ER Advisor in Coventry

Department: HR - Employee Relations & Case Management

Reports to: ER & Cases Manager

Salary: Up to £41,814

Length of Contract: 12 month FTC

Location: Hybrid working, twice per week on site. The rest working from home. With regional travel.

About the Role

Employee Relations (ER) Advisor

Department: HR - Employee Relations & Case Management

Reports to: ER & Cases Manager

Salary: Up to £41,814

Length of Contract: 12 month FTC

Location: Hybrid working, twice per week on site. The rest working from home. With regional travel.

About the Role

We are recruiting on behalf of a leading UK utilities business for an experienced Employee Relations Advisor to join their Employee Relations & Case Management team. This is a critical, first point of contact role providing timely, expert ER advice to managers and stakeholders across the organisation's Gas Distribution operations in the UK.

You will support the business in navigating complex and sensitive employee relations matters, ensuring investigations are conducted robustly and cases progress through to resolution in a fair and timely manner.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide coordinated and comprehensive ER support to the ER & Cases Manager on a range of detailed, complex and confidential employee relations issues
• Advise managers on policy relating to disciplinary matters, the Code of Employee Conduct, grievances, performance improvement, ill health/disability, drugs and alcohol, and sickness absence
• Ensure robust investigations are completed in relation to potential cases of gross misconduct, with cases progressed to hearing in a timely manner
• Prepare papers, reports and presentation materials as directed by the ER & Cases Manager
• Support dedicated ER-related projects in line with the wider ER strategy
• Maintain and update ER records, files and minutes, ensuring accurate storage in shared systems
• Own the coordination of meetings, including agendas, materials, scheduling and follow-up on actions
• Track progress against the ER plan and provide regular updates to stakeholders
• Monitor and analyse ER data and trends, extracting and interpreting management information from relevant systems
• Support the development of ER policies as directed
• Liaise with internal and external contacts, providing advice and guidance on ER-related queries
• Promote a positive safety culture through consistent, proactive and influential behaviours, and report incidents, near misses and hazards as appropriate
• Experience operating as an advisor in dispute-related activity, or within an HR operational role
• Strong working knowledge of HR policies and procedures relating to disciplinary matters, employee conduct, sickness absence, performance improvement and grievance/DBH processes
• Confidence providing detailed, timely policy advice to stakeholders at all levels
• Sound knowledge of employment legislation and its practical application to case management
• Broad understanding of external good practice (e.g. ACAS guidance)
• Experience in interview question design/technique and report writing
• A confident relationship builder with strong stakeholder management skills, able to influence colleagues to prioritise timely completion of case management processes
• Experience applying learnings from previous cases to ensure consistency and fairness in future decisions
• Confident and articulate, able to manage difficult conversations assertively and appropriately
• Highly organised, proactive and detail-oriented, with the ability to manage a varied workload and multiple priorities
• A clear, confident communicator (written and verbal) with commercial acumen
• Competent user of MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook

About You

Qualifications

Essential: CIPD qualified

Desirable: Degree level or equivalent in Business, HR, or a related professional/Learning & Development field. Employment law specialism (e.g. CIPD Advanced Certificate in Employment Law) would be advantageous.

Key Relationships

This role interfaces regularly with the Head of ER & Cases Manager, the wider ER & Case Management team, leaders and first-line managers across the business, trade union representatives (internal and external), Legal, the Health & Wellbeing team and outsourced medical advisors, HR Business Partners, other HR functions (including the Resourcing/leavers team), the Pensions team, and employees at all levels impacted by ER processes.

For further information, please reach out to Imogen Parr: imogen.parr@morson-edge.com