Employee Relations Specialist - Edinburgh/Glasgow/Bristol/Sheffield/Manchester

We are looking for an enthusiastic Employee Relations Specialist to join our growing ER & Policy Team. This role can be based in either Manchester, Sheffield, Bristol, Edinburgh or Glasgow.

This role will lead on ER cases and provide consistent and practical specialist employee relations, employment law and change management advice and guidance to HR and business stakeholders in line with CMS HR policies and processes.

About us

CMS is a Future Facing firm with more than 80 offices in over 45 countries and 5,800+ lawyers worldwide. We combine deep local market understanding with a global perspective. We are passionate about building strong relationships with our clients, our people, and the communities we work in.

We take a bold, dynamic, and agile approach to ensure our clients are able to face the future with confidence. We are driven by emerging technologies such as generative AI and readily embrace the possibilities it opens up for developing new and better ways of working. Our aim is to inspire, impact and support our clients and our people, helping them to maximize their potential and thrive.

About the role

This will be a varied and interesting role within a very supportive team. This role can be based in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Bristol, or Sheffield and will be a combination of home and office based, with some travel between offices in line with business demand.

In this role, you can expect to get involved in a variety of work including:

• Advising on all aspects of managing underperformance, including informal and formal Performance Improvement Plans, hearings, and appeals, and on complex sickness and disability cases. Providing expertise and support to business and HR stakeholders.
• Proactively leading on all disciplinary, grievance and appeal cases by managing the overall process, determining roles and responsibilities when other HR/local involved and engaging external support if needed.
• Leading on investigations including creating reports and recommendations of a high standard, and on redundancy and restructure cases and projects alongside HR team (managing approach, timelines, impact, communications plan etc).
• Delivering high quality support, advice and guidance on a wide range of areas including investigations, discipline and grievance hearings, flexible working requests, TUPE, sickness, contractual queries and policy to ensure good employee relations are maintained and company policies and protocol is adhered to.
• Coaching, advising and influencing the HR Team, Line Managers, Partners and Senior Leaders on ER issues efficiently and accurately to ensure best practice is consistently applied across the business and to manage any risks, whilst feeling comfortable to seek advice when needed.
• Maintaining records of case management and tracking, and reporting on this data.
• Create and deliver training on ER Issues to Partners, Line Managers and HR Teams.
• Developing best practice ER and constantly keep up to date with employment law and HR policy changes and share this knowledge with the wider HR team.
• Supporting the Employment Policy team in creating new policies, reviewing existing policies, conducting research to ensure they are market leading, compliant and up to date.
• Leading or supporting on HR ER related projects, as appropriate.
• Demonstrating exemplary judgement, ensuring balanced advice that manages risk but drives end results that are right commercially and / or appropriate to our CMS values.
• Utilising your extensive ER experience to continuously drive improvement for the service.

About you

We will invest in your ongoing training and development to support your professional goals and help you to thrive in your role from day one. Our opportunities are open to all suitably qualified applicants, so to be considered for this role, you must meet the following skills and experience:

• Deep technical employment policy and employee relations expertise, supported by relevant work experience.
• Exceptional stakeholder management, representing the ER function with professionalism.
• Excellent people management skills: you will demonstrate how you have been a force for good - driving improvements in performance, development and engagement of teams.
• Highly effective verbal and written communication skills; the ability to break down complex information and communicate simply across a range of stakeholders.
• Ability to prioritise, influence and operate as a coach/mentor to managers and individual members of staff, constructively challenging where necessary.
• Practice of leading, evolving and driving forward people related or change projects.
• Collaborative and proactive in seeking opportunities to work with colleagues to co-create solutions that meet needs of multiple client groups.
• Expert understanding and grasp of how to operate within an environment of multiple HR policies and procedures.
• Well organised with the ability to work to tight deadlines with excellent attention to detail whilst remaining calm.
• Experience of handling international ER matters would be advantageous but not essential.

What’s in it for you?

We want to reward you today and help you plan for tomorrow. We appreciate that everyone is different, therefore we have designed a benefits system that offers choice and flexibility based on individual needs and lifestyles. To name a few, these include:

• Competitive basic salary (reviewed annually)
• Flexible, hybrid working policy
• Generous bonus scheme
• Up to 25 days holiday (rising to 28 days with service)
• Holiday exchange scheme
• Private medical insurance
• Enhanced parental leave
• Reasonable adjustments and accommodation for disabled talent in accordance with the Equality Act 2010.

If you would like to read more information regarding our range of benefits, please visit our Rewards & Benefits page on our website.

Equal opportunities

At CMS, we place diversity and inclusion at the centre of our culture and the heart of our organisation. As a firm we recognise, celebrate, and embrace the diverse talent our society has to offer because we know that to solve big problems, we need the best and brightest minds available to us. In support of this goal, we commit to actively breaking down barriers which stand in the way of those from diverse backgrounds and play our part in levelling the playing field.

As a Future Facing Firm, we strongly believe that a career in law should be open to people from all walks of life, because not only does diversity of thought and experience make our firm a stronger and more sustainable business, but it also makes it a more rewarding place to work.

When recruiting, we prioritise attracting talented people and we actively promote a flexible working environment which enables all our team members to thrive. If you see a role you are interested in, but don’t feel you meet 100% of the criteria we encourage you to still consider making an application. We also welcome applications from those who may be looking to return to the workforce after a career break.

We are proud to say our leadership in creating an inclusive working culture has been celebrated and recognised externally, including being listed for a number of years in the Times Top 50 Employers for Women and the Social Mobility Index.

We are a Level 2 Disability Confident Employer, and we actively encourage applications from people with disabilities, whether visible or invisible. We are committed to promoting equality of opportunity throughout our recruitment process and in every element of the employee life cycle. If you require assistance, or if you would like to discuss any accessibility requirements or adjustments as part of the recruitment process, please contact Steve Paine at TalentAcquisition@cms-cmno.com who will be happy to support you.

Ready to apply? Here are the next steps.

We look forward to receiving your application online via the CMS careers site. Please contact our Talent Acquisition team if you have any questions.

Please note that we have a preferred agency panel in place. Only applications submitted via the portal at the point of instruction will be accepted.

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