Employee Relations Manager in Devon

Job Type: Full-time (minimum 30 hours per week)

Salary: £65,000 (FTE) per annum

Location: This is a hybrid role where you’ll be based from home with some travel for meetings. Candidates must be based in the South East or South West of England.

About us: We’re a full-service HR consultancy that partners with clients to help their people and businesses thrive. Sometimes we act as their in‑house HR team, sometimes as an extension of their existing people team — but always as a trusted partner that genuinely cares. We believe people are the foundation of every business’s success. Our job is to help clients create workplaces where everyone can do their best work.

The role: As Employee Relations Manager, you’ll be accountable for the work of a small team, focusing on the quality, performance, and reputation of Fitzgerald’s Employee Relations service. This is a hands‑on role, balancing line management of a small team with complex casework. You’ll work closely with the Head of Employee Relations and our People Partnering teams, ensuring ER is integrated, consistent and impactful across everything we deliver.

What you’ll be doing:

• Overseeing and managing the performance of a small team, ensuring a brilliant service for our clients.
• Providing expert advice and guidance to our internal team on a variety of complex employee relations activities.
• Managing standalone projects (complex investigations, business change exercises, policy and contract development, etc.) and serving as the first point of contact for a small portfolio of accounts that require a focus on employee relations.
• Reviewing your team’s time, approving it, ensuring accurate recording, and monitoring time against estimates and proposals.
• Balancing workload to meet billing targets while supporting Head of Employee Relations and other teams.
• Ensuring compliance with account management and client care processes, building strong client relationships.
• Investigating and advising on high‑risk and complex employee relations cases (grievance, disciplinary, whistleblowing, bullying, harassment) and delivering outcomes.
• Leading strategic guidance on business change processes (redundancy, restructuring, TUPE) to manage risk and ensure commercial yet compliant routes.
• Quality reviewing documentation of varying complexity drafted by your team or other services.
• Producing monthly time breakdowns for clients and liaising with Associates as needed.
• Handling client complaints or queries regarding your team’s projects and reporting to the Head of ER when required.

About you: You’re an experienced Employee Relations professional with deep technical expertise, strong people management skills, and a genuinely human approach. You'll bring:

• Recent experience in HR/People Business Partner, Employee Relations Manager/Specialist/Business Partner roles.
• Significant experience leading business change programmes, including redundancy, restructuring and TUPE.
• Experience supporting and advising managers on high‑risk and complex ER casework and providing strategic advice on business change processes.
• Experience undertaking complex employee relations investigations.
• A keen eye for detail and accuracy, spotting and correcting errors with high quality expectations.
• Experience reviewing and providing feedback on colleagues' work, ensuring quality and accuracy.
• Highly organised, able to help team members prioritise a busy workload and manage varied tasks.
• Effective communication and influencing skills at a senior level, framing communication to elicit response without direct authority.
• Independent thinking, applying employment law to straightforward and complex situations in a fast‑paced commercial environment.
• Risk identification, creative problem‑solving, and rational decision‑making.
• Excellent written and spoken English, with experience drafting detailed reports and outcome letters.
• Strong consulting, communication and influencing skills, confident in managing key stakeholders.
• A commercial approach, thriving in a target‑driven environment.
• Some experience of management.
• Ability to accept and provide feedback, stay challenged on advice, and work well under pressure.
• CIPD Level 7 or equivalent employment law qualification (or qualified by experience at that level) is essential.
• Experience in consultancy or professional services is desirable.

You must be based in the South East or South West of England. You’ll also need a UK driving licence and be willing to travel as required.

The Perks: We offer:

• Competitive salary £65,000 per annum FTE.
• 25 days’ annual leave to start, rising to 27 after one year and 29 after two years, plus bank holidays.
• Career qualifications supported and paid for, with real growth opportunities.
• Monthly homeworking allowance and all equipment provided.
• Flexible working patterns for a healthy work‑life balance.
• Pension scheme options (including salary sacrifice) and 4% employer pension contributions, with a minimum of 4% employee contributions.
• Life assurance at four times basic salary.
• Shopping discounts platform, flu vaccinations, and technology and cycle‑to‑work schemes.
• Medicash health cash plan and wellbeing benefits (including EAP).
• Enhanced family leave and twice‑yearly all‑staff get‑togethers.
• A growing, progressive business with people at its heart.

We’re committed to building a diverse and inclusive team and actively encourage applications from people of all backgrounds.