Employee Relations Advisor

Our client, a leading civil engineering and construction business, is looking for an experienced Employee Relations Advisor to join a major UK infrastructure project.

Location: based in Somerset - on site working.

What's on Offer

• Competitive salary
• Flexible working arrangements
• Family-friendly policies
• Company car, car allowance or travel allowance
• 8% matched pension contributions
• Private healthcare
• Life assurance
• 26 days' holiday
• 2 wellbeing days
• 1 volunteering day
• Personal and professional development

The Role

You'll provide a high-quality, consistent and professional ER advisory service to managers. You'll play a key part in supporting the people agenda by helping managers act confidently, compliantly and in line with the organisation's values and expected behaviours. You'll need experience in an HR advisory environment, working across the wider People and operational teams, following set ways of working and keeping service standards high. You'll work in a complex joint venture project environment. You'll support consistent ER practice while taking account of the governance, stakeholder and operational needs of a large-scale infrastructure programme. You'll work closely with partner organisations, project leadership, operational teams and client-facing stakeholders to support fair, timely and proportionate people decisions. You'll also own the central ER case management system, making sure all case activity, advice and outcomes are recorded accurately. You'll support project-specific reporting and employment governance, including workforce updates, forecast reports and employment information required under site collective agreements. Good data management will support useful insights, trend analysis and well-informed decisions.

Key Responsibilities

• Give expert employee relations advice, coaching and end-to-end case management support to managers on a broad range of ER matters, including disciplinary, grievance, absence, performance, probation, redundancy, TUPE and compliance investigations.
• Make sure all advice is legally compliant, in line with organisational and project-specific policies, and supports good risk management and decision making.
• Manage cases fairly and consistently, in line with best practice and project behavioural standards.
• Advise on site-specific conduct and compliance issues, such as Code of Conduct breaches, behavioural incidents, site access restrictions, confidentiality, data protection, social media misuse and safety-related concerns.
• Help managers understand the employment impact of client or project restrictions and operational requirements.
• Escalate complex or high-risk matters to the HR Business Partner as needed, and work closely with Compliance on serious conduct concerns.
• Build strong relationships with key stakeholders, including managers, HR colleagues, Trade Union representatives, Occupational Health and legal advisors.
• Support positive engagement with Trade Union and employee representatives during ER casework, consultation and workforce change programmes, handling these with professionalism, consistency and awareness of the wider industrial relations environment.
• Support all parties in a case fairly, promoting employee wellbeing while keeping to organisational values and behavioural expectations.
• Act as the main owner and administrator of the ER recording system, making sure advice, case notes, decisions and outcomes are recorded accurately and on time.
• Keep data quality high to support reliable reporting, governance and business insight.
• Analyse ER data to spot trends, recurring issues and chances for early intervention and manager support.
• Provide a responsive, manager-focused advisory service suited to a multi-site operational and construction environment.
• Give practical guidance to operational leaders that takes account of workforce planning, site logistics, shift patterns, mobilisation, redeployment and operational pressures.
• Promote consistent service and standardised processes, and encourage good collaboration between ER, HR Business Partners, People Services, Centres of Excellence and Compliance teams.
• Coach managers to deal with issues early, including attendance, conduct, performance, behaviour, conflict and wellbeing, so fewer cases need to go to formal procedures.
• Support continuous improvement of ER processes, governance and service delivery to improve quality, consistency and efficiency.
• Build good working relationships across HR, Operations, People Services and the wider business.
• Help develop the advisory model by supporting workflow design, governance arrangements and escalation processes.
• Support audit activity and make sure employment policies, procedures and governance requirements are followed.
• Spot and escalate emerging ER trends or workforce risks that could affect industrial relations, operational delivery or reputation.
• Make sure all data is managed in line with GDPR and governance standards.

What You'll Bring

• Essential Experience in employee relations case management in complex environments
• Strong knowledge of UK employment law and ER best practice
• A track record of managing complex ER cases from start to finish, including disciplinary, grievance and investigation processes
• Confidence to coach, influence and constructively challenge managers at all levels
• Experience keeping accurate ER records and using HR/ER systems
• Ability to handle a high volume of ER work in a fast-moving, multi-site operational environment with changing priorities
• A high level of professionalism, integrity and confidentiality

• Desirable CIPD Level 5 (or equivalent experience)
• Experience of high-volume ER in construction, infrastructure or a similar fast-paced industry
• Strong analytical skills and confidence producing HR data and insights
• Experience in environments governed by collective agreements, national working rule agreements or site-specific employment agreements
• Mediation experience