Senior Employee Relations Manager

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Salary: £80,000–£100,000 + benefits (DOE)

Location: Milton Keynes

UK & Ireland remit

Full-time | Permanent

About the opportunity

Via is partnering with a major multi-site consumer business to recruit a Senior Employee Relations Manager to lead its Employee and Industrial Relations agenda across the UK and Ireland.

This is a senior People leadership position combining employee relations, industrial relations, employment law, trade union relationships and people leadership.

You'll take ownership of the ER strategy across a large, complex workforce, advising senior leaders on high-risk and sensitive matters while developing a more proactive approach to employee relations.

You'll also lead a team of ER specialists and advisers, helping managers become more confident handling people matters while ensuring employees receive a consistent and commercially balanced approach.

What you'll be doing

• Lead the Employee Relations and Industrial Relations strategy across the UK and Ireland
• Act as a senior adviser on complex and high-risk employee relations matters
• Manage and provide guidance around tribunal, litigation and other sensitive cases
• Build constructive relationships with recognised Trade Unions
• Lead negotiations and support wider industrial relations activity
• Partner with senior leaders on employee relations risks and business decisions
• Develop ER policies, processes, guidance and manager toolkits
• Ensure policies and practices remain compliant with evolving UK and Irish employment legislation
• Coach managers and leaders to handle employee relations matters confidently and consistently
• Lead and develop a team of Employee Relations specialists and advisers
• Oversee the quality and consistency of ER support provided across the organisation
• Use ER data to identify trends, emerging risks and opportunities for improvement
• Develop employee engagement initiatives, colleague forums and survey activity
• Support organisational change, transformation and other major people projects
• Provide specialist ER input during restructures and wider business change
• Balance employee experience, legal risk and commercial priorities when recommending solutions

What we're looking for

You'll need significant experience in Employee Relations within a large, complex or multi-site organisation.

We're particularly interested in candidates with:

• Extensive Employee Relations or Industrial Relations experience
• Strong knowledge of UK employment law and ER best practice
• Hands-on experience managing complex, sensitive and high-risk ER cases
• Trade Union and collective employee relations experience
• Experience managing tribunal or litigation matters
• Experience operating across a large, geographically dispersed workforce
• Strong commercial judgement with the ability to balance people outcomes and business risk
• Confidence advising and influencing senior stakeholders
• Experience developing ER policies, processes and frameworks
• Experience using employee data and trends to identify organisational risks
• Strong negotiation and relationship-management skills
• Experience leading, coaching and developing ER or HR professionals
• The credibility to operate as a senior subject-matter expert within a People function

Experience within retail, hospitality, logistics, manufacturing, distribution, food & beverage or another large multi-site workforce would be particularly relevant, although we're open to candidates from other complex organisations.

A CIPD qualification or degree in HR, Business or a related discipline is preferred.

Why apply?

• Estimated £75,000–£90,000 salary depending on experience
• Senior leadership position with a UK & Ireland remit
• Take ownership of Employee and Industrial Relations strategy
• Significant exposure to senior business leaders
• Lead and develop an established ER team
• Work on complex and commercially significant employee relations matters
• Opportunity to shape policies, processes and manager capability
• Influence employee engagement and organisational change initiatives
• Join a large, recognisable organisation with a complex multi-site workforce
• Learning, development and longer-term career progression opportunities

If you're an experienced ER leader with strong trade union, employment law and complex case-management experience, this is an opportunity to take strategic ownership of Employee Relations across a major UK and Ireland workforce.