Employee Relations Manager

PureGym; Leeds; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Free gym membership

Flexible working culture

Life insurance x4

Pension contribution

25 days annual leave + 1 personal day

Extra holiday option (up to 5 days)

Learning & development resources

Enhanced parental leave

Job summary

PureGym is seeking an experienced Employee Relations (ER) Manager to lead a small ER team across the UK and Ireland. You will provide practical, commercially focused advice on complex ER matters while ensuring legal compliance and a positive stakeholder experience.

You will help shape ER strategy, drive process improvements, and develop leadership capability to prepare the business for future employment legislation. This is a senior, impactful role within a trusted consumer brand.

Qualifications

• Leading an Employee Relations team.
• Experience in a large, multi-site, customer-service led organisation.
• Strong knowledge of UK employment legislation and ER best practice.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach and develop a team of ER Specialists to deliver a high-performing support function.
• Provide expert guidance on complex and sensitive employee-relations cases to senior stakeholders.
• Partner with Head of People and People Partner team to ensure aligned ER decision-making.
• Own escalated ER matters, including ACAS Early Conciliation and Employment Tribunal processes.
• Drive compliance with current and upcoming employment legislation and policy changes.
• Review and simplify ER processes, templates and guidance to improve efficiency and colleague experience.
• Manage ER case volumes and team workload to maintain service levels.
• Analyse ER data to identify trends and shape business improvements.

Skills

ER leadership

Multi-site experience

Employment law knowledge

Job description

The PureGym Group is a global gym business with a community of more than 700 gyms and over 2 million members. At PureGym, everything we do comes back to one simple idea: helping you feel good.

We're proud of our people and have a strong focus on internal progression. Championing diversity, we are committed to providing an excellent employee experience and workplace culture. As such, we are a Disability Confident Committed employer, and offer interviews to candidates who meet the essential criteria for a role, and opt-in to the scheme on their application form.

Our gyms are friendly, supportive, and judgement-free spaces where everybody can come in, work out and leave Feeling PureGym Good. We are proud to be certified by Top Employers Institute. See our careers page for full benefits.

We offer

• Free nationwide gym membership for you + 1
• A truly flexible working culture
• Life insurance x4
• Company pension contribution
• 25 days annual leave, plus 1 personal day
• Option to purchase additional holiday (up to 5 days)
• Great learning & development resources
• Enhanced maternity pay, paternity and adoption leave

The Role

Type: Full Time

Contract type: Permanent

As Employee Relations Manager, you'll lead a team of three ER Specialists and be the senior ER expert supporting our Gym Operations teams across the UK and Ireland.

You'll provide practical, commercially focused advice on complex employee relations matters while ensuring legal compliance, consistency and excellent stakeholder experience. You'll also help shape the future of ER at PureGym by driving process improvements, building leadership capability and preparing the business for future employment legislation.

This is more than an Employee Relations role. It's an opportunity to shape how one of the UK's most recognised consumer brands supports its people, influences leadership capability and navigates a changing employment landscape.

• Lead, coach and develop a team of three ER Specialists, creating a high-performing, collaborative and customer-focused function.
• Act as the subject matter expert for employee relations, providing expert guidance on complex and sensitive cases.
• Partner closely with the Head of People and People Partner team to ensure aligned, consistent and commercially balanced ER decision-making.
• Take ownership of escalated ER matters, including Acas Early Conciliation and Employment Tribunal claims, managing risk effectively and achieving positive outcomes.
• Drive compliance with current and emerging employment legislation, including supporting the business through upcoming legislative reforms.
• Review, simplify and enhance ER processes, policies, templates and guidance to improve efficiency, consistency and colleague experience.
• Oversee the management of ER case volumes and team workload, ensuring service levels are met and resources are effectively deployed.
• Analyse ER data, trends and insights to identify root causes, reduce risk and influence business-wide improvements.
• Build trusted relationships with operational leaders, coaching and developing management capability in managing people matters effectively.

The Person

You'll be an experienced ER leader who enjoys balancing operational excellence with strategic thinking. Comfortable navigating complexity and ambiguity, you'll be equally confident coaching your team, influencing senior stakeholders and managing high-risk employee relations issues.

You'll bring:

• Significant Employee Relations experience within a large, complex and multi-site organisation.
• Proven people leadership experience, with a track record of building engaged, high-performing teams.
• Strong employment law knowledge and experience managing a broad range of complex ER cases through to resolution.
• Experience of managing ACAS Early Conciliation and Employment Tribunal matters.
• A pragmatic, commercial approach with the ability to balance legal risk with business objectives.
• Outstanding stakeholder management and influencing skills, including experience partnering with senior leaders.
• Strong analytical capability, using data and insights to identify trends and drive improvement.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to adapt your style to a wide range of audiences.
• High levels of integrity, professionalism and discretion when handling sensitive matters.

Skills required

• Previous experience leading an Employee Relations team
• Experience working within a large, multi-site organisation customer service led industry
• Strong knowledge of UK employment legislation and employee relations best practice

PureGym is proud to be an equal opportunities employer. Our company mantra is ‘Everybody Welcome’ and we are dedicated to promoting a diverse and inclusive place to work. From a hiring standpoint, we welcome applicants from all backgrounds and are committed to ensuring that our PureGym colleagues reflect the diversity of the nation as well as our millions of gym members we serve.

Please note: Qualifications and Skills represent the essential criteria for the role, which need to be met to be offered an interview under the Disability Confident Scheme. Volume of eligible applications may impact everyone being able to be offered an interview.