Employee Relations Lead

MCS Group | Your Specialist Recruitment Consultancy; Antrim; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive base salary

Bonus

Enhanced annual leave

Flexible start and finish times

Job summary

MCS Group | Your Specialist Recruitment Consultancy is assisting a leading organisation in Northern Ireland to appoint an Employee Relations Lead in a newly created role. You will provide expert ER guidance, support managers, and help develop consistent people practices.

You will lead policy development, ensure alignment with NI employment legislation, and design practical training to strengthen manager capability and confidence across the People team.

Qualifications

• Significant experience managing complex ER cases within NI.
• Strong knowledge of NI employment legislation, case law and ER best practice.
• Ability to provide pragmatic, commercially focused advice while effectively managing risk.
• Experience developing ER policies, procedures, guidance materials and manager toolkits.

Responsibilities

• Provide expert advice on complex ER matters, including disciplinary, grievance, capability, attendance and conduct cases.
• Guide investigations, hearings and appeals, and review case documentation to support fair, consistent outcomes.
• Support managers and People colleagues to apply policies and procedures confidently.
• Develop and maintain ER policies, procedures, templates and guidance.
• Monitor changes in legislation and best practice, and advise on what they mean for the organisation.
• Design and deliver practical training to build manager capability and confidence.

Skills

Employee relations

Disciplinary

Grievance handling

Capability management

Attendance management

Policy development

Manager coaching

Education

CIPD qualification

Job description

Employee Relations Lead - Permanent - Newly created role

MCS Group is exclusively partnering with a leading organisation as they seek to appoint a Employee Relations Lead for a newly created role with a strong focus on employee relations, manager support and developing consistent people practices.

The role:

You’ll act as a trusted source of advice on complex and sensitive employee matters, helping managers and the wider People team handle cases consistently and confidently. Alongside this, you’ll develop policies and guidance, keep practice aligned with Northern Ireland employment legislation, and deliver practical training for managers.

The main responsibilities:

• Provide expert advice on complex ER matters, including disciplinary, grievance, capability, attendance and conduct cases.
• Guide investigations, hearings and appeals, and review case documentation to support fair, consistent outcomes.
• Support managers and People colleagues to apply policies and procedures confidently.
• Develop and maintain ER policies, procedures, templates and guidance.
• Monitor changes in legislation and best practice, and advise on what they mean for the organisation.
• Design and deliver practical training to build manager capability and confidence.

The successful candidate:

• Will have significant experience managing complex employee relations cases within a large or complex organisation within NI.
• Will possess strong and current knowledge of NI employment legislation, case law and employee relations best practice.
• Can provide pragmatic, commercially focused advice while effectively managing legal and organisational risk.
• Will have experience developing policies, procedures, guidance materials and manager toolkits.
• CIPD Qualified (desirable).

What's on offer:

• Competitive base salary dependent on experience.
• Bonus.
• Enhanced annual leave.
• Flexible start and finish times.

MCS Group is committed to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion for all, being the first recruitment agency in NI to achieve Bronze Diversity Mark accreditation, if you have a disability which means you require a reasonable adjustment to be considered at any stage of the recruitment process, please contact us and we will endeavour to facilitate the request.