Job Title: Senior Employee Relations Care Advisor

Starting: ASAP

Duration: 3 months and could be longer

Hours: Monday to Friday, 9 – 5.30

Location: Croydon, South London

Band: 6

Pay: £18.45ph – £21.81h PAYE

£20.68ph - £24.44ph PAYE Inclusive of Holiday Pay

Job Summary:

The post holder will play an integral role in delivering a comprehensive, high quality and pro-active educational and operational employee relations advisory and support service to managers and staff within the Trust

Duties:

Ensuring that standards and objectives for the Employee Relations service are met and are consistent with Trust policy, best practice and employment law
Being part of the upskilling of line managers by creating and delivering briefing sessions for line managers on HR policies and processes
Work with staff side colleagues to ensure that there is a shared understanding of policiesand procedures working and review across the Trust
Supporting all staff and managers with dignity regardless of the case supporting individuals from the point of raising a concern and opening a formal case right up to exits from the Trust (including dismissals and medical retirements)
Supporting the Senior ER Advisors and ER Manager to collate any case material needed for appeals raised against stage three hearings, and attend to support the manager during these hearings
To use ESR sickness data when managing short and long term sickness cases, to be able to provide information to staff and managers when approaching half or nil pay
To monitor and ensure long term sickness absence cases which go beyond 12 months absence pay is reinstated at half
To take a leading HR role on Flexible Working applications and appeals, supporting managers to review the particular impacts any flexible working application may have to both the individual and the service
Ensure advice is provided to enable Managers to make appropriate decisions when considering refusal of applications
Provide advice and first level support to managers and staff on aspects of employee relations including DBS, Professional Registration, conduct issues and other matters, whilst keeping the relevant Senior ER Advisor updated, escalating to the ER Manager or Head of Strategic ER where necessary
Provide advice, coaching and guidance to managers to support them to undertake successful informal resolution meetings
Support the ER Administrators with the collation of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests for information, liaising with directorate managers as required to ensure information provided is accurate and in a timely manner, recognising the sensitive and confidential nature of information held by the HR team
To be confident running reports and analysing complex and highly sensitive data relating to individuals employment, spotting trends and patterns to identify potential interventions and improvements needed
Submit monthly reports to the payroll liaison team with details of open-ended long-term sickness cases, in order to help minimise any incorrect overpayments
Be able to give advise on cases such as a:

Management of Sickness Absence
Disciplinary
Grievance
Harassment and Bullying
Performance management – capability
Investigations best practice
Employment Tribunal preparation

Supporting to resolve issues as informally as possible or ensuring that the formal processes are carried out in line with HR Policy and procedure
Supporting line managers and formal hearing panels up to and including dismissal hearing panels
Encourage and support robust sickness management strategies with the Case Management Team which supports staffs health and wellbeing and reduces the time they are off sick and are supported through the process and on their return to work
Work and prepare line managers to attend formal hearings and present their management cases
Support new managers at formal hearings to present their case if and where appropriate
Play a lead role in conjunction with HR Business Partners on consultation and restructuring
processes including advice regarding redundancy
Where appropriate provide support to line managers in the handling of redeployment and redundancy processes including support to conduct 1 - 1 consultation meetings and provide written communication to affected employees ensuring that all rights and entitlements in an ‘at risk’ situation are advised and maintained
Compile reports for any of the Trust’s senior management teams on HR/ER activity highlighting any areas of concern in conjunction with the relevant HR Business Partner
To evaluate the effectiveness and impact of employee relations initiatives and interventions with regular engagement sessions for staff
Support the Head of Strategic Employee Relations to develop a restorative approach to employee relations
To organise on-going support for managers and staff on any employee relations or HR Initiatives to ensure their they receive the training and tools to fulfil their duties to support staff as appropriate

Essential Experience:

Experience working as a senior employee relations care advisor of an NHS Trust
Experience working on a band 6 level
At least 3 years NHS experience
Able to advise managers on complex ER queries
Evidence of continued personal development within a similar role
Experience having updating and altered HR policies and procedures
Familiar with electronic HR reporting and recording systems and producing reports as required

Desirable Experience: