Employee Relations and Advisory Team Lead

Your new company
Hays is delighted to be supporting a nationally recognised arts, heritage and cultural organisation in the recruitment of an Employee Relations & Advisory Team Lead. This is an exciting opportunity to join a purpose-led organisation with a strong commitment to inclusion, collaboration and delivering an exceptional employee experience.Operating across multiple UK locations, the organisation is investing in its people function and has created this new leadership role to establish and develop a dedicated Employee Relations and Advisory Centre of Expertise. As such, this position offers the opportunity to shape services, influence strategy and make a lasting impact across a complex and diverse workforce.

Your new role
Reporting to the Head of People, you will lead a team of Employee Relations Advisors and People Advisors, providing both strategic and operational leadership across employee relations and people advisory services.This newly created role will be responsible for embedding a high-quality Employee Relations and Advisory function, ensuring the delivery of consistent, commercially focused and legally compliant HR support across the organisation.
Key responsibilities will include:

• Leading, coaching and developing a high-performing Employee Relations and Advisory team.
• Acting as the senior escalation point for complex and high-risk employee relations matters.
• Establishing and embedding employee relations governance, frameworks, policies and procedures.
• Supporting organisational change programmes, restructures, consultations and senior-level casework.
• Building strong partnerships with senior stakeholders, people leaders and recognised trade unions.
• Overseeing employee relations reporting, identifying trends and using data to support decision-making.
• Managing external employment law and occupational health providers.
• Driving continuous improvement initiatives to enhance manager capability and employee experience.
• Championing inclusive, fair and transparent people practices across the organisation.

This role offers a blend of strategic leadership and hands-on operational involvement, making it ideal for an experienced employee relations professional looking to lead a function while remaining close to the delivery of high-quality people services.

What you'll need to succeed
To be successful, you will have significant experience operating at a senior HR or Employee Relations level within a complex, multi-site environment.
You will also bring:

• Extensive knowledge of UK employment law and employee relations best practice.
• Proven experience leading employee relations teams and developing high-performing colleagues.
• Strong experience managing complex and sensitive employee relations cases.
• Experience supporting organisational change, restructures, consultations and redundancy programmes.
• Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the credibility to partner senior leaders.
• Experience developing HR policies, governance frameworks and people processes.
• Strong analytical and reporting capability with a data-driven approach.
• A pragmatic, solutions-focused mindset with strong professional judgement.
• Outstanding communication and relationship-building skills.

Experience within a unionised environment and/or the public, charity, cultural, education or not-for-profit sectors would be advantageous.

What you'll get in return

• Salary of £60,000 - £70,000 per annum
• Hybrid working environment
• 35-hour working week
• Opportunity to build and lead a newly established Employee Relations & Advisory function
• Exposure to strategic people projects and organisational change initiatives
• A supportive and values-driven culture
• Excellent opportunities for professional growth and development
• The chance to make a meaningful impact within a nationally respected organisation

What you need to do now
If you're an experienced Employee Relations leader looking for a role where you can shape strategy, influence senior stakeholders and drive positive change across a complex organisation, we'd love to hear from you.
Apply today or contact Matthew Sharman at Hays for a confidential discussion and further information.

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