Employee Relations Specialist WCC624965

Job Details:

Salary range : £44,331 - £48,402 per annum. Salary negotiable depending upon experience
Work location : Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street, Westminster, SW1E 6QP
Hours per week : 36
Contract type : Fixed term until 30 November 2027
Closing date : 09 October
Interview date : To be confirmed

About Us:

THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF DAPHNE’S INSIGHT

Corporate Services in Westminster City Council is a world of extraordinary stories, where passionate and expert professionals go above and beyond for their colleagues every day.

Daphne, our champion for people with learning difficulties, is a real beacon. She doesn’t just advocate for colleagues with these difficulties, she teaches managers how to identify and understand the conditions and support their teams at work. Daphne has an innate ability to see the human behind every situation, helping them capitalise on strengths and overcome challenges to be their very best. With her empathy and expertise, she’s a natural. But then, a lifetime of managing her own dyslexia and dyspraxia brings with it unique insight. Our people – and ultimately residents – benefit every day.

Please view the extraordinary story of Daphne’s Insight here .

The Role:

As an Employee Relations Specialist you can make your own powerful contribution to Westminster’s success. Providing expert guidance on employee relations including disciplinary, grievance, performance and wellbeing matters, you’ll help our managers navigate a range of challenging issues while ensuring fair, consistent and legally compliant outcomes. Offering carefully considered guidance on employment legislation, HR and best practice, you’ll lead, deliver and contribute to a range of projects and work with legal to prepare responses and witness statements for Employment Tribunals.

Interpretation of policies and procedures for line managers and helping them to meet their legal, procedural and development requirements, you’ll devise and implement tailored solutions to a range of complex subjects, and lead on the development and review of our HR policies and employment practices. We’ll also expect you to work with managers and the HR team to ensure that operational issues are identified, and provide updates and information relating to the development of the latest HR strategies and initiatives.

But your work won’t stop here – you’ll also make recommended changes to HR policies and employment practices to ensure they meet our needs. Committed to keeping up to date with the latest developments in employment legislation, EC directives, codes of practice and related matters, and maintaining your knowledge of HR policies and procedures, employment law and relevant case law, you’ll also be responsible for ensuring the council complies with its statutory responsibilities, and support and promote our equality and diversity agenda.

Please refer to the Job Description for more information.

About You:

To be a success in this important, fast-paced role you should have well developed experience of working in the HR function of a unionised local authority or other multi-service organisation, and advising on issues such as discipline, grievance, sick absence, performance management and redundancy. With in-depth knowledge of employment law and HR best practice, you’ll have a proactive approach to your responsibilities, and be capable of working to deadlines and targets while focusing on a large number of cases and projects at the same time.

Your excellent communication and interpersonal skills will see you developing positive working relationships with managers and trade union representatives at all levels of our organisation, and your superb research, analytical and organisational skills will provide you with the tools to influence and persuade your colleagues in a variety of situations. Capable of working quickly and accurately under pressure while maintaining a strong attention to detail, and ready to handle sensitive and complex cases with confidence and professionalism, we’ll also expect you to possess the ability to write clear reports and make engaging presentations to a diverse range of audiences.

When it comes to professional certifications you should be CIPD qualified, hold a post graduate qualification or similar in a related discipline, or have equivalent practical experience in an organisation of similar size, scope and complexity to ours. A confident user of IT with a particular focus on Microsoft’s suite of software, you should also be capable of planning and coordinating your tasks, making the best use of personal resources in achieving your objectives, and be a collaborative and inspirational coach, mentor and team worker.

Westminster City Council is committed to supporting Care Leavers into the workplace. Care Leavers seeking their first job and who wish to be considered under our scheme, will automatically be invited to interview should they meet the essential criteria for the role.

What We Offer:

Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to more than 200,000 residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster. Westminster City Council is one in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city’s future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, and where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe.

At Westminster City Council, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and employer of choice. We encourage and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that, at all levels, represents the communities we serve. We champion equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best, that is Our Westminster Way. To find out more about how we do this visit https://www.westminster.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/

As a forward-thinking Council we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as Agile working.

The Council is a Disability Confident Employer. If you have declared a disability in your application, we guarantee an interview if you meet the essential criteria of the job. If you are invited for interview, you will be asked if you need any reasonable adjustments in order to attend, and we will make these wherever possible.

We reserve the right to extend or close this vacancy early without warning subject to the volume of suitable applicants.