Macildowie Recruitment and Retention
Employee Relations Director
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Employee Relations Director
Location: Bedfordshire
Working pattern: Hybrid (3/2)
Hours: Full-time
Salary: Competitive / dependent on experience
The Opportunity
We’re partnering exclusively with a large, complex UK organisation that is continuing to grow and evolve its wider People function.
As part of this journey, they are looking to appoint an Employee Relations Director or an experienced HoHR/ER looking for their next role, as long as they have the company size background and gravitas to take overall ownership of the ER function and provide senior-level leadership across a diverse, multi-site business.
This is a highly visible role, working closely with executive and senior operational stakeholders. You’ll set the direction for Employee Relations, provide oversight of the most complex and sensitive people matters and ensure the ER function delivers a commercially focused, legally robust and consistent service.
The organisation operates across a number of different business areas, each with its own operational requirements and ways of working. As a result, this role requires someone who can create appropriate consistency around legal risk and governance without applying a rigid, one-size-fits-all approach.
There is significant growth and transformation taking place across the organisation, so this is a great opportunity to shape how Employee Relations develops over the coming years.
What You’ll Be Responsible For
ER Leadership & Strategy
- Taking overall leadership responsibility for the Employee Relations function.
- Developing the longer-term ER strategy in line with organisational growth, operational priorities and wider People objectives.
- Creating clear standards and governance around employee relations activity.
- Establishing appropriate escalation routes for complex, high-risk and sensitive cases.
- Ensuring the ER service remains commercially focused, legally compliant and trusted by managers across the organisation.
- Moving the function towards a more proactive and preventative ER model, using data and trends to identify issues before they escalate.
- Supporting senior HR leaders in developing the wider People agenda.
Senior Stakeholder Management
- Acting as a trusted ER adviser to Executive, HR and senior operational leadership teams.
- Providing clear advice and constructive challenge on complex or commercially sensitive people matters.
- Representing Employee Relations within senior leadership meetings and business forums.
- Helping senior leaders understand the people and ER implications of wider commercial decisions.
- Building strong relationships across different business areas while recognising that each may require a slightly different approach.
- Supporting leaders to make confident and informed decisions while balancing legal, commercial and reputational risk.
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Complex Employee Relations
- Acting as the senior escalation point for the most complex and high-risk employee relations matters.
- Providing oversight across areas including disciplinary, grievance, performance, absence, investigations and organisational change.
- Advising on complex TUPE transfers, both incoming and outgoing.
- Supporting acquisitions, restructures, workforce changes and integration activity.
- Providing strategic input into consultation programmes, redundancy and contract change.
- Overseeing complex tribunal-related matters and working closely with internal stakeholders to manage risk.
- Supporting the business with emerging ER themes including employee data requests, AI-related workforce considerations and changing employment legislation.
- Providing senior-level guidance around employee and industrial relations matters.
Leading & Developing the ER Function
- Leading and developing a growing team of Employee Relations professionals.
- Providing leadership and support to the ER management layer, ensuring they are empowered to manage their teams effectively.
- Creating a coaching-led environment where Managers and Advisors are encouraged to use judgement and take ownership rather than unnecessarily escalating decisions.
- Building capability, resilience and succession within the ER function.
- Ensuring consistent standards of case management, documentation and advice.
- Introducing and strengthening quality assurance and auditing across the function.
- Creating clear expectations around service levels and performance.
Insight, Risk & Governance
- Using ER data, case trends and management information to identify emerging themes and areas of organisational risk.
- Presenting meaningful ER insight to senior stakeholders rather than simply reporting case volumes.
- Identifying recurring issues and recommending appropriate business interventions.
- Ensuring policies and ER processes remain practical, legally compliant and suitable for a large operational business.
- Partnering with wider HR, Legal, Payroll, Operations and Compliance teams to ensure joined-up decision making.
- Supporting the continued development of ER reporting and governance.
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Business Change
- Providing senior ER input into acquisitions, integrations and wider organisational transformation.
- Identifying employee relations risks early within business change programmes.
- Supporting workforce planning and organisational design activity.
- Ensuring people considerations are embedded into commercial decision making.
- Supporting the organisation as it continues to implement new HR technology and wider digitalisation programmes.
About You
You’ll already be operating at a senior Employee Relations or HR leadership level and will be comfortable working within a large, fast-moving and operationally complex organisation.
We’re particularly interested in someone who can demonstrate:
- Significant leadership experience within Employee Relations
- Experience leading ER teams through other managers or senior team leaders.
- Excellent knowledge of UK employment law.
- Strong commercial judgement and the ability to appropriately balance legal risk with business requirements.
- Extensive experience managing complex, sensitive and high-risk ER situations.
- Strong experience of TUPE, restructuring, consultation and organisational change.
- Experience advising executive and senior leadership teams.
- The credibility to challenge senior stakeholders constructively when required.
- Experience building or developing ER frameworks, governance and service standards.
- Strong analytical skills with the ability to turn ER data into meaningful business insight.
- Experience working across multiple sites, divisions or business areas.
- The ability to operate effectively within an organisation where local leadership teams have a degree of autonomy.
- A calm, resilient and pragmatic leadership style.
- Strong relationship-building skills and a low-ego approach.
- The ability to balance strategic priorities with the realities of day-to-day operational delivery.
Experience within Facilities Management, Shared Services, outsourcing, large-scale operational environments or similarly complex multi-site organisations would be particularly beneficial.
A CIPD qualification or equivalent professional experience would be advantageous but substantial senior-level ER expertise will be equally important.
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