ER Advisor

Job summary

The Employee Relations Advisor role exists to provide consistent, timely, and legally robust employee relations support across the business, ensuring fair treatment of coworkers, compliance with employment legislation, and protection of organisational risk. The role supports business objectives by enabling confident people management, reducing employee relations risk, minimising disruption, and promoting a positive and productive employee experience. The role works closely with the Employee Relations Partner, HR Business Partners, HR Shared Services, Payroll, Legal, and other HR centres of expertise to deliver pragmatic advice, manage cases effectively, and align ER activity with business priorities, policies, and values.

Success in this role is demonstrated through the timely, consistent, and high‑quality management of employee relations matters, with strong outcomes for coworkers and the business. This includes:

• Meeting agreed SLAs, such as responding to ER queries within one working day;
• Progressing cases in line with policy and legal time frames, and maintaining accurate case documentation;
• Supporting change management processes such as TUPE, redundancy and restructures;
• Delivering against strategic ER priorities, including reducing repeat ER issues, improving manager capability through coaching and guidance, and supporting organisational change initiatives;
• Providing effective case management for discipline, grievance, absence, performance, and appeals with risk‑based recommendations, legally compliant outcomes, and insightful data and reporting; and contributing to continuous improvement of ER processes, procedures, templates, toolkits, and guidance;
• Providing end‑to‑end advice and support on employee relations matters including disciplinary, grievance, absence management, performance management, probation, capability, misconduct, redundancy, TUPE, flexible working, and family leave;
• Acting as a trusted advisor to managers, stakeholders and CWS to ensure decisions are fair, consistent, and legally compliant, managing daily tasks such as responding to ER tickets and queries, drafting correspondence, attending hearings, advising on policy application, and updating case management systems;
• Building strong working relationships with managers, HR Business Partners, HRSS team, Payroll, and Legal to ensure coordinated case handling, supporting investigations, preparing outcome letters and appeal documentation, and contributing to ER reporting and trend analysis;
• Demonstrating professional leadership and role modelling best practice, mentoring less experienced colleagues where required, without holding direct line management responsibility.

• Proven hands‑on management of complex employee relations cases within a fast‑paced environment and strong working knowledge of UK employment law;
• CIPD Level 5 qualification (or equivalent experience); CIPD Level 7 desirable;
• Clear written and verbal communication skills;
• Active listening ability;
• Legally sound judgement;
• Analytical thinking;
• Case prioritisation skills;
• High attention to detail;
• Stakeholder management and influencing skills;
• Resilience;
• Ability to balance commercial needs with employee wellbeing, combining ER knowledge, practical experience, and strong interpersonal skills;
• Technology proficiency: familiarity with HRIS systems and tools, including case management platforms, reporting tools, Microsoft Office Suite;
  Workday experience preferred.

CDW is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status or any other basis prohibited by state and local law.