Senior ER Hearing Manager in Swindon

Shape fair outcomes. Influence culture. Make a real impact. This is an exciting opportunity to join our People & Culture team in a new pilot role as a Senior Employee Relations Hearing Manager. You’ll act as a trusted, independent decision-maker on the organisation’s most complex and sensitive cases.

Why this role stands out:

• Operate as a final decision authority on complex, high-risk cases
• Influence senior stakeholders and organisational outcomes
• Shape fair outcomes and protect our culture.

We are happy to consider flexible working approaches to help you perform at your best. The working hours (per week) for this role can be between 28 and 35 hours. This is a 9-month secondment opportunity. At Nationwide we offer hybrid working wherever possible. More rewarding relationships are supported through our hybrid approach, bringing colleagues together across our UK wide estate, whilst also supporting generous access to home working. We value our time in the office to solve problems, to learn, and to feel connected. For this job you'll be located at our nearest regional office or hub. There will be a need to regularly connect with colleagues for collaboration and in some locations you’ll be expected to spend at least two days a week (or 40% of your time if you’re part time) in the office. The nature of the role means you’ll also need to be prepared to travel anywhere in the UK on a regular basis, including some overnight stays.

If your application is successful, your hiring manager will provide further details on how this works. Nationwide is committed to the redeployment of our employees impacted by change, as such applications for redeployment candidates will be prioritised in this recruitment process where the minimum requirements for the role are met. If you’re a colleague on long-term absence (for example, on parental leave) or a temporary worker, please use your personal email address to submit an application.

Responsibilities

What you’ll be doing: You’ll be an independent decision maker, chairing formal hearings and appeals in some of the most complex cases from across the organisation. The decisions you reach will align with UK employment law, the ACAS Code and our own policies, and will balance procedural fairness, proportionality and commercial considerations. You will communicate clear, evidence-based decisions and make recommendations that influence organisational outcomes. Working with senior stakeholders across the business, you’ll play a key role in managing legal and reputational risk and have a tangible impact on our culture. As part of a small team of hearing managers, you’ll shape the future of hearing and decision-making standards, identifying trends and opportunities to strengthen consistency and capability across the organisation. This is a highly visible role with significant impact on colleague experience, organisational culture and risk management, requiring strong judgement, commerciality, independence and credibility at senior levels. The role may also involve you representing Nationwide Building Society, and your decision making, at external legal proceedings. Because this role supports cases across the UK, regular travel will be required, and you should be comfortable working flexibly across locations to meet business needs.

About you

As a minimum, you will:

• Have significant experience chairing complex employee relations hearings and appeals, conducting sensitive investigations or leading complex ER case work
• Have extensive leadership experience or strong employee relations experience, with the credibility to guide, challenge and influence stakeholders in complex situations
• Demonstrate in-depth knowledge of UK employment law and the ACAS Code as it relates to dealing with conduct and capability cases, with the ability to apply this practically
• Demonstrate strong independent judgement by evaluating complex or conflicting evidence and balancing empathy with objectivity to make clear, fair, balanced, evidenced-based and defensible decisions, particularly in sensitive or ambiguous situations
• Have experience working in a regulated environment, with a strong understanding of risk, governance and control frameworks and the commercial awareness to balance employee relations, risk and business outcomes
• Be an excellent communicator with strong influencing and stakeholder management skills, including at senior levels and with experience of facilitating meetings
• Have experience of producing high-quality written outputs suitable for external scrutiny
• Have a strong understanding of behavioural and cultural expectations, and promote inclusion, dignity and respect in all decision-making
• Be highly organised, with the ability to manage multiple complex cases and competing priorities
• Demonstrate resilience, integrity and professionalism in high-pressure or high-risk situations

Our customer first behaviours put customers and members at the heart of how we work together. They are the set of behaviours that every colleague needs to display, in every role:

• Feel what customers feel - We step into our customers’ shoes, using their feedback and insights to empathise with them and to understand their needs, so that every decision we make starts and finishes with our customers in mind
• Say it straight - We are brave in speaking out and saying what we think – we’re honest and direct with good intent, openly sharing diverse perspectives to reach the best conclusions and using language everyone can understand
• Push for better - We don’t settle for mediocrity, we challenge the status quo, taking responsibility for continuous improvement and personal development
• Get it done - We prioritise what will have the greatest impact, we are decisive, and we take accountability for delivering brilliant customer outcomes

You can strengthen your application by showing how our customer first behaviours resonate with you, and where you may have already demonstrated these.

Qualifications

The extras you’ll get: There are all sorts of employee benefits available at Nationwide, including:

• 25 days holiday, pro rata
• Access to private medical insurance
• A highly competitive pension to help you build a strong foundation for retirement
• Access to an annual performance-related bonus
• Training and development to help you progress your career
• A great selection of additional benefits through our salary sacrifice scheme
• Life assurance to provide peace of mind for you and your loved ones in the event of your death
• Wellhub – access to a range of free and paid options for health and wellness
• Up to 2 days of paid volunteering a year

Banking – but fairer, more rewarding, and for the good of society. We forge our own path at Nationwide. As a mutual, we’re owned by our members - those customers who bank, save or have a mortgage with us. We challenge the financial sector status quo. We don’t see customers as the engine of our own profit. We share our profits with them and put their needs first. Always there when they need us. Supporting them and their lives. If you’re inspired by fairer finances, passionate about making a meaningful impact, and truly care about our customers, you’re one of us. At Nationwide, you are challenged to grow and rewarded for doing so. Valued. Recognised. Inspired to be your best. As a community, we want our working lives to count. As a team, we celebrate what we achieve. As a standard-setter, we work for the good of customers, communities, and broader society. We are purpose-driven. Uncompromisingly customer. Unstoppably Nationwide.

What to do next: If this role is for you, please click the ‘Apply Now’ button. You’ll need to attach your up-to-date CV and answer a few quick questions for us. We respond to everyone, so we will be in contact shortly after the closing date to let you know the outcome of your application.