Employee Relations Business Partner

Fortnum & Mason; England; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

A prestigious retail company is seeking an Employee Relations Business Partner to join their central London office. This role encompasses strategic and hands-on responsibilities, supporting HR functions while driving management capability and enhancing employee relations. The ideal candidate will have strong communication skills, a solid understanding of Employment law, and experience in managing complex employee issues. Benefits include competitive salary, generous discounts, and opportunities for professional development.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Generous store and restaurant discount up to 40%

25 days holidays plus an extra day off for your birthday

Subsidised staff restaurant

Discretionary bonus

Excellent pension scheme

Qualifications

• Proven experience in Employee Relations, particularly with difficult cases.
• Ability to build credibility across diverse audiences.
• Knowledge of employment rights and legislative changes.

Responsibilities

• Support delivery of employee relations and wellbeing advice.
• Ensure consistency and compliance in employee-related issues.
• Manage casework including disciplinary and grievance processes.
• Conduct exit interviews and manage employee feedback.

Skills

Communication skills

Problem-solving skills

Understanding of Employment Law

Diary management

Tools

Microsoft Office

Job description

Our Head Office department is in the heart of Piccadilly and occupies the 5th & 6th floor of our beautiful flagship store. This central London location offers so much to explore including restaurants, bars, cultural sites, shopping and more, and only a short walk from the Green Park Tube Station and plenty of bus stops.

We recruiting for an Employee Relations Business Partner to join our team and play an integral role within the HR function, being able to support with cases but also develop and implement a strategy that continues to evolve the way we support on ER. This role is both strategic and hands on and requires excellent organisational skills to ensure the day-to-day processes and ongoing projects are managed and delivered on time. Working closely with the HRBP’S their role is to develop the skills and confidence of Line Managers across all areas of the business, for both ER and wellbeing. You will help drive management capability and increase retention whilst providing a proactive, thoughtful employee relations service, to all business operations.This role covers all aspects of employee relations and training that includes disciplinary’s, performance and absence management, grievances, early conciliations and employment tribunal cases as well as long term sickness and wellbeing activities.

Why Work For Us : Competitive salary

A generous store and restaurant discount of up to 40%

25 days holidays (excluded bank holidays) and an extra day off for your birthday

A fantastic subsidised staff restaurant which uses Fortnum’s ingredients

A range of opportunities to develop and grow personally and professionally

Discretionary bonus

Excellent pension scheme

Key Accountabilities

To own and support the delivery of a commercial and pragmatic employee relations and wellbeing advice across the business to ensure consistency and compliance. Key accountabilities will include :

Employee Relations

• Work closely with Key stakeholders and be intuitive to people challenges catching challenges before they become a case.
• Acting as the main point of contact with the ER Advisor for all ER queries.
• Effective and timely case management of people related issues such as disciplinary’s, performance management, grievances, early conciliations and employment tribunal cases.
• Championing mediation before grievance cases and looking for new ways to settle disagreements within the team
• Provide technical support on team changes, restructures, and redundancy’s.
• Recording, reporting and managing all ER data and in preparation for the 4 weekly board report.
• To be able to interpret trends and present relevant findings to key stakeholders.
• Ensure the relevant HR databases (Fourth, G Drive) are up to date, accurate and complies with legalisation.
• Proactively drive improvement within management practices through coaching, training and advising on HR policies and practices, using data as a key source for information which supports innovation in this area.
• Conducting exit interviews with relevant employee leavers and proactively manage and report on the feedback the employees have on their experience.
• Drive performance through embedding process and keeping employee effectiveness on the agenda.
• Manage the employee experience in line with our brand values.
• Manage, advise and develop the Employee Relations Advisor
• To be fully conversant in the employment rights bill as well as key changes in legislation to enable the business to make prompt decisions, provide training to ensure the business and our employees are well informed.

Project work

Co *ntribute into HR projects as required and ensure that continuous feedback is provided on key HR processes / policies / activities to ensure they are fit for purpose.

• Use relevant HR data to identify trends and provide insights into the different business areas
• Provide ad hoc reports as required and source tech that will innovate our ER processes.
• To work with other HR Specialists (L&D, Employee communications, payroll) to ensure their activities reflect a positive framework of good employee relations.

Role Specific Criteria (Experience / Behaviours / Technical Ability)

• An ability to challenge, build credibility with a range of audiences, and work with integrity / confidentiality at all times.
• Have excellent communication skills that build relationships and trust with Key stakeholders
• Have an excellent knowledge of Employment law and experience of dealing with difficult cases.
• Highly pragmatic with key problem-solving skills and be resilient with the ability to manage up
• Excellent diary management with the ability to be adaptable to a changing environment
• Robust experience of systems and processes and reporting mechanisms including Microsoft office, to enable a function that is growing and maturing at speed.

We are committed to developing your career and nurturing your talent, regardless of age; disability; gender reassignment; marriage and civil partnership; pregnancy and maternity; race; religion or belief; sex; sexual orientation. We respect and embrace each other's differences, to create a truly inclusive environment.

In the last year alone, our people have been recognised and celebrated, winning awards for their outstanding contributions to Retail, Technology, Global Hospitality & Tourism, Visual Merchandising & Display, Customer Service and local community awards.

If you feel this could be the role for you we would love to hear from you - Apply Now