Employee Relations Specialist
Location: Hybrid – 1-2 days per week in our Bradford office with flexibility to attend as required.
Contract: Full Time | Permanent
Salary: £38,000 per annum
We're looking for an experienced Employee Relations Specialist to join our People Services Delivery team and play an important role in delivering a high-quality, coaching-led Employee Relations service across the organisation. Working in a fast-paced and collaborative environment, you'll be a trusted advisor to managers, supporting a positive colleague experience and helping to ensure people matters are managed fairly, consistently and in line with employment law and best practice.
This is an exciting opportunity for an Employee Relations professional with strong employment law knowledge, excellent relationship-building skills and a pragmatic approach to problem-solving. You'll work closely with managers, colleagues and stakeholders across the business, contributing to a customer-focused People Services Delivery function that builds manager capability, promotes effective people management and supports successful business outcomes.
What You'll Do
Provide expert Employee Relations advice and practical support to managers across a broad range of people matters, helping them navigate complex situations with confidence while balancing business needs, colleague experience and legal compliance.
Coach and guide managers through people challenges, enabling them to assess risks, consider options, make informed decisions and take ownership of managing employee relations matters effectively and consistently.
Manage a varied portfolio of complex and sensitive Employee Relations cases including disciplinary, grievance, absence, capability, conduct and organisational change matters, ensuring outcomes are fair, timely, well-documented and legally compliant.
Support managers throughout formal people processes, helping them prepare high-quality documentation including investigation reports, hearing packs, outcome letters and management case files that stand up to scrutiny and reflect best practice.
Apply your employment law knowledge and professional judgement to provide pragmatic, commercially focused advice, helping to minimise organisational risk and ensure decisions are aligned to both legislation and company policies.
Identify emerging people risks and trends, proactively escalating concerns where appropriate and working with stakeholders to put effective mitigation plans and preventative solutions in place.
Build strong and credible relationships across the organisation, partnering with managers, colleagues, employee representatives and People & Culture teams to deliver joined-up solutions and positive business outcomes.
Champion a coaching-led Employee Relations culture, encouraging early intervention, manager ownership and proactive people management approaches that reduce repeat issues and improve colleague experiences.
Contribute to continuous improvement and service development, supporting the enhancement of Employee Relations processes, policies, guidance and ways of working to create a more efficient, consistent and customer-focused service.
Use ER data, case insights and management information to identify trends and opportunities, helping to drive organisational learning, improve manager capability and support evidence-based decision-making across the business.
Support colleagues within the wider People Services team, sharing knowledge and contributing to the development of a collaborative, high-performing team culture.
You'll Bring:
Significant Employee Relations experience within a large, complex organisation, with a proven track record of supporting managers across a wide range of employee relations matters and navigating complex organisational environments.
Strong and up-to-date knowledge of UK employment law and Employee Relations best practice, with the ability to interpret legislation, assess risk and provide practical, commercially focused advice that supports effective decision-making.
Proven experience independently managing complex and sensitive Employee Relations cases, including disciplinary, grievance, absence, capability, conduct and organisational change matters, ensuring fair, balanced and legally compliant outcomes.
Excellent coaching, listening and problem-solving skills, with the ability to build manager confidence, encourage ownership of people issues and support effective resolution of challenging situations.
The ability to influence, support and appropriately challenge managers at all levels, providing constructive guidance while balancing business requirements, colleague experience and organisational risk.
Strong stakeholder management and relationship-building skills, with the ability to establish credibility quickly, develop trusted partnerships and work effectively with managers, colleagues, employee representatives and People teams.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to explain complex people and employment law matters clearly, prepare high-quality case documentation and communicate confidently with a range of audiences.
A customer-focused and solutions-driven approach, committed to delivering a positive colleague and manager experience while ensuring consistent application of policy, process and employment legislation.
The ability to manage multiple priorities and competing demands in a fast-paced environment, maintaining high levels of accuracy, responsiveness and professionalism while handling a varied caseload.
Experience working collaboratively across multiple teams and functions, building effective working relationships to deliver joined-up people solutions, improve service delivery and achieve positive organisational outcomes.
A proactive and continuous improvement mindset, with the ability to identify trends, share best practice and contribute to improvements in Employee Relations processes, guidance and ways of working.
Qualifications
CIPD Level 5 qualification or working towards (or Equivalent relevant experience)
Anchor – a great place to work
Anchor is England’s largest not-for-profit providers of care and housing for older people. Our heartfelt ambition is to transform housing and care so everyone can have a home where they love living in later life.
We’re not-for-profit which means every penny we make or save is invested in the people who live with us, the places they live and the people who work here. That means a better standard of care and customer service, better wages, more investment in training and development and improved facilities.
Our values
Every one of us can make a difference to our residents and play a part in shaping homes and services around their needs.
Our Anchor values of being Accountable, Respectful, Courageous and Honest apply to us all, whether you manage colleagues as part of your role or not.
Displaying our values can influence those around us to do the same. We can all be leaders at Anchor and should all be driven by the same customer ethos. Our Anchor Leadership Framework helps align these values with the skills and behaviours we demonstrate.
A rewarding environment
From health and happiness to finance and your career, we’ll give you all the support you need.
Health & happiness
- Gym, fitness and wellbeing discounts
- Mental health support
- Flexible working options
- Access to online GP appointments
Finance
- Pension plan – contribute between 4% and 8% and we’ll match it or better
- Quick and easy pension transfer service
- Savings and financial advice, loans, free life assurance
- Discounts on shopping, holidays, phones, technology and more
- Free Blue Light Card
Career
- Ongoing personal and professional development programme
- Leadership Pathways online learning resources
- Career progression and promotion opportunities
To see our full range of benefits, check out our dedicated being well website Please follow the link or copy and paste https://anchorbeingwell.co.uk/ into your browser
Celebrating diversity, celebrating you
Anchor is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We aim to celebrate diversity and inclusion in all that we do, as we know that the more diverse our colleagues are, the better care and support we can give to our residents and each other.
We are proud to have an LGBT+ group for our residents, and also Disability, LGBT+ and race and ethnicity colleague networks. These work to celebrate diversity, address concerns, review policy and practice and empower their members. We also have an Inclusive Ambassador network to allow all colleagues to be part of promoting diversity and to be an ally to others.
We are a Gold Standard Inclusive Employer, a Stonewall Diversity Champion, Menopause Friendly and a signatory to the Care Leaver Covenant, HouseProud Pledge and Age Friendly Employer Pledge schemes.
