Employee Relations Advisor (12 month fixed-term contract)

Informa Group; Abingdon; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 56,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working

25 days annual leave

Private medical insurance

Employee assistance programme

Share Match

Job summary

Taylor & Francis is seeking an Employee Relations Advisor for a 12-month fixed-term contract in the UK. You will work with the People Relations Team, supporting managers on performance, absence, wellbeing, and employee relations issues while driving best practices and a high-performance culture.

The role is based in Milton Park, Oxfordshire, with a balanced hybrid model requiring a minimum of 3 days in-person per week and optional remote work.

Qualifications

• Solid Employee Relations background with experience handling sensitive and complex cases and giving consistent guidance to managers
• Good working knowledge of current UK employment law and its application
• Exceptional relationship management to partner with stakeholders at all levels
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Excellent conflict resolution skills
• HRIS skills in SAP HR or similar
• Competent in Microsoft Excel at an intermediate level

Responsibilities

• Provide supportive and consistent advice to managers on employee relations issues including performance management, absence management and wellbeing
• Ensure colleagues are managed effectively and cases are facilitated in an assertive yet sensitive manner
• Help managers develop people management capabilities adhering to best practice
• Oversee the management of performance plans to support a high performance culture
• Lead investigations, grievances, appeals and manage conflict resolution, ensuring compliance with local legislation
• Manage flexible working and sabbatical requests and provide guidance and coaching to managers
• Liaise with shared service teams to ensure data integrity for payroll and reporting
• Review trends from cases, leavers and sickness absence and make improvement recommendations
• Drive and communicate performance management policies through workshops
• Provide support in acquisitions, restructures and change programs
• Ad-hoc project work as required by the business

Skills

Employee relations

UK employment law

Relationship management

Communication skills

Conflict resolution

SAP HR

Excel

Education

CIPD qualification

Tools

Microsoft Excel

SAP HR

Job description

Employee Relations Advisor (12 month fixed-term contract)

• Full-time

Informa is a leading academic publishing, business intelligence, knowledge and events business, creating unique content and connectivity for customers all over the world. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a member of the FTSE 100.

Taylor & Francis Group operates globally and produces high quality, peer reviewed books and journals. We produce unique, trusted content by expert authors, spreading knowledge and promoting discovery globally. We aim to broaden thinking and advance understanding, providing academics and professionals with a platform to share ideas and realize their individual potential.

Our purpose is to foster human progress through knowledge. We strongly believe that this requires us to encourage and examine different ideas and voices, so that any work that meets our exacting levels of quality deserves to be included in our publications. This requires open minds, the opportunity for robust debate, and the courage to defend perspectives that stand up to scrutiny, even if they conflict with our personal beliefs or values. Because that’s the only way to find the best obtainable version of the truth and, ultimately, foster human progress. If you agree, then we’d love to hear from you.

We are excited to offer a fantastic opportunity for an Employee Relations Advisor to join our team on a 12-month fixed-term contract.

This is an excellent chance for a motivated HR professional to join our growing organisation and work closely with our People Business Partners on a range of employee relations matters, including performance management, absence management, and employee wellbeing. You'll also play a key role in advancing our performance management agenda, helping to educate and equip managers with the tools and learning they need to succeed.

Sitting within our People Relations Team and reporting to the UK People Relations Manager, this is a genuinely rewarding and challenging role. It offers the chance to gain valuable experience within a growing, global organisation, all while being part of a close-knit and supportive team. Please note that this role does not cover recruitment or learning and development.

The role will be based in our office in Milton Park, Oxfordshire.

What you will be doing:

• As an experienced Employee Relations Advisor you will provide a supportive and consistent level of advice and guidance to our managers regarding a range of employee relations issues including performance management, absence management and wellbeing
• Ensuring our colleagues are managed effectively and cases are facilitated in an assertive yet sensitive manner at all times
• Supporting our managers to develop their people management capabilities whilst adhering to best practice
• Overseeing the management of performance plans to support the People strategy of a high performance based culture.
• The Employee Relations Advisor leads investigations, grievances, appeals and manages conflict resolution, ensures compliance with local legislation, and partners with management to proactively address employee concerns
• Managing flexible working and sabbatical requests and providing guidance and coaching to managers as required
• Liaising with our shared service teams to ensure data integrity for payroll and employee reporting
• Review and identify trends from cases, leavers and sickness absence and make recommendations for improvement
• Drive, communicate and build commitment to T&F performance management policies and processes into the business through workshops
• Provide support in acquisitions, restructures and change programs
• Ad-hoc project work as may be required by the business

Qualifications

Ideally you will be CIPD qualified, or part qualified with a keen interest in your own continuous professional development. The following key skills are required:

• A solid Employee Relations background including experience handling sensitive and complex employee relations cases and the ability to provide consistent advice and guidance to managers on a variety of employment issues
• A good working knowledge of current UK employment law and its application
• Exceptional relationship management skills to partner with the business to build strong internal and external working relationships with stakeholders at all levels
• Excellent communication skills (both written and verbal)
• Excellent conflict resolution skills
• Strong HRIS skills in SAP HR or similar
• Competent in Microsoft Excel to an intermediate level

Knowledge of global mobility, benefits and acquisitions would be advantageous but is not essential.

Location:We believe that great things happen when people connect face-to-face. That's why we work in-person with each other, or with customers and partners, three days a week or more. When you’re not spending time together in one of our offices or other workplaces – like at conference – you get the flexibility and support to work from home or remotely.

The successful candidate will be able to utiliseour balanced working model. We ask that candidates live within acommutable distance of our Milton Park office to ensure that as a balanced worker they can make it to our office locations to collaborate as required. There is an expectation for a minimum of 3 days per week in-person time.

Our Milton Park office will be relocating to Oxford city centre in late 2027 / early 2028, offering an exciting new workplace in the heart of the city.

Closing Date:Applications will close on Friday 20th November 2026 but we will be shortlisting alongside advertising so please apply early!

What we offer in return:

• An excellent work/life balance with a fantastic, flexible working culture
• 25 days annual leave per year plus a day off for your birthday
• 3 additional discretionary days off during the holiday season at the end of the year
• 4 paid volunteering days each year
• Company funded single cover private medical insurance
• Employee assistance programme – offering 24/7 well-being support
• Share Match – Plan that matches every share purchased with two free shares.
• Life assurance, plus optical and medical care

We want all our candidates to shine in our recruitment process. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to ensure you are able to show us your best self. This could include having the application form in a different format, more time for questions, or anything else – please ask us, we are happy to be flexible! Please [e-mail].

Being Yourself at Taylor & Francis

If you’re excited about working with Taylor & Francis to foster human progress through knowledge, we invite you to apply even if your existing skills and experience don’t fit every item listed above. At Taylor & Francis, we are at our best and most successful when colleagues can be themselves and contribute regardless of their identity or background. As a colleague, you will have the opportunity to further innovate and develop in areas that you are passionate about. Our goal is to empower you with the resources, incentives, and flexibility you need to enjoy success at work and to live a healthy, balanced life.

Taylor & Francis is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We believe in and value diversity of people and thought, fostering a supportive and inclusive environment where all colleagues can learn and succeed as their true selves. Taylor & Francis recruits, develops, and retains colleagues without regard to any protected personal characteristics or other non-merit-based factor.

If you have a disability, or face another barrier, and would like to request an adjustment to assist your participation in the hiring process and/or in the advertised position, please [e-mail]. Your request will be reviewed and considered in the strictest confidence.

We genuinely care about our colleagues, promoting work-life balance, wellbeing, and flexible working. We believe that the skills and experience you bring to Taylor & Francis are invaluable. We want you have to develop your abilities, and to innovate and develop in areas which you are passionate about. To find out more about our business and the great career opportunities please go to our Careers Site: http://www.taylorandfrancisgroup.com/careers

Or better yet check out our LinkedIn ‘Life’ Page, highlighting our accomplishments, employees, and company culture. It’s also a good way of meeting our recruitment team, who will be happy to advise you on your journey here at T&F.

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