Employee Relations Specialist

ROLE PURPOSE

The Employee Relations (ER) Specialist plays a key role in fostering a positive, fair, and inclusive culture as part of a small high-impact People Team. This position is responsible for managing ER cases, advising managers on a broad range people matters, supporting performance and conduct processes, and ensuring compliance with employment legislation and company policy. The role works closely with the broader People Team, managers, and colleagues to mitigate risk, build capability and promote employee engagement and wellbeing.

This is a hands-on role; perfect for someone keen to get stuck in operationally, whilst developing their business partnering skills, and leading / supporting key people projects aligned with our longer-term strategic goals.

ROLE OBJECTIVES

• Manage and oversee ER cases at all levels of complexity, ensuring trends are understood and mitigating actions are put in place.
• Work with People Team colleagues and leaders to design and deliver interventions that build manager capability and reduce risk.
• Support / guide organisational design and change programmes, ensuring structures, roles and processes enable optimal performance and operational resilience.
• Coach and empower managers and leaders to enhance employee engagement and drive a high-performance culture.
• Partner with leaders / managers to support the design and delivery of people plans aligned to functional and People Strategy,
• Leverage data and insights to inform decisions and manage people-related risk.
• Develop / deploy cyclical People initiatives, including engagement survey action planning, performance management and annual reward processes.
• Lead / support a range of projects across the organisation aligned to the People Strategy.

ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES

Employee Relations

• Provide expert advice and guidance to managers and employees on ER matters, including conduct, capability, attendance, grievances, and disciplinary issues.
• Manage cases of varying degrees of complexity, from initial consultation through to resolution.
• Support the resolution of complex employee concerns and workplace conflicts through coaching, mediation, and informal resolution approaches where appropriate.
• Monitor ER case load, ensuring ongoing compliance and that the themes and learnings from ER cases are understood and actions are put in place to address.
• Use judgment to navigate grey areas and complex interpersonal situations.
• Support the upskilling of People Team colleagues to handle first and second-line queries.
• Provide grounded, practical guidance that balances people needs, business goals, and operational realities.

Manager capability

• Partner with managers to build confidence and capability in handling people matters.
• Provide guidance across the People agenda, including performance management, absence management and employee wellbeing.
• Coach managers on a range of people practices including goal setting, feedback, difficult conversations and addressing underperformance early.
• Work with People Team colleagues and leaders to design and deliver tools and interventions that build manager capability and mitigate risk.

 Organisational change

• Support change initiatives, e.g. restructures, TUPE transfers, new ways of working, with empathy and clarity.
• Support organisation design activities, providing advice on structure and roles.
• Navigate organisational complexity e.g. evolving structures, competing priorities - with clarity and calm.

Policy and compliance

• Act as team subject matter expert on UK employment law, scanning the external environment for developments and considering the implications in our context.
• Own the roadmap for readiness and ongoing compliance with the Employment Rights Act.
• Ensure fair, consistent, and legally compliant application of company policies.
• Work with the broader People Team to continually review our suite of policies, through the lens of both culture and compliance.

Partnering

• Build strong relationships with managers and teams to understand their challenges, priorities, and ways of working.
• Support new and developing managers with frameworks, tools, and practical guidance they can apply immediately.
• Help leaders interpret data and feedback to make informed decisions.
• Help teams interpret engagement data and build and execute meaningful action plans.

 Operations

• Roll up your sleeves to support the effective delivery of core people processes; onboarding, offboarding, probation, performance and reward cycles, and policy updates.
• Partner closely with People Services to spot inefficiencies and propose practical, scalable improvements.

Organisation-wide impact

• Work closely with the broader People Team to develop and deploy initiatives in support of the People Strategy.
• Support a range of initiatives that enhance employee engagement, inclusion, wellbeing and workplace culture.

SKILLS & COMPETENCIES

• Robust ER expertise, with proven ability to manage cases of all levels of complexity confidently and independently.
• Strong knowledge of UK employment legislation and best practice.
• Demonstrable ability to work in partnership with leaders and managers, building relationships of trust that effectively balance challenge and support.
• Excellent organisational skills with the ability to effectively manage a varied and complex workload.
• Strong communication skills and emotional intelligence, with the ability to influence, challenge, and build credibility at all levels.
• Proven expertise in conflict resolution.
• Commercially aware, solutions-focused and able to balance people and business priorities effectively.
• Strong analytical and data literacy skills, able to interpret People metrics and provide insight-driven recommendations.
• Skilled in change management, guiding teams through transformation and ambiguity with clarity and support.
• Ability to navigate complexity, ambiguity, and shifting priorities without losing momentum and attention to detail.
• A proactive, solutions‑oriented mindset - you spot issues early and act quickly.
• High integrity and sound judgment, especially in sensitive situations.
• Continuous improvement mindset, always seeking opportunities to refine people practices and processes.

EXPERIENCE & QUALIFICATIONS

Essential

• Strong ER background, including experience with organisational change, complex case management and TUPE transfers.
• Proven experience in a fast-paced, changing environment, ideally within a multi-site or hybrid workforce.
• Exposure to organisational transformation projects, such as organisation redesign, culture change and system implementations.
• Proven experience coaching and developing managers to improve performance.
• Experience working in a small People team, where everyone contributes across levels.

Desirable

• Experience in designing and delivering people initiatives across the lifecycle from attraction to retention, including learning and development interventions.
• Exposure to reward and recognition processes, including salary benchmarking and job architecture.

£45-50k dependent on experience

Standard Benefits

• 25 days holiday, rising to 28 days, plus bank holidays
• Company pension scheme
• Life assurance
• Enhanced sick pay
• Health care cash plan
• Income protection scheme
• Employee assistance line
• Discounts and cashback on shopping
• Discounted YorkTest home kits
• Free car parking (Blackburn site)

Flex Benefits

• Holiday trading
• Critical illness cover
• ULEV car leasing scheme
• Cycle to work scheme
• Gym membership
• Car breakdown cover
• Will writing service

Compensation

• Annual salary review
• Recruitment referral scheme
• Various recognition schemes (e.g. long service awards)

Working Environment

• Modern offices with collaboration/meeting spaces
• Agile/remote working
• Technology to support agile/remote working
• Free tea, coffee, juices and snacks at offices

Development

• Supported study
• Apprentice schemes
• Levy funded learning opportunities
• Individual development plans