Are you an experienced HR professional who is passionate about supporting people, developing teams and making a positive difference across healthcare services?
We are looking for an HR Manager to join our Employee Relations team and play a key role in delivering an outstanding people service across Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust. This is an exciting opportunity to lead a team of HR Advisors and HR Officers, providing expert employee relations advice while helping managers create positive, inclusive and high-performing workplaces.
You'll be a trusted partner to leaders across the organisation, supporting complex employee relations matters, driving service improvements and helping us achieve our workforce ambitions. Alongside managing your own casework, you will coach and develop others, ensuring our advice is consistent, compassionate and legally compliant.
If you have strong employee relations expertise, excellent communication skills and a commitment to delivering high-quality people services, we'd love to hear from you. In return, you'll join a supportive and forward-thinking workforce team where your expertise will help shape the experience of colleagues delivering excellent care at the heart of the community.
As HR Manager, you will provide day-to-day leadership to our Employee Relations team, ensuring managers and staff receive professional, responsive and solutions-focused HR support. You'll oversee team caseloads, provide coaching and guidance, and act as an escalation point for complex and sensitive employee relations matters.
You will manage a portfolio of complex cases across areas such as attendance management, capability, disciplinary, grievance and organisational change, ensuring fair and consistent outcomes that reflect employment legislation, NHS terms and conditions and Trust policies.
We're looking for someone with significant experience in employee relations, strong leadership skills and the ability to build effective relationships with a wide range of stakeholders. You'll be confident influencing decision-making, analysing workforce information, identifying risk and supporting managers to develop their people management capability.
Most importantly, you'll share our commitment to compassionate leadership, inclusion and continuous improvement, helping us deliver a high-quality workforce service that supports colleagues to provide excellent care for our communities.
We are the main provider of NHS community services across East and West Sussex, with 6,000 staff serving 1.3 million people. We deliver essential care to adults and children, helping them manage their health, avoid hospital admissions, and reduce hospital stays.
Our Trust vision is to provide excellent care at the heart of the community. We offer opportunities across medical, clinical, support, and corporate services.
Why work for us?
Positive 2024 NHS Staff Survey results, highlighting compassionate leadership and wellbeing
Varied environments: community hospitals, patients’ homes, and bases across Sussex
Flexible working options: part-time, flexi-time, annualised hours, and flexi-retirement
Excellent training, development, and research opportunities
Accredited Living Wage Employer, we ensure fair pay for all our staff
Cost-effective workplace nurseries in Crawley, Hove, and Brighton
Active EMBRACE, Disability & Wellbeing, LGBTQIA+, and Religion & Belief networks
Level 3 Disability Confident Leader and Veteran Aware Trust
Our values - Compassionate Care, Working Together, Achieving Ambitions, Delivering Excellence - guide everything we do.
We embrace diversity and encourage applications from all backgrounds, particularly from ethnically diverse, disabled, and LGBTQIA+ individuals. We aim to create an inclusive environment and support reasonable adjustments during recruitment.
This post may close early if sufficient applications are received.
The HR Manager is responsible for the operational management of the Employee Relations Advisory team, ensuring the delivery of a professional, customer-focused and high-quality employee relations service across the Trust.
Reporting to the Operational Manager for HR, the postholder will provide day-to-day leadership, supervision and development of HR Advisors and HR Officers, supporting a culture of learning, continuous improvement and service excellence. They will allocate and monitor workloads, oversee case management standards and ensure consistent, legally compliant advice is delivered across the organisation.
The postholder will personally manage a portfolio of complex and sensitive employee relations cases, providing specialist guidance on disciplinary, grievance, capability, attendance management, organisational change and performance management matters. They will act as an experienced practitioner and escalation point, supporting managers to achieve fair, proportionate and timely resolutions.
Working closely with HR Business Partners, Workforce colleagues, Trade Union representatives and operational leaders, the HR Manager will build strong professional relationships and provide expert advice that supports positive employee experiences and organisational objectives.
Key responsibilities include:
Leading, coaching and developing members of the Employee Relations team.
Managing complex employee relations casework and undertaking investigations where required.
Supporting formal hearings and appeals as HR advisor or panel member.
Monitoring team performance, case management activity and service standards.
Using workforce information and management data to identify trends, risks and opportunities for improvement.
Supporting organisational change programmes and workforce transformation initiatives.
Delivering training, coaching and management development activities to improve people management capability across the Trust.
Supporting the implementation, review and development of workforce policies and procedures.
Contributing to workforce governance, audit and compliance activity.
Supporting Employment Tribunal preparation through the collation of documentation, evidence and case records.
Providing advice on NHS terms and conditions, job evaluation and organisational design matters.
Identifying and escalating workforce risks and contributing to service improvement plans.
The postholder will act as a role model for the Trust's values, promoting equality, diversity and inclusion, compassionate leadership and a culture where colleagues feel valued, supported and empowered to deliver excellent care at the heart of the community.
