Who are we?
Thames Water is the UK’s largest water and wastewater company. We make a daily difference to our 15 million customers by supplying 2.6 billion litres of water through 32,000 km of pipes, keeping taps flowing and toilets flushing.
At Thames Water, every one of our actions, big and small, matters every day. Water is essential to life, so our business is always open.
This role is a 10 Month fixed term contract
What you’ll be doing
This role requires someone that is customer focused and highly organised, and who has a detailed knowledge of employee relations and significant experience in employee relations case management.
Key Accountabilities
- Providing professional advice to managers for all employee relations queries, including absence, disciplinary, workplace resolution, capability, redundancy appeals, settlements, and ACAS/employment tribunal claims. This may include reviewing investigation reports and complex letters or communications
- Identifying, assessing, managing, resolving, and escalating risks as appropriate
- Ensuring that ER cases are managed and resolved consistently, efficiently, and effectively, and in line with team KPIs, with the completion of peer reviews for complex/high-risk cases
- Working within a case management system, using dashboards and reporting tools to continuously improve efficient case management
- Maintaining case management records to ensure they are clear, concise, and in line with GDPR
- Case managing and making recommendations to the business about early conciliation and employment tribunal claims, representing the company as required
- Working with other team members to share best practices and ensure cases are managed effectively with integrity and in compliance with policy and statutory requirements
- Providing professional advice to managers by policy and employment legislation to drive improvement in employee effectiveness and performance
- Developing managers' skills and professional knowledge via individual live case coaching, supporting, and challenging where required
- Keeping your Employment Law knowledge up to date via internal and external sources, to identify best practice/case law relevant to Thames Water
- Working in collaboration as part of the HR Services team to deliver the function’s objectives and provide recommendations for HR policy and process improvements
- Leading and participating in project / continuous improvement work as required
- Maintaining positive relationships with the wider business functions including HRBPs, Occupational Health, Health & Safety, Business Integrity, Data Protection, Trade Union Partnership, etc
We’re looking for you to
- Experience in employee relations case management is essential
- Accomplished HR/ER and employment law knowledge and advisory skills with a good level of experience in coaching managers on difficult and complex employee relations matters
- An up-to-date, in-depth knowledge of employment law, tribunal process, and ACAS with HR best practices relating to absence, disciplinary, workplace resolution (grievance), conduct, capability, and settlements
- Highly organized and responsive, with the ability to prioritize work to meet tight deadlines
- Confident and tenacious, taking ownership of issues to resolution promptly
- Experience in managing challenging stakeholders
- Resilient and able to be flexible to change in demands, whilst remaining approachable
- Trustworthy, with the ability to maintain confidentiality
- Excellent communication skills, able to adapt and build rapport/provide advice to all levels
- An active listener who is naturally inquisitive and able to coach people to reach a solution
- Ability to work collaboratively with colleagues across the business, leading and/or providing SME service on ad hoc projects
What’s in it for you?
We have an exciting opportunity for an experienced confident and proactive Employee Relations Consultant to join our team to partner with our leaders in managing their complex cases.
Our competitive salary and package include an excellent contributory pension and 26 days of holiday per year increasing to 30 with a length of service.
Thames Water is a dynamic, rewarding, and diverse place to work, with opportunities around every corner. If you join our team, you’ll enjoy a fulfilling career, flexible working arrangements a wider benefits scheme including our benefits hub, which is packed full of offers and information to save you money and support your wellbeing.
We’re also proud to embrace and promote diversity and believe that creating a workforce that reflects the communities we serve will help us to thrive. We encourage applications from everyone and offer extra support for those who need it throughout the recruitment process.
Find out more about working at Thames Water.
We deliver life's essential service to our customers, communities, and the environment can thrive. This means, that when a crisis happens, we all rally around to support our customers. As part of Team Thames, you’ll have the opportunity to sign up to support our customers on the frontline as an ambassador. Full training will be given for what is undoubtedly an incredibly rewarding experience. It’s also a great opportunity to learn more about our business, meet colleagues, and earn some extra money along the way.
Disclaimer: due to the high volume of applications we receive, we may close a vacancy earlier than the advertised date. This is so we can manage all the applications properly and give candidates a positive experience. Once closed, we can’t consider any further applications, so please submit your application as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.