Employee Relations Manager

Job title: Employee Relations Manager

Pay: £800-900 Per Day (Inside IR35, PAYE)

Duration: 3 months

Location: 2 days per week in the Stratford, London office (50% in office from 1 September)

Your recruitment contact is Olivia Greig via Olivia.Greig@hays.com.

About the organisation

Our client is an independent UK regulatory body responsible for ensuring financial markets work well for consumers and the wider economy. The organisation plays a critical role in promoting integrity, transparency and trust across financial services, operating in a complex, high‑profile and highly regulated environment.

About the team

The Employee Relations function sits within HR and supports the organisation through an increasingly complex employee relations landscape. Like many large organisations, the team has experienced a significant increase in the volume, formality and complexity of ER cases. The existing operating model was designed for a smaller organisation with lower‑risk cases and is now under review.

This role has been created to provide senior ER leadership, immediate capacity support and input into the review of the operating model, while ensuring high‑quality outcomes in complex and sensitive cases.

About the role

This is a hands‑on senior ER leadership role, focused on overseeing and unblocking a busy and high‑risk case portfolio, leading on the organisation’s most complex cases, and providing coaching and direction to ER Consultants.

The postholder will also play a key role in strengthening case oversight, data quality and reporting, supporting senior stakeholders, and contributing to the review of the current ER operating model.

Role Responsibilities:

• Provide senior oversight of the ER case portfolio, ensuring quality, consistency and timely progression.
• Lead on the organisation’s most complex, high‑risk and sensitive ER cases, including tribunals, settlements, whistleblowing‑related matters and data protection considerations.
• Act as an escalation point for ER Consultants, offering case strategy, coaching, challenge and technical guidance.
• Support team capacity by taking ownership of priority cases where required.
• Build and maintain effective relationships with senior stakeholders, trade unions and the Staff Consultative Committee.
• Advise and support the business on restructures, reorganisations and redundancy activity.
• Oversee ER case management data, MI and reporting, ensuring accurate insight for senior leaders.
• Use data and trends to identify risks and inform improvements to the ER operating model.
• Collaborate with legal, HR and other functions on cases involving overlapping or heightened risk.
• Manage relationships with external employment law advisers, ensuring outcomes align with organisational values and risk appetite.

Skills:

Minimum:

• Significant experience managing complex employee relations cases within a large, regulated or unionised environment.
• Proven experience of employment tribunal cases, dispute resolution and settlements.
• Strong, practical working knowledge of UK employment law and its application in high‑risk scenarios.
• Experience of working with trade unions or equivalent staff representative bodies.
• Demonstrable experience handling cases with whistleblowing or high‑sensitivity elements, including navigating multi‑stakeholder and data‑protection‑related risks.
• Experience coaching and supporting ER practitioners through complex and escalated cases.
• Strong senior stakeholder management skills, with the confidence to operate in challenging environments.
• Ability to use data, MI and reporting to manage risk, inform decisions and improve ways of working.

Essential:

• Experience working within a framework‑based or public‑sector operating model.
• Experience using Workday Help or similar case management systems.
• Experience maximising the value of CRM or case management tools to improve oversight and control.

Disability Confident: our hiring approach

We’re proud to be a Disability Confident Employer, and therefore, people or individuals with disabilities and long-term conditions who best meet the minimum criteria for a role will go through to the next stage of the recruitment process. In cases of high application volumes, we may progress applicants whose experience most closely matches the role’s key requirements.

What are the next steps?

If you are interested in the role, click the apply button and we will get in touch with you to discuss next steps.