Employee Relations Manager in Banbury

Due to continued growth, we're looking for an experienced Employee Relations Manager to join our HR team. At Katie Loxton and Joma Jewellery, our people are at the heart of everything we do. We're passionate about creating an environment where people feel supported, valued and empowered to do their best work, and our HR plays a vital role in making that happen every day. This is a hands‑on operational leadership role, ideal for someone who enjoys developing people, navigating complex employee relations matters and delivering an exceptional HR service.

Reporting to the Senior HR Manager, you'll lead the day‑to‑day delivery of employee relations, people operations and payroll governance, ensuring managers and employees receive a high‑quality, consistent and commercially focused service. You'll lead a multi‑skilled team supporting HR, Talent and Payroll activities, balancing workloads, maintaining service standards and ensuring work is delivered accurately, professionally and within agreed timeframes. You'll also use data and insight to identify trends and opportunities for improvement, working closely with the Senior HR Manager and Recruitment & Engagement team to enhance employee experience, strengthen service delivery and improve operational efficiency.

Most importantly, you'll be joining a genuinely wonderful team. We're proud of the culture we've built within our HR team – one that is collaborative, kind, ethical, professional and deeply committed to our values. We're looking for someone who shares those qualities and is passionate about creating a positive team environment where people can thrive. You'll be able to work from home 1‑2 days per week.

HOW YOU'LL CONTRIBUTE

• Team Leadership & Service Delivery: Lead, coach and develop a team of HR Advisors and Coordinators, creating a positive, high‑performing and supportive team environment. Manage team capacity, priorities and workloads across HR, Talent Administration and Payroll activities, ensuring resources are deployed effectively to meet changing business needs. Ensure work is delivered accurately, professionally and within agreed service levels, maintaining high standards of quality and customer service. Develop team capability through coaching, feedback and ongoing development, encouraging accountability, collaboration and continuous improvement. Oversee the quality of employee communications, ensuring letters, emails and formal correspondence are accurate, compliant, professionally written and aligned to company standards.
• Employee Relations Leadership: Maintain oversight of the employee relations caseload, ensuring matters are managed fairly, consistently and in line with employment legislation and company policy. Coach and support the team through disciplinary, grievance, absence management, performance management, probation and flexible working processes. Personally manage complex, sensitive or high‑risk employee relations matters, including appeals where required. Provide practical, commercially balanced advice and guidance to managers and stakeholders. Identify emerging employee relations trends, risks and opportunities and recommend appropriate actions.
• Operations, Compliance & Payroll Governance: Maintain oversight of key people processes across the employee lifecycle, ensuring consistency, compliance and operational excellence. Partner with the Senior HR Manager and Recruitment & Engagement team to review policies, improve processes and implement best practice. Ensure policies, procedures, guidance documents and SOPs remain accurate, compliant and up to date. Oversee payroll governance activities, completing payroll reviews and acting as an escalation point for payroll‑related issues and risks.
• Reporting, Analytics & Continuous Improvement: Produce and analyse HR reports, dashboards and management information relating to employee relations, absence, retention, turnover and service delivery. Monitor team workload, case volumes and operational performance, providing insight and recommendations to support decision‑making. Use data to identify trends, training needs and opportunities to improve manager capability, employee experience and team efficiency. Identify and propose changes to processes, policies, providers and systems as required, presenting ideas to senior leadership for sign off. Work closely with the Senior HR Manager and Recruitment & Engagement team to implement agreed improvement initiatives and HR priorities.

THE TALENT YOU'LL BRING

• CIPD Level 5 qualified (or equivalent experience) with strong, up‑to‑date knowledge of UK employment law and employee relations best practice.
• Proven experience leading, coaching and developing people in a generalist HR remit creating a positive, high‑performing team culture.
• An excellent communicator with high attention to detail, integrity and professionalism, who collaborates effectively and is committed to doing the right thing for people and the business.
• Strong stakeholder management skills with the ability to build trusted relationships and influence at all levels.
• Solutions focused mindset with sound judgement and a pragmatic approach.
• Experience using people data, metrics and reporting to identify trends, inform decisions and drive business performance.
• Strong analytical capability, including advanced Excel skills and confidence working with HR systems and data.
• Experience supporting and governing payroll and benefits processes, ensuring accuracy, compliance and efficiency.
• Highly organised with excellent planning and prioritisation skills, able to manage multiple projects and competing deadlines in a fast‑paced environment.
• Passionate about employee experience and being a driving force in continuous improvement within an HR department.

PERFECTLY PACKAGED

A competitive salary, DOE. 33 days holiday including bank holidays rising to 35 with length of service. International benefits package including our staff favourite – a very generous staff discount across both our brands. Opportunities to make an impact as well as learn and develop further. An innovative and friendly workplace with a team we’re proud to be part of.

Joma Jewellery was founded in 2008 by Katie and Geoff Loxton, since then we have gone from strength to strength, launching Katie Loxton in 2015 and growing our business beyond the UK. We know that part of that growth comes from the fact that we take diversity and inclusion very seriously. We strive to be the best in our field, and we know that happens by hiring a diverse team and encouraging everyone to be their authentic selves when working with us. We don’t hire based on cultures, preferences, or personalities – it’s what you bring to the team that counts. We are always striving to improve our way of working to be more inclusive, diverse and equal, including encouraging all team members to bring their ideas to the table as we know this is key to our continued success.