational needs.
• Support the delivery of our people strategy and people plan, through effective management of our people and development day to day operations; reviewing, developing and implementing people and development policies and processes, ensuring they reflect our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion, and are legally compliant and proportionate.
• Build strong relationships with our business partners, collaborating to gain insight across the business to continually improve our service and identify opportunities for improvement. Provide constructive challenge to stakeholders.
• Be the primary point of contact, for all employee relations queries and learning and development requests. Build strong professional relationships with our managers and leaders, as their specialist source of advice and guidance.
• Oversee our ‘core’ people development offer, evaluating and analysing feedback and identify areas for improvement. Be the point of escalation for our people and development officers, providing guidance and enabling decisions at the appropriate level, in line with policy, procedure, best practice and legislative requirements.
• Manage our wellbeing processes, including occupational health and workplace adjustments to ensure the health and wellbeing of our people
• Provide guidance and direction to the team on routine people metrics, providing accurate reporting, which informs decisions, measures performance and progress of our people plan. Use continuous review of our reporting and systems to identify opportunities to automate processes and recommend improvements.
• Manage, support and coach direct reports and others in the team in a way that inspires, develops, motivates, and engages them.
• Delegate work across the team as appropriate, managing capacity and workloads