Employee Relations Advisor in Plymouth

Building a sustainable tomorrow

Kier BAM are a Joint Venture (JV) partnership between Kier and BAM UK & Ireland; we are currently delivering the redevelopment project at a Royal Navy site located in Plymouth and we are seeking an experienced Employee Relations Advisor.

This role provides an advisory service, delivering high quality, consistent, and professional HR guidance and advice to managers.

The ER Advisor will play a key role in supporting the people agenda by helping managers operate confidently, compliantly, and in alignment with BAM’s, the joint venture and project values and behaviour standards.

The postholder will be able to demonstrate being able to operate in a HR advisory environment to support interactions, collaborations and handover points with other parts of the wider People and operational team, defined ways of working, and consistently high service standards.

The role will operate within a complex joint venture project environment, supporting consistent ER practice while recognising the governance, stakeholder and operational requirements of a major infrastructure project.

The postholder will need to work effectively with JV partners, project leadership, operational teams and relevant client-facing stakeholders to support fair, timely and proportionate people decisions.

The role also serves as custodian of the BAM central case tool, ensuring all case activity, advice, and outcomes are recorded accurately.

The postholder will also support JV and Devonport -specific reporting and employment governance requirements, including workforce updates, forecast reports and employment-related information required under the site collective agreements.

Strong data stewardship will enable meaningful insights, trend analysis, and informed decision making.

• Making Possible
• Provide expert employee relations advice, coaching and end-to-end case management support to managers across a broad range of ER matters, including disciplinary, grievance, absence, performance, probation, redundancy, TUPE and compliance investigations.

Ensure all advice is legally compliant, aligned with BAM, Joint Venture and project-specific policies, and supports effective risk management and decision making.

• Manage cases fairly, consistently and in line with best practice, BAM values and project behavioural standards.

Provide guidance 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.

• Support managers in understanding the employment implications of client or project restrictions and operational requirements.

Escalate complex or high-risk matters to the HR Business Partner as appropriate 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 activities and workforce change programmes.

Ensure all interactions are conducted with professionalism, consistency and sensitivity to the wider industrial relations environment.

• Provide balanced support to all parties involved in case management, promoting employee wellbeing while maintaining compliance with organisational values and behavioural expectations.

Demonstrate BAM’s values in all communications, actions and decisions.

• Act as the primary owner and administrator of the BAM ER recording system, ensuring accurate and timely recording of advice provided, case notes, decisions and outcomes.
• Maintain high standards of data quality to support reliable reporting, governance and business insight.

Analyse ER data to identify trends, recurring issues and opportunities for proactive intervention and manager support.

• Deliver a responsive, manager-focused advisory service that meets the demands of a multisite operational and construction environment.

Provide practical employee relations guidance to operational leaders, taking account of workforce planning, site logistics, shift patterns, mobilisation, redeployment and operational pressures.

• Promote consistency of service, support the implementation of standardised processes and encourage effective collaboration between ER, HR Business Partners, People Services, Centres of Excellence and Compliance teams.

Coach managers to address issues early, including attendance, conduct, performance, behavioural concerns, conflict and wellbeing matters, reducing unnecessary escalation to formal procedures.

• Support the continuous improvement of employee relations processes, governance and service delivery standards to enhance quality, consistency and efficiency.
• Develop productive relationships across HR, Operations, People Services and wider business functions.

Contribute to the development of the advisory model by supporting workflow design, governance arrangements and escalation processes.

Work collaboratively across Joint Venture and project teams to ensure consistent people practices, clear accountabilities and effective case management handovers.

• Support audit activity and ensure adherence to employment policies, procedures and governance requirements.

Identify and escalate emerging ER trends or workforce risks that may impact industrial relations, operational delivery or organisational reputation.

Ensure all data is managed in accordance with GDPR and BAM governance standards.

What do you bring to the role?

Essential

• Experience in employee relations case management within complex environments.
• Strong knowledge of UK employment law and employee relations best practice.
• Proven experience managing end to end complex ER cases, including disciplinary, grievance and investigation processes through to conclusion.
• Confidence in coaching, influencing and constructively challenging managers at all levels.
• Experience maintaining accurate ER records and using HR/ER systems.
• Ability to manage high volume ER activity and work in a in a dynamic, multisite operational environment with changing priorities.
• High levels of professionalism, integrity, and confidentiality.

Desirable

• CIPD Level 5 (or equivalent experience).
• Experience working within volume ER and similar fast-paced industries.
• Strong analytical capability with confidence in producing HR data and insights.
• Experience working in environments governed by collective agreements, national working rule agreements or site-specific employment agreements.
• Mediation experience

What’s in it for you?

• Competitive salary
• A wide range of family-friendly policies
• Company car/car allowance/travel allowance
• 8 % matched pension contributions
• Private healthcare
• Life assurance
• 26 days holiday
• 2 wellbeing days
• 1 volunteering day
• Personal and professional development
• About BAM

Building a sustainable tomorrow.

That’s our mission and our promise at BAM.

It’s how we engineer vital infrastructure and construct high-quality buildings as one of the largest construction companies in Europe.

We strive to create an environment where everybody feels welcome and valued.

We’re on an exciting journey to employ the best talent to join us regardless of social background, race, colour, religion, national or ethnic origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, disability or other characteristics.

The application process

For more information about the vacancy and our projects, please contact Zainab Rubbani, Recruiter, BAM UK & Ireland (Infrastructure), Email:

BAM is committed to ensuring a fully inclusive recruitment and onboarding process, so if at anytime you feel you may need any reasonable adjustments, do not hesitate to speak with one of our team, and we will do our best to support you.