Employee Relations Specialist in London

Join to apply for the Employee Relations Specialist role at WithYou. All applicants need to submit a CV and a covering letter on why you should be considered for this role. Applications will not be accepted if no covering letter is included. Please note that this role may close early should sufficient applications be received, so early application is advised.

As a leading charity supporting people with drug, alcohol, and mental health challenges, we operate over 80 services across England and Scotland, providing free and confidential support to more than 100,000 people each year.

Working in the People team at WithYou brings something new every day - we are:

• There to listen and support
• Ready to help our managers find solutions
• On hand to provide expert advice
• Always thinking about how we can provide the best employee experience

We are excited to be recruiting for an experienced HR professional to join us in the role of Employee Relations Specialist, to support and drive our People ambitions. We are looking for a subject matter expert on all things ER, including change.

This is a full time and permanent home‐based role, with some travel required and a salary of up to £40,000 per annum.

Key responsibilities

• Ensuring that People advice provided is in line with organisational policies and procedures, best practice and employment legislation in order to minimise the risk to the organisation
• Acting as a mentor and coach to our People Advisers, supporting their growth and ensuring employment law and practice knowledge is consistently up to date
• Acting as the escalation point for contentious complex cases and overseeing the case management of any potential gross misconduct or dismissals, whilst ensuring case work is managed robustly, fairly and in a timely and legally compliant manner
• Supporting line managers with all casework issues of employees up to Senior Management level. This includes formal and informal disciplinary and grievance cases, long‐term and intermittent sickness absence management and any welfare concerns raised by employees or their managers of a complex nature.
• Managing and organising caseloads, prioritising as appropriate along with reviewing and expediting the overall status of cases with the People Advisers
• Deputising for our Employee Relations Manager and providing cover for the People Advisers, where required

Desired qualifications and experience

• Chartered membership of the CIPD or significant demonstrable experience
• Experience and knowledge of the essentials of employment law and managing complex employee relations cases
• Experience acting as deputy to a lead HR role in a similarly complex organisation
• Experience delivering functional HR expertise across the full generalist remit including recruitment, reward, organisational development, change management, employee engagement, employee relations and learning and development

Commitment to inclusion

We continue to build an inclusive culture that encourages, supports and celebrates the diverse voices and experiences of our staff. We welcome unique contributions from people with lived experience, people with disabilities, people from racialised communities, LGBTQ+ people, people of all ages and armed forces veterans. As part of our commitment to the Armed Forces Covenant, we provide a guaranteed interview scheme for veterans who meet the essential criteria. We are also a Disability Confident Employer and offer a guaranteed interview scheme for candidates with a disability who meet the essential criteria. If you have a disability, a learning difficulty such as dyslexia or a medical condition that may affect your performance, we will be happy to make reasonable adjustments.

What we offer

• 28 days annual leave, plus bank holidays
• An extra day off for your birthday or a special occasion of your choice
• Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption leave
• 2 days paid volunteer leave per year
• Auto‐enrollment into We Are With You's pension scheme
• Access to a Blue Light Card – great savings on selected brands
• Flexible working opportunities and support for wellbeing
• Refer a Friend scheme: earn a £500 bonus for each successful referral after 6 months probation