Employee Relations Consultant

6 MONTH FIXED TERM CONTRACT

The role of the ER Consultant is to support managers by providing a professional advisory service to manage and resolve employee relations cases consistently and effectively, with a focus on gaining the best outcomes for both the business and our employees.

This role requires someone that is customer focused and highly organised, who has a detailed knowledge of employee relations and significant experience of employee relations case management.

What you'll be doing as a Employee Relations Consultant

• Providing professional advice to managers for all employee relations queries, including absence, discipline, workplace resolution, capability, redundancy appeals, probation, flexible working, settlements and employment law. This may include reviewing investigation reports and complex letters or communications.
• Identifying, assessing, managing, resolving and escalating risks as appropriate.
• Ensuring that ER cases are managed and resolved efficiently and effectively and in line with team KPIs.
• Partnering with specific business areas to build and respond to ER insights using monthly dashboards;
• Attendance at monthly meetings with specific business areas to bring ER concerns to the fore for discussion, insight and resolution;
• Partnering with HR Consultants and HR Partners in relation to build an ongoing culture of continuous improvement;
• Developing and working within a case management system, using reporting tools to improve efficient case management.
• Maintaining case management records to ensure they are clear, concise and in line with GDPR.
• Case managing, and making recommendations in relation to, employment law claims.
• Working with other team members to share best practice and ensure cases are managed effectively with integrity and in compliance with company standards and statutory requirements.
• Providing professional advice to managers in accordance with policy, standards, guidance and employment legislation in order to drive improvement in employee effectiveness and performance.
• Developing the skills and professional knowledge of managers via individual live case coaching, support, and challenge.
• Providing a quality business-focused service by offering expert advice and policy training and acting as subject matter experts.
• Keeping your Employment Law knowledge up to date via internal and external sources, in order to identify best practice/case law relevant to Thames Water.
• Working in collaboration as part of the People Services team to deliver the function's objectives and provide recommendations for ER standards and process improvements.
• Leading and participating in project / continuous improvement work as required.
• Maintaining positive relationships with the wider business functions including HR Partners, HR Consultants, Occupational Health, Health & Safety, Business Integrity, Data Protection, Trade Unions etc.
• Working closely with our external lawyers to provide best practice advice and guidance to our managers; as well as supporting with the response to ACAS/ET claims.

Base location: Reading - Hybrid

Working pattern: 36 Hours

What you should bring to the role

To thrive in this role, the essential criteria you'll need is:

• Accomplished HR employment law and advisory skills with a good level of experience of coaching managers on difficult employee matters.
• An up-to-date, in-depth knowledge of employment law, tribunal process and ACAS with HR best practice, as it relates to managing the practical application of policy to employee performance in respect of absence, discipline, workplace resolution, conduct, capability, medical capability, flexible working, probation and settlement agreements. (this is subject to change)
• Highly organised and responsive, with the ability to prioritise work to meet tight deadlines.
• Confident and tenacious, taking ownership of issues to resolution in a timely manner.
• Experience of managing challenging stakeholders.
• Resilient and able to be flexible to change in demands, whilst remaining approachable.
• Trustworthy, with ability to maintain confidentiality.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Able to adapt and build rapport/provide advice to all levels.
• An active listener who is naturally inquisitive and able to coach people to reach a solution.
• Ability to work collaboratively with colleagues across the business.
• CIPD qualification desirable.

What's in it for you?

• Competitive salary up to £54,000 per annum, depending on experience
• Annual Leave - 26 days holiday per year increasing to 30 with the length of service (plus bank holidays)
• Performance-related pay plan directly linked to company performance measures and targets
• Generous Pension Scheme through AON
• Access to lots of benefits to help you take care of you and your family's health and wellbeing, and your finances - from annual health MOTs and access to physiotherapy and counselling, to Cycle to Work schemes, shopping vouchers and life assurance.

Find out more about our benefits and perks (Please note different T&Cs apply if on secondment)

Who are we?

We're the UK's largest water and wastewater company, with more than 16 million customers relying on us every day to supply water for their taps and toilets. We want to build a better future for all, helping our customers, communities, people, and the planet to thrive. It's a big job and we've got a long way to go, so we need help from passionate and skilled people, committed to making a difference and getting us to where we want to be in the years and decades to come.