Ideas | People | Trust
We're BDO. An accountancy and business advisory firm, providing the advice and solutions entrepreneurial organisations need to navigate today's changing world.
We work with the companies that are Britain's economic engine – ambitious, entrepreneurially-spirited and high-growth businesses that fuel the economy – and directly advise the owners and management teams leading them.
We'll broaden your horizons
Our greatest asset is our people, so our HR team focus on ensuring we are all reaching our potential. They use their specialist expertise to help us attract great talent, enable our employees to succeed and inspire a unified culture of development across our firm. By playing a role in the recruitment and supporting our people, they help change lives and influence the future of BDO. Join a driven and passionate team where you can be yourself, while also helping your colleagues to achieve their ambitions.
We'll help you succeed
Leading organisations trust us because of the quality of our advice. That quality grows from a thorough understanding of their business, and that understanding comes from working closely with them and building long-lasting relationships.
You'll be someone who enjoys team leadership and is both comfortable working proactively and managing your own workload, as well as confident collaborating with others and communicating regularly with senior managers, directors, and BDO's partners to help businesses effectively.
The purpose of this rewarding role is to ensure the successful delivery of all of the Employee Relations team operational activities, including timely and complex case management, policies and governance of ER processes and procedures. You will manage a team of ER specialists at varying levels with 4 x direct ER Manager reports. Reporting into and supported by the ER Lead, you will ensure all ER team activity is delivered in a timely and efficient manner, using a commercial and supportive mindset to ensure the team appropriately mitigate ER related risks, activities are well planned for and the team are fully supported to deliver requirements.
You will also ensure that all ER advice and guidance provided by the ER team is timely and pragmatic, with demonstrated experience in proactive process improvement, you will support the ER lead and work closely with the ER Managers to identify trends through the case system alongside working with the ER Lead, HR teams and the business to support a pro-active approach to prevention of ER issues across the business. You will ensure your primary focus is to support the team and its delivery and maintain the credibility and reputation of the ER team in all that you do.
In this role you will;
- Be the escalation point for ER Managers and all complex ER team issues ensuring objectives are clear, deadlines are considered and developmental support is provided.
- Maintain and develop appropriate expectations for ER team process and policy governance, consulting with stakeholders where relevant and bringing the team along the journey.
- Take a pro-active, consultative and pragmatic approach to managing quality and risk in collaboration with senior stakeholders
- Ensure pro-active horizon scanning and ensure regular review of ER policy, process and practice of legislative compliance in respect of ER and employment risks
- Support on Firmwide & HR strategic projects in conjunction with ER Lead, Head of HR Generalists and HR Leadership Team
- Build strong and credible relationships within the HR team and across the business and be viewed as an SME and trusted advisor.
- Ensure accurate data capture from ER team in case management system to ensure we satisfy our internal and regulatory reporting requirements.
- Leverage external relationships such as occupational health to bring knowledge and best practice into the firm.
- Take a proactive and regular review of key themes and trends across the firm and in stream/offices to produce data and analytics that not only identify trends but give suggested solutions and recommendations to ER lead and leadership as appropriate..
- Be responsible for ensuring we have legally complaint ER policies alongside pro-active and regular horizon scanning to ensure we also reflect best practice ensuring our offerings are competitive and appropriate
- Develop content and deliver training and upskilling to ER/HR and business stakeholders on all ER matters as required.
- Coach and develop the ER team, acting as an ambassador for the team and the firm to implement continuous improvement and ways of working.
- Take a calm and measured approach to management of the ER team, fostering a supportive and developmental culture
- Pro-actively encourage team building events and a cohesive working environment
- Have oversight to ensure timely and quality responses to all Tribunal claims & ACAS Early conciliation by the ER team.
- Confidently and independently provide technical expertise and guidance on all ER issues with minimal consultation required from a technical perspective.
- Be the escalation point for all ER team queries and risk-based decisions on cases and being ultimately accountable for the day-to-day decisions of cases within the team.
You'll be someone with:
- Significant Employee Relations experience within a similar role
- A subject matter expert in employee relations with a strong technical knowledge of employment law and external best practice trends;
- Proven experience of independently building, developing and upskilling a team including the management of various levels up to and including Manager level
- High emotional intelligence, a natural leader with a calm, patient and balanced approach
- Confidence and experience in creating and interpreting ER related data, producing analysis and presenting commercially based recommendations/solutions to leadership
- Proven experience of introducing continuous process improvement and new ways of working
- Experience of being fully accountable for the decision making in complex ER case management (including Employment tribunals and TUPE) of a team.
- The ability to demonstrate delivery of projects to deadlines and implementation of commercially based, pragmatic succinct recommendations/solutions to mitigate ER related risks
- Gravitas to influence senior stakeholders, together with strong communication and influencing skills
- Project management experience
- Experience in a similar professional services and/or regulated environment would be advantageous
At BDO, we'll help you achieve your personal goals and career ambitions, and we have programmes