We are looking for an experienced, proactive and values-driven Employee Relations Manager to join Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust on a 6-month fixed term or secondment basis. This is a focused and high-impact role supporting the delivery of the Trust’s sickness absence recovery plan, helping managers and services to improve attendance, strengthen employee wellbeing, and support safe, sustainable workforce recovery.
The successful candidate will work closely with the Head of People Operations, Divisional People Leads, Operational Managers, Occupational Health, Wellbeing colleagues and staff side representatives to provide expert advice, targeted case support, data-led assurance and practical interventions that help reduce sickness absence and improve staff experience.
- The main focus of this role will be to support the Trust’s sickness absence recovery programme in the following ways:
- Lead targeted employee relations support for sickness absence cases, ensuring consistent application of Trust policy, employment legislation and best practice.
- Support managers to manage long-term and short-term sickness absence confidently, compassionately and in a timely way.
- Use workforce data to identify hotspots, trends, barriers and opportunities for improvement across divisions and services.
- Work with managers, Occupational Health and wellbeing colleagues to strengthen early intervention, return-to-work planning, reasonable adjustments and sustainable attendance.
- Provide coaching, advice and practical tools for managers, including case reviews, clinics and focused support sessions.
- Contribute to assurance reporting on progress against the sickness absence recovery plan, including risks, actions, themes and measurable improvement.
- Promote a restorative, inclusive and just culture approach to attendance management, balancing organisational needs with colleague wellbeing.
- Build effective working relationships with staff side representatives and key stakeholders to support fair, transparent and collaborative practice.
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Join 'Team Derbyshire Healthcare' and become part of a talented, compassionate and enthusiastic workforce committed to a vision of ‘making a positive difference in people's lives’.
CQC rated us as 'GOOD’ overall, commenting on how our colleagues “treated patients with compassion and kindness” and “felt positive and proud about working for the trust.”
Benefits include:
Commitment to flexible working where this is possible
27 days annual leave/year plus bank holidays, increasing to 29 days after 5 years & 33 days after 10 years’ service
Yearly appraisal and commitment to ongoing training
Generous NHS pension scheme
Good maternity, paternity and adoption benefits
Health service discounts and online benefits
Incremental pay progression
Free confidential employee assistance programme 24/7
Access to our LGBT+ network, BAME Network and Christian Network
Health and wellbeing opportunities
Structured learning and development opportunities
You will be an experienced HR or employee relations practitioner with strong knowledge of sickness absence management, employment legislation and NHS people practices. You will be confident advising managers on complex and sensitive cases, able to analyse data and translate insight into action, and skilled at building trusted relationships across a complex organisation.
You will bring excellent communication, influencing and organisational skills, together with the ability to work at pace, prioritise competing demands and maintain a compassionate, fair and outcome-focused approach. Experience of working in the NHS or a similarly complex, unionised environment would be highly beneficial.
For more information on the full duties of the role please refer to the attached job description and person specification.
