🕒 2 days ago
Leads complex employee relations matters, advises managers and senior stakeholders, maintains constructive union relationships, and owns people frameworks to support fair, consistent and legally compliant decisions.
Employee Relations Lead
🕒 2 days ago
Employee RelationsUK Employment LawComplex Case ManagementInvestigations
📜 Description
- Lead complex employee relations matters and advise managers and senior stakeholders.
- Support investigations and disciplinary, grievance, performance, capability, and absence cases requiring senior specialist input.
- Monitor employment law developments and keep policies and processes compliant.
- Maintain and improve people frameworks for consistent decision-making.
- Oversee job description governance and support fair promotion, progression, and pay review processes.
- Build constructive relationships with union representatives and support collective consultation and organisational change.
🛠️ Requirements
- Significant employee relations experience gained within a medium-sized or large organisation
- Experience managing complex and sensitive employee relations matters
- Strong working knowledge of UK employment law
- Experience advising senior leaders and influencing decision-making
- Experience leading or supporting formal collective consultation processes and building constructive relationships with employee representatives in a unionised or representative environment
- Able to balance legal compliance, commercial priorities and employee engagement when handling complex organisational change
- Excellent communication, influencing and relationship-building skills
- A pragmatic, solutions-focused approach balanced with sound judgement and attention to risk
- Experience developing, implementing or maintaining people frameworks such as grading, levelling, progression or reward structures would be advantageous
- Experience working within professional services, publishing, media or similar environments would be beneficial
Full job description
About Legal 500
Legal 500 is a global legal market research, data and intelligence business. Our research helps corporate clients make informed decisions about legal representation and gives law firms insight into their market position, performance, and clients.
Beyond research, we’re building a growing data, benchmarking, market-intelligence and subscription service offering. We bring the legal market together through a global programme of events - awards ceremonies, conferences and roundtables that convene leading law firms, in-house teams and their advisers. And through Legal Business, our journalistic title, we deliver independent news, analysis and commentary on the business of law and the strategy, performance and leadership of the world’s leading law firms.
We are a growing, multi-site organisation, with colleagues working across research, data, technology, product, journalism, commercial and events in London, Leeds and Bristol.
About the Role
This is a senior specialist role within our People & Business Operations team. You will be the organisation's expert on employee relations, providing guidance and directly managing complex people matters, maintaining effective working relationships with union representatives, including regular engagement and the resolution of collective issues, supporting business change and ensuring our people frameworks remain effective, practical and legally compliant.
Alongside complex casework, you will take ownership of key people frameworks, ensuring decisions relating to progression, promotion and employee relations are applied consistently and fairly.
This role offers the opportunity to shape how Legal 500 approaches employee relations, people governance and organisational frameworks over the coming years.
What you'll do
Employee Relations & Advice
Lead on complex employee relations matters, providing expert advice and guidance to managers and senior stakeholders
Support the management of investigations, disciplinary, grievance, performance, capability and absence cases where senior specialist input is required
Monitor emerging employment law developments and ensure organisational policies and processes remain compliant
People Frameworks & Governance
Maintain and continuously improve frameworks that support consistent people decision-making across the organisation
Oversee job description governance, ensuring role profiles remain accurate, consistent and aligned to agreed standards
Support fair and transparent approaches to promotion, progression and pay review activity
What we're looking for
We're looking for an experienced Employee Relations professional who combines strong technical expertise with excellent judgement and stakeholder management skills.
You'll likely bring:
Significant employee relations experience gained within a medium-sized or large organisation
Experience managing complex and sensitive employee relations matters
Strong working knowledge of UK employment law
Experience advising senior leaders and influencing decision-making
Experience leading or supporting formal collective consultation processes and building constructive relationships with employee representatives in a unionised or representative environment
Able to balance legal compliance, commercial priorities and employee engagement when handling complex organisational change
Excellent communication, influencing and relationship-building skills
A pragmatic, solutions-focused approach balanced with sound judgement and attention to risk
Experience developing, implementing or maintaining people frameworks such as grading, levelling, progression or reward structures would be advantageous
Experience working within professional services, publishing, media or similar environments would be beneficial
What Success Looks Like
Managers are confident and well supported when handling employee relations matters
Complex cases are managed effectively and consistently
People frameworks are trusted, maintained and applied fairly
Policies and processes remain compliant and fit for purpose
Strong, constructive relationships are maintained across key stakeholder groups, including union representatives and union regional officers
Employee relations risk is identified and addressed proactively
Role Information
Hybrid workplace - 3 days a week in office, 2 days remote
This role can be based in either London or Leeds
Occasional travel to the other offices may be required (Bristol, London and Leeds)
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