Employee Relations Manager

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

Salary: Starting from £60,000 (FTE) per annum. We offer a competitive salary package aligned with current market rates for this role. The final offer will reflect your skills, experience, and qualifications, alongside our commitment to internal equity.

Location: This is a hybrid role where you’ll be based from home with regular 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 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:

• You’ll oversee and manage the performance of a small team, making sure you deliver a brilliant service to our clients.
• As well as keeping your team engaged and meeting targets, you’ll provide expert advice and guidance to our internal team on a variety of complex employee relations activities.
• You will be the first point of contact for a small portfolio of accounts that require a focus on employee relations, which you’re responsible for growing and developing.
• Your work will include overseeing the work of your team, reviewing your team’s time, understanding the workload across your team, and ensuring compliance with account management and client care processes.
• Competently and efficiently investigating and/or advising on a range of high‑risk and complex employee relations cases.
• Leading and providing strategic guidance on business change processes, including redundancy, restructuring and TUPE.
• Quality reviewing a range of documentation of mixed complexity, drafted by your team and other internal services teams.
• Handling any client complaints or queries relating to your team’s client projects and/or portfolios.

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 roles such as: HR/People Business Partner, Employee Relations Manager/Specialist/Business Partner.
• Significant experience leading various business change programmes, including redundancy, restructuring, and TUPE.
• Experience of undertaking complex employee relations investigations.
• A keen eye for detail and accuracy, with the ability to spot and correct errors in own and others’ work.
• Highly organised with the ability to help team members prioritise a busy workload.
• Effective communication and influencing skills at a senior level.
• Ability to think independently and apply employment law to a variety of situations.
• Excellent communication skills in written and spoken English.
• Strong consulting, communication, and influencing skills.
• A commercial approach, enjoying working in a target‑driven environment.
• CIPD Level 7 or equivalent employment law qualification (or qualified by experience at that level) is essential.

The Perks: We might be biased, but we think this role is exciting, purposeful, and full of opportunity. Here’s what you can look forward to when you join us:

• Competitive salary (starting from £60,000 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 opportunities to grow
• Monthly homeworking allowance and all equipment provided
• Flexible working patterns for a healthy work‑life balance
• Pension scheme options and employer pension 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
• Enhanced family leave and twice‑yearly all‑staff get‑togethers

How to apply: If this sounds like your kind of role, APPLY NOW — we can’t wait to hear from you. Our application process helps you get to know us just as much as it helps us get to know you.