Employee Relations Specialist

The Employee Relations (ER)
Specialist plays a key role in fostering a positive, fair, and inclusive cultureas part of a small high-impact People Team. This position is responsible formanagingER cases, advising managers ona broad range peoplematters, supporting performance and conduct processes, and ensuring compliance with employment legislation and company policy. The role works closelywiththe broader

People Team, managers, andcolleaguesto mitigate risk,build capability and promote employee engagement and wellbeing.

This is a hands-on role; perfect for someone keen toget stuck in operationally, whilst developing their business partnering skills, and leading/ supporting key people projects aligned with our longer-term strategic goals.

• Manage and oversee ER casesatall levels of complexity, ensuring trends are understood and mitigating actions are put in place.

• Work with People Team colleague sand leaderstodesign and deliver interventions thatbuild manager capabilityandreducerisk.

• Support / guide organisational design and change programmes, ensuring structures, roles and processes enableoptimalperformance and operational resilience.

• Coach and empower managers and leaders to enhance employee engagement anddrive a high-performance culture.

• Partner with leaders / managerstosupport the design and delivery of people plans aligned to functional and People Strategy.

• Leverage data and insights to inform decisions andmanagepeople-related risk.

• Develop/deploy cyclical People initiatives, including engagement survey action planning, performancemanagementandannualrewardprocesses.

• Lead/ supporta range of projects acrossthe organisation aligned to the People Strategy.

• Provide expert advice and guidance to managers and employees on ER matters, including conduct, capability, attendance, grievances, and disciplinary issues.

• Manage cases of varying degrees of complexity, frominitialconsultation through to resolution.

• Support the resolution of complex employee concerns and workplace conflicts through coaching, mediation, and informal resolution approaches where appropriate.

• Monitor ER caseload, ensuring ongoing compliance and thatthe themes and learnings from ER cases are understood and actions are put in place to address.

• Use judgment to navigate grey areas and complex interpersonal situations.

• Support the upskilling of People Team colleagues to handle first and second-line queries.

• Provide grounded, practical guidance that balances people needs, business goals, and operational realities.

• Partner with managers to build confidence and capability in handling people matters.

• Provide guidance across the People agenda, including performance management, absencemanagementand employee wellbeing.

• Coachmanagerson a range of people practices including goal setting, feedback, difficult conversation sand addressing underperformance early.

• Work with People Team colleagues and leaders to design and deliver tools and interventions that build manager capability and mitigate risk.

• Support change initiatives, e.g. restructures, TUPE transfers, new ways of working, with empathy and clarity.

• Support organisation design activities,providing advice on structure and roles.

• Navigate organisational complexity e.g. evolving structures, competing priorities - with clarity and calm.

• Act as team subject matterexperton UK employment law, scanning the external environment for developments and considering the implications in our context.

• Ownthe roadmap for readiness and ongoing compliance with the Employment Rights Act.

• Ensure fair, consistent, and legally compliant application of company policies.

• Work with the broader People Team to continually review our suite of policies, through the lens of both culture and compliance.

• Buildstrongrelationships with managers and teams to understand their challenges, priorities, and ways of working.

• Support new and developing managers with frameworks, tools, and practical guidance they can apply immediately.

• Help leaders interpret data and feedback to make informed decisions.

• Help teams interpret engagement data and buildandexecutemeaningful action plans.

• Roll up your sleeves to support the effective delivery of core people processes; onboarding, offboarding, probation, performance and reward cycles, and policy updates.

• Partner closely with People Services to spot inefficiencies and propose practical, scalable improvements.

• Work closely with theLeadPeople Partner and broader People Teamtodevelop anddeployinitiatives in support of thepeoplestrategy.

• Support a range of initiatives that enhance employee engagement, inclusion,wellbeingand workplace culture.

Hours per week 37.5 About Us

Maintel is a communications managed services provider. We empower our clients across the public and private sector to deliver mission critical services and achieve their workplace, service and customer…