- *Employee Relations Specialist - Hemel Hempstead
Temporary for approx 6 months
- *Purpose:**
Drive standardisation and best practices across two locations in key areas of Employee Relations. Support and influence the employee experience and business performance by helping create a management team with the right skills to lead and support their people.
- *Key Responsibilities:**
- Partner with management teams in Hemel Hempstead and Lakeside depots.
- Drive absence management activity, supporting colleagues back to work.
- Address absence concerns, promote a positive work environment, and ensure compliance with company policies and employment law.
- Work closely with colleagues, managers, and the HR team to ensure adherence to attendance and leave policies.
- Utilise support services to promote health and wellbeing.
- Train and advise site managers on best practices for effective absence management.
- Provide data and insights to managers and ensure people's systems are up-to-date.
- Hybrid working: 3 days a week on-site, with travel to both depots. Interaction with night shift teams may require early or late starts.
- *Accountabilities:**
- Manage an end-to-end caseload covering absence disciplinaries, capability processes, AWOL cases, and sickness absence cases.
- Ensure proper record-keeping and documentation for all absences and returns.
- Provide regular progress reports to key stakeholders and produce case load reports for the HR dashboard.
- Manage multiple cases against SLAs and prioritise based on risk.
- Coach line managers in managing formal meetings and attend as note-taker or lead meetings as needed.
- Seek proactive opportunities to improve line manager capability in dealing with ER issues.
- Provide accurate information on policy, procedure, and company T&Cs in high-level cases.
- Stay updated with changes in employment law and best practices, recommending policy/process improvements.
- Support training sessions for supervisors and managers.
- *Qualifications:**
- Excellent spoken and written English.
- *Knowledge & Experience:**
- Experience in ER caseload management and managing absence cases.
- Strong Microsoft Office skills, particularly Excel and Word.
- Experience of coaching managers.
- Knowledge of employment law, policy changes, and their impact on the business.
- Experience working in a unionized environment.
- *Technical & People Skills:**
- Attention to detail and accuracy.
- Ability to spot risk and advise accordingly.
- Strong communication skills.
- Ability to evaluate training methods and identify needs.
- Ability to set realistic deadlines and facilitate adherence.
- *Impact & Influence:**
- Experience using HR information systems to access, input, and compile relevant data.
- Ability to interpret data to provide accurate advice and recommendations.
- Experience handling complex ER issues and providing timely advice.
- Added value approach, identifying opportunities and providing proactive solutions.
- Experience in business improvement, reviewing activities and cases to share key learnings.
- *Key Role Dimensions:**
- Reporting to: HR Business Partner Depots
- Job Grade: Band C
- Location: Hemel Hempstead/Lakeside Hybrid
- Financial/Budget Responsibility: N/A
- People Responsibility: N/A
- Key Stakeholders: Line Management, HRBPs, ER Manager and Advisors, Wider People Services, Reward, Talent, L&D, Comms, Employees, and Union Representatives.
If you're interested in this role, click 'apply now' to forward an up-to-date copy of your CV, or call us now.
If this job isn't quite right for you, but you are looking for a new position, please contact us for a confidential discussion on your career.
Hays EA is a trading division of Hays Specialist Recruitment Limited and acts as an employment agency for permanent recruitment and employment business for the supply of temporary workers. By applying for this job you accept the T&C's, Privacy Policy and Disclaimers which can be found at hays.co.uk