Employee Relations Specialist

Job description

Overview of Responsibilities

This role requires employees to complete an online Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) , including The Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checks for criminal convictions.

The Role

As our Employee Relations (ER) specialist you will work as part of the Policy and Employee Relations Team who are responsible for UKAEA's employment policy framework, the Employee Relations strategy and for providing advice and guidance on all people-related matters and ensuring a consistent case management approach. The team are the subject matter experts on employee relations and policy.

The ER specialist is responsible for delivering an ER service in all areas across the employee lifecycle such as disciplinary, grievance, probation, performance, long term sick leave etc. ensuring that ER support and advice is delivered in line with policy, best practice and legislative requirements to mitigate risk and escalation. You'll be responsible for managing complex cases from commencement to case conclusion, which may involve attending an Employment Tribunal on behalf of UKAEA.

You will:

• work with the People business partners and advisors providing advice and counsel on policy interpretation and employment practices, ensuring that there is knowledge transfer on a case by case basis. You'll also use ER data insights and trends to diagnose root causes, identifying changes to guidance and policy and sharing learning with the business partners and advisors.
• maintain the required standard of detailed ER case documentation, including investigation reports and outcome letters, with robust controls in place to maintain data and information security.
• develop trusted and effective working relationships across People and Culture and with internal and external partners such as Trade Union, UKAEA's legal team and external legal partners.
• manage and control spend on external legal advice ensuring that this does not exceed budget.

Qualifications

Essential

Professional certificate in Employment Law or HR ie. CIPD Level 5 desirable or working towards

Significant experience working in a dedicated employee relations role.

The ability to handle high-pressure situations and maintain resilience and composure.

Deep legal expertise in UK employment law and employment case law.

Ability to effective coach and mentor less experienced colleagues on employee relations and case law matters.

Excellent written communication skills demonstrated by the ability to draft clear and concise documentation.

Experience of working with Trade Unions.

Ability to produce data sets and analyse these for trends ie. by diversity characteristics

Be able to write reports on case work which may be supported by data.

Desirable

Experience of attending Employment Tribunals will be desirable.

Additional Information

A full list of our benefits can be found here https://careers.ukaea.uk/life-at-ukaea/employee-benefits/

We welcome applications from under-represented groups, particularly individuals from black and other ethnic minority backgrounds, people with disabilities, and women. Our Executive team, supported by our 'Equality, Diversity and Inclusion' (EDI) Partner and Inclusion Ambassadors, actively promotes EDI and takes steps to increase diversity within our organization. We reinforce best practices in recruitment and selection and evaluate approaches to remove barriers to success.

Please note that vacancies are generally advertised for 4 weeks but may close earlier if we receive a large number of applications.