Employee Relations Partner

Save the Children UK; United Kingdom; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual Leave

Family Leave

Special Leave

Volunteer Leave

Pension

Employee Discounts

Wellbeing Support

Job summary

Save the Children UK is seeking an experienced Employee Relations Partner to act as a trusted ER expert within the People Team. You will support leaders to navigate complex people challenges while ensuring our approach is legally robust, values-led and people-centred.

In this role you will manage a varied caseload, develop ER policies, and build capability across the team, fostering a culture of trust, accountability and fairness. hybrid working in the UK.

Qualifications

• Strong knowledge of UK employment law and employee relations best practice.
• Significant experience managing complex, sensitive and high-risk ER casework.
• The ability to influence, coach and challenge stakeholders at all levels, including senior leaders.
• Experience developing policies, guidance and practical tools that improve employee experience.
• A track record of building capability and confidence in others through coaching and mentoring.
• Comfort navigating complex, sensitive and sometimes challenging situations, with the ability to remain balanced, pragmatic and solutions-focused.
• Skilled at translating policy into practice, providing clear and practical guidance that supports fair and consistent decision-making.
• Able to bring clarity to processes and people issues, helping managers and colleagues navigate complexity with confidence.
• Excellent communication, facilitation and conflict resolution skills.
• A commitment to Save the Children's vision, mission and values.

Responsibilities

• Manage a broad range of employee relations cases, from day-to-day matters to complex and high-risk issues.
• Provide expert advice and coaching to managers, senior leaders and People colleagues on employee relations and people risk.
• Lead the development and continuous improvement of ER policies, guidance and resources.
• Build organisational capability through coaching, mentoring and sharing ER expertise across the People Team.
• Identify trends and opportunities to improve processes, strengthen colleague experience and reduce organisational risk.
• Lead staff safeguarding cases in partnership with the Safeguarding Team, ensuring a trauma-informed and victim-centred approach.
• Collaborate with teams including Legal, Safeguarding and senior leadership to resolve complex workforce challenges.

Skills

UK employment law

ER casework

Policy development

Coaching & mentoring

Stakeholder management

Conflict resolution

Job description

We're looking for an experienced Employee Relations Partner to join the People Team at Save the Children UK, where you'll act as a trusted expert and help shape a more human-centric, fair and empathetic colleague experience across the organisation.

About Us

Save the Children UK believes every child deserves a future. In the UK and around the world, we work every day to give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn, and protection from harm.

When crisis strikes, we are always among the first to respond and the last to leave, ensuring children are protected, supported and heard.

About the Role

As our Employee Relations Partner, you'll be the organisation's go-to expert on employee relations, supporting leaders to navigate complex people challenges while ensuring our approach remains legally robust, values-led and people-centred.

You'll manage a varied and often sensitive caseload, lead the development of ER policies and practices, build capability across the People Team and work closely with senior stakeholders to foster a culture of trust, accountability and fairness.

Working alongside HR Business Partners as part of a self-managed team, you'll help ensure a consistent and practical approach to employee relations across a unionised environment, bringing clarity and confidence to complex people matters.

In this role, you will:

• Manage a broad range of employee relations cases, from day-to-day matters to complex and high-risk issues.
• Provide expert advice and coaching to managers, senior leaders and People colleagues on employee relations and people risk.
• Lead the development and continuous improvement of ER policies, guidance and resources.
• Build organisational capability through coaching, mentoring and sharing ER expertise across the People Team.
• Identify trends and opportunities to improve processes, strengthen colleague experience and reduce organisational risk.
• Lead staff safeguarding cases in partnership with the Safeguarding Team, ensuring a trauma-informed and victim-centred approach.
• Collaborate with teams including Legal, Safeguarding and senior leadership to resolve complex workforce challenges.

About You

To be successful, you'll bring:

• Strong knowledge of UK employment law and employee relations best practice.
• Significant experience managing complex, sensitive and high-risk ER casework.
• The ability to influence, coach and challenge stakeholders at all levels, including senior leaders.
• Experience developing policies, guidance and practical tools that improve employee experience.
• A track record of building capability and confidence in others through coaching and mentoring.
• Comfort navigating complex, sensitive and sometimes challenging situations, with the ability to remain balanced, pragmatic and solutions-focused.
• Skilled at translating policy into practice, providing clear and practical guidance that supports fair and consistent decision-making.
• Able to bring clarity to processes and people issues, helping managers and colleagues navigate complexity with confidence.
• Excellent communication, facilitation and conflict resolution skills.
• A commitment to Save the Children's vision, mission and values.

What we offer you

We promote flexibility, inclusion, collaboration, and wellbeing both at work and beyond, and offer a wide range of benefits designed to reward your hard work and inspire you to help improve the lives of children every day.

Some of the benefits you can expect include:

• Generous Annual Leave – Starting at 27 days per year (pro rata for part-time employees) increasing with service up to 32 days, plus public holidays and our annual 'Save the Children Day'.
• Family Leave – Up to 39 weeks of maternity/adoption pay (including up to 21 weeks full pay) and paternity/adoption leave of 10 weeks full pay (plus statutory entitlement).
• Special Leave – Up to 10 days paid leave per year (pro rata) for urgent or exceptional personal circumstances, without using annual leave.
• Volunteer Leave – Up to 3 days paid leave per year to support volunteering and give back.
• Pension & Life Assurance – Helping you plan for the future with up to 7% employer pension contributions.
• Employee Discounts – Access thousands of deals across groceries, retail, tech, travel, fitness, and more.
• Health & Wellbeing Support – Including access to a 24/7 Virtual GP and Employee Assistance Programme and Counselling, eye care support, and seasonal flu vaccinations.

Location & Ways of Working

The majority of our roles can be performed remotely in the UK, but at times you will be required to come to your contracted office (usually between 2–4 days per month, depending on the needs of your role, team, or service). For many roles, this is likely to be the minimum required to deliver impact.

This will be discussed and agreed with your manager / team and we encourage candidates to discuss our ways of working in more detail at interview stage.

Flexible Working -

We are happy to discuss flexible working options at interview.

Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion

Save the Children UK believes in a world that is fair, inclusive and equitable where all children have the opportunity to change their world. We apply this to our workforce, and we are committed to developing and supporting a diverse, equitable, and inclusive organisation where structural inequality is actively addressed, and all employees have a sense of belonging and feel that they can thrive.

We encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, and are especially interested in hearing from people with diverse and intersecting identities such as lived experience of poverty, people of faith, people of colour, people with disabilities, with experience of migration and/or refugee status, care-experienced people, the LGBTQIA+ community and individuals with experience living in diverse families.

We are not looking for just one type of person - we want to recruit people who can add fresh perspectives, innovative ideas or challenge that disrupts the risk of group think. We know that different voices working together will enable us to do our work better, improving the lives of children around the world.

Salary Structure

Save the Children is committed to paying staff in a fair and equitable way and will benchmark all salary offers in line with the pay of existing staff. To see our full offer please visit this link: Save the Children | Careers

Interview Expenses

Candidates should note that unfortunately it is not our policy to reimburse expenses accrued when attending interviews at Save the Children UK unless you are requested to attend an interview in an alternative location to where the role is based.

Pre-employment Checks

Any Employment with Save the Children UK will be subject to the following checks prior to your start date:

• A satisfactory police record check to include a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and/or an International Criminal Record Check (If applicable)
• Receipt of satisfactory references - As a committed member of the Misconduct Disclosure Scheme, as part of our onboarding process, Save the Children UK will undertake a minimum of 2 references, and any additional references required to collectively cover the last 5 years of your employment history.
• Proof of eligibility to work in the national location for this role