Employee Relations Manager

Gravesham Borough Council; Gravesend; On-site; GBP 41,000 - 49,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

23 days annual leave

Bank holidays included

VivUp discounts portal

Career development & e-learning

Eye care vouchers

Cycle to work scheme

Employee assistance programme 24/7

Hybrid working (2 days in office per w

Free parking

Salary Sacrifice Scheme

Job summary

Gravesham Borough Council is seeking an experienced HR professional to support the HR Manager in delivering an efficient HR operational service and maintaining high quality standards.

You will engage with key stakeholders to understand needs and priorities, supporting managers through organisational change and enhancing performance with expert advice on employee relations, sickness absence management, and complex case handling.

Qualifications

• Strong employment law knowledge.
• Complex employee relations experience.
• Excellent communication skills.
• CIPD Level 7 or equivalent senior HR advisory experience.
• Ability to build relationships and manage competing priorities.

Responsibilities

• Provide expert advice and support on employee relations including complex cases.
• Lead formal consultations during organisational change and TUPE transfers, ensuring legal requirements are met.
• Provide professional HR advice to chairs of hearings and appeals.
• Lead on sickness absence, including complex ill-health cases.
• Line management for HR Officers; coach and mentor HR team.
• Manage complex HR projects (e.g., organisational design, reward & retention, equality & diversity, training & development, job evaluation).

Skills

Employment law knowledge

Employee relations

Communication skills

Stakeholder engagement

Coaching & mentoring

Education

CIPD Level 7

Job description

• Salary: £41,177to £49,241per annum (inclusive of allowances)
• Location: Civic Centre, Gravesend
• Status: Full time(Permanent)
• Hours: 37 hours per week

The role

Support the HR Manager through the delivery of an efficient HR operational service and strive to ensure a high quality of service is delivered.

Engaging with key stakeholders to understand their needs and priorities and support managers with the implementation of organisational change.

To enable managers to manage with competence and confidence, and in a way which enhances performance

• Provide advice expert advice and support on a wide variety of employee relations activities including issues affecting individual members of staff, some of which may be complex.
• Undertake formal consultations in line with the organisational change process, or similar situations affecting employee terms and conditions, such as TUPE transfer, ensuring that all legal requirements are met, and all formal paperwork is completed accordingly.
• Providing professional HR advice to chairs of hearings and appeals
• To lead on sickness absence for the Council, including dealing with more complex cases of ill-health.
• Full line management responsibility for HR Officers. Provide coaching and mentoring tomembers of the HR Team as necessary.
• Manage complex HR Projects (Examples - organisational design, reward & retention, equality & diversity, training & developments, job evaluation)

About you

We are looking for an experienced HR professional with strong employment law knowledge, complex employee relations experience and excellent communication skills. You’ll hold CIPD Level 7 or have equivalent senior HR advisory experience, build effective relationships and confidently manage competing priorities

Working for Gravesham

We are committed to delivering to the community and working with us means you are part of delivering the level of growth and improvement our community needs and deserves. A range of services have been provided to over 106,000 people and 4,000 businesses.

The Borough of Gravesham, situated in the north west corner of Kent, covers 25,000 acres of the most varied countryside in south east England. Bordered by the River Thames to the north, it is at the heart of Thames Gateway and has a significant role to play in the regeneration of a major government growth area.

• A minimum of 23 Days Annual Leave, plus paid bank holidays.
• Access to over 1000+ instant discounts from favourite retailers, restaurants, food delivery services and attractions via our benefits portal VivUp.
• Career development, training opportunities and access to e-learning
• Access to eye care vouchers and VDU Glasses
• External Occupational Health service
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Access to an employee assistance programme 24/7
• Hybrid Working (minimum two days in the office per week)
• Free parking
• Octopus Electric Vehicles Salary Sacrifice Scheme

Applicants must be able to demonstrate all essential requirements as listed in the job description.

Please be advised that if you are not contacted within 3 weeks of the advert closing date then you have not been shortlisted.All recruitment correspondence, including interview letters and contracts of employment will usually be sent out via email.

We reserve the right to close this vacancy at any time prior to the closing date.

The proposed interview date for this role is 20November 2026